Caitanya Mahaprabhu

Main article: Religion in India

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534) - Indian preacher, enjoyed the greatest influence of all the preachers of Vishnuism in East India.

Chaitanya lived in Bengal, but later left for Odisha, where he also gained wide popularity. He established a special mystical-sensual cult of Krishna, synthesizing Vishnuite philosophy with the orgiastic practice of Tantrism in his teachings, thus actively promoting the spread of Vishnuism in an ethnic environment that kept the ancient traditions ^[1].

Doctrine

Five Stages of Devotee's Relationship with Krishna

During a visit to Prayag for the second time, on the way back from Vrindavan, Chaitanya lived near Deshashwamedha-ghat and for ten days told Rupa Goswami about the teaching of "Srimad-Bhagavatam," as well as about the five stages of the relationship between devotees and Krishna.

The first stage of self-consciousness is called shanta - neutral.

Then, when the devotee learns of Krishna's divine possessions, he rises to the level of dasya. Dasya develops into a respectful friendship with Krishna, which in turn turns into friendship on an equal footing. Both of these stages are sakhya, that is, a devoted ministry based on a new friendly feeling.

This is followed by the stage of parental love for Krishna, which is called vatsalya.

The highest stage of devotion is the stage of marital love, although there are no qualitative differences between the above stages. The stage of marital love for God is called madhurya.

Chaitanya taught Rupa Goswami the science of devoted service, and then ordered him to go to Vrindavan and find the forgotten places where Krishna showed his divine games. More details about the conversations of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Rupa Goswami can be read in the book of Srila Prabhupada "Nectar of Devotion" ^[2].

Ban on cooking, cook services

Sannyasi is forbidden to cook himself, so usually sannyasi take prasad in grihasthi house and brahmachari help them in this.

Balabhadra Bhattacharya acted as the brahmachari of Chaitanya, i.e. assistant to the sannyasi.

Usually Sannyasi holds the position of teacher and Brahmachari his student. Balabhadra Bhattacharya was brahmachari under Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a cook when he went to Mathura and Vrindavan.

Notes