Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Sri Caitanya Caritamrta

CC Adi 11 Summary

CC Adi 11.1: After offering my obeisances unto all the devotees of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who are like bumblebees collecting honey from His lotus feet, I shall try to describe those who are the most prominent.

CC Adi 11.2: All glories to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu! Anyone who has taken shelter at His lotus feet is glorious.

CC Adi 11.3: All glories to Sri Advaita Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and all the devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu!

CC Adi 11.4: Sri Nityananda Prabhu is the topmost branch of the indestructible tree of eternal love of Godhead, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I offer my respectful obeisances to all the subbranches of that topmost branch.

CC Adi 11.5: Sri Nityananda Prabhu is an extremely heavy branch of the Sri Caitanya tree. From that branch grow many branches and subbranches.

CC Adi 11.6: Watered by the desire of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, these branches and subbranches have grown unlimitedly and covered the entire world with fruits and flowers.

CC Adi 11.7: These branches and subbranches of devotees are innumerable and unlimited. Who could count them? For my personal purification I shall try to enumerate only the most prominent among them.

CC Adi 11.8: After Nityananda Prabhu, the greatest branch is Virabhadra Gosani, who also has innumerable branches and subbranches. It is not possible to describe them all.

CC Adi 11.9: Although Virabhadra Gosani was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He presented Himself as a great devotee. And although the Supreme Godhead is transcendental to all Vedic injunctions, He strictly followed the Vedic rituals.

CC Adi 11.10: He is the main pillar in the hall of devotional service erected by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He knew within Himself that He acted as the Supreme Lord Visnu, but externally He was prideless.

CC Adi 11.11: It is by the glorious mercy of Sri Virabhadra Gosani that people all over the world now have the chance to chant the names of Caitanya and Nityananda.

CC Adi 11.12: I therefore take shelter of the lotus feet of Virabhadra Gosani, so that by His mercy my great desire to write Sri Caitanya-caritamrta will be properly guided.

CC Adi 11.13: Two devotees of Lord Caitanya named Sri Ramadasa and Gadadhara dasa always lived with Sri Virabhadra Gosani.

CC Adi 11.14-15: When Nityananda Prabhu was ordered to go to Bengal to preach, these two devotees [Sri Ramadasa and Gadadhara dasa] were ordered to go with Him. Thus they are sometimes counted among the devotees of Lord Caitanya and sometimes among the devotees of Lord Nityananda. Similarly, Madhava Ghosa and Vasudeva Ghosa belonged to both groups of devotees simultaneously.

CC Adi 11.16: Ramadasa, one of the chief branches, was full of fraternal love of Godhead. He made a flute from a stick with sixteen knots.

CC Adi 11.17: Srila Gadadhara dasa was always fully absorbed in ecstasy as a gopi. In his house Lord Nityananda enacted the drama Dana-keli.

CC Adi 11.18: Sri Madhava Ghosa was a principal performer of kirtana. While he sang, Nityananda Prabhu danced.

CC Adi 11.19: When Vasudeva Ghosa described Lord Caitanya and Nityananda while performing kirtana, even wood and stone would melt upon hearing it.

CC Adi 11.20: There were many extraordinary activities performed by Murari, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sometimes in his ecstasy he would slap the cheek of a tiger, and sometimes he would play with a venomous snake.

CC Adi 11.21: All the associates of Lord Nityananda were formerly cowherd boys in Vrajabhumi. Their symbolic representations were the horns and sticks they carried, their cowherd dress and the peacock plumes on their heads.

CC Adi 11.22: The physician Raghunatha, also known as Upadhyaya, was so great a devotee that simply by seeing him one would awaken his dormant love of Godhead.

CC Adi 11.23: Sundarananda, another branch of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, was Lord Nityananda's most intimate servant. Lord Nityananda Prabhu perceived the life of Vrajabhumi in his company.

CC Adi 11.24: Kamalakara Pippalai is said to have been the third gopala. His behavior and love of Godhead were uncommon, and thus he is celebrated all over the world.

CC Adi 11.25: Suryadasa Sarakhela and his younger brother Krsnadasa Sarakhela both possessed firm faith in Nityananda Prabhu. They were a reservoir of love of Godhead.

CC Adi 11.26: Gauridasa Pandita, the emblem of the most elevated devotional service in love of Godhead, had the greatest potency to receive and deliver such love.

CC Adi 11.27: Making Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda the Lords of his life, Gauridasa Pandita sacrificed everything for the service of Lord Nityananda, even the fellowship of his own family.

CC Adi 11.28: The thirteenth important devotee of Sri Nityananda Prabhu was Pandita Purandara, who moved in the ocean of love of Godhead just like the Mandara Hill.

CC Adi 11.29: Paramesvara dasa, said to be the fifth gopala of krsna-lila, completely surrendered to the lotus feet of Nityananda. Anyone who remembers his name, Paramesvara dasa, will get love of Krsna very easily.

CC Adi 11.30: Jagadisa Pandita, the fifteenth branch of Lord Nityananda's followers, was the deliverer of the entire world. Devotional love of Krsna showered from him like torrents of rain.

CC Adi 11.31: The sixteenth dear servant of Nityananda Prabhu was Dhananjaya Pandita. He was very much renounced and always merged in love of Krsna.

CC Adi 11.32: Mahesa Pandita, the seventh of the twelve gopalas, was very liberal. In great love of Krsna he danced to the beating of a kettledrum like a madman.

CC Adi 11.33: Purusottama Pandita, a resident of Navadvipa, was the eighth gopala. He would become almost mad as soon as he heard the holy name of Nityananda Prabhu.

CC Adi 11.34: Balarama dasa always fully tasted the nectar of love of Krsna. Upon hearing the name of Nityananda Prabhu, he would become greatly maddened.

CC Adi 11.35: Yadunatha Kavicandra was a great devotee. Lord Nityananda Prabhu always danced in his heart.

CC Adi 11.36: The twenty-first devotee of Sri Nityananda in Bengal was Krsnadasa Brahmana, who was a first-class servant of the Lord.

CC Adi 11.37: The twenty-second devotee of Lord Nityananda Prabhu was Kala Krsnadasa, who was the ninth cowherd boy. He was a first-class Vaisnava and did not know anything beyond Nityananda Prabhu.

CC Adi 11.38: The twenty-third and twenty-fourth prominent devotees of Nityananda Prabhu were Sadasiva Kaviraja and his son Purusottama dasa, who was the tenth gopala.

CC Adi 11.39: From birth, Purusottama dasa was merged in the service of the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, and he always engaged in childish play with Lord Krsna.

CC Adi 11.40: Sri Kanu Thakura, a very respectable gentleman, was the son of Purusottama dasa Thakura. He was such a great devotee that Lord Krsna always lived in his body.

CC Adi 11.41: Uddharana Datta Thakura, the eleventh among the twelve cowherd boys, was an exalted devotee of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. He worshiped the lotus feet of Lord Nityananda in all respects.

CC Adi 11.42: The twenty-seventh prominent devotee of Nityananda Prabhu was Acarya Vaisnavananda, a great personality in devotional service. He was formerly known as Raghunatha Puri.

CC Adi 11.43: Another important devotee of Lord Nityananda Prabhu was Visnudasa, who had two brothers, Nandana and Gangadasa. Lord Nityananda Prabhu sometimes stayed at their house.

CC Adi 11.44: Paramananda Upadhyaya was Nityananda Prabhu's great servitor. Sri Jiva Pandita glorified the qualities of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

CC Adi 11.45: The thirty-first devotee of Lord Nityananda Prabhu was Paramananda Gupta, who was greatly devoted to Lord Krsna and highly advanced in spiritual consciousness. Formerly Nityananda Prabhu also resided at his house for some time.

CC Adi 11.46: The thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth prominent devotees were Narayana, Krsnadasa, Manohara and Devananda, who always engaged in the service of Lord Nityananda.

CC Adi 11.47: The thirty-sixth devotee of Lord Nityananda was Hoda Krsnadasa, whose life and soul was Nityananda Prabhu. He was always dedicated to the lotus feet of Nityananda, and he knew no one else but Him.

CC Adi 11.48: Among Lord Nityananda's devotees, Nakadi was the thirty-seventh, Mukunda the thirty-eighth, Surya the thirty-ninth, Madhava the fortieth, Sridhara the forty-first, Ramananda the forty-second, Jagannatha the forty-third and Mahidhara the forty-fourth.

CC Adi 11.49: Srimanta was the forty-fifth, Gokula dasa the forty-sixth, Hariharananda the forty-seventh, Sivai the forty-eighth, Nandai the forty-ninth and Paramananda the fiftieth.

CC Adi 11.50: Vasanta was the fifty-first, Navani Hoda the fifty-second, Gopala the fifty-third, Sanatana the fifty-fourth, Visnai the fifty-fifth, Krsnananda the fifty-sixth and Sulocana the fifty-seventh.

CC Adi 11.51: The fifty-eighth great devotee of Lord Nityananda Prabhu was Kamsari Sena, the fifty-ninth was Ramasena, the sixtieth was Ramacandra Kaviraja, and the sixty-first, sixty-second and sixty-third were Govinda, Sriranga and Mukunda, who were all physicians.

CC Adi 11.52: Among the devotees of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, Pitambara was the sixty-fourth, Madhavacarya the sixty-fifth, Damodara dasa the sixty-sixth, Sankara the sixty-seventh, Mukunda the sixty-eighth, Jnana dasa the sixty-ninth and Manohara the seventieth.

CC Adi 11.53: The dancer Gopala was the seventy-first, Ramabhadra the seventy-second, Gauranga dasa the seventy-third, Nrsimha-caitanya the seventy-fourth and Minaketana Ramadasa the seventy-fifth.

CC Adi 11.54: Vrndavana dasa Thakura, the son of Srimati Narayani, composed Sri Caitanya-mangala [later known as Sri Caitanya-bhagavata].

CC Adi 11.55: Srila Vyasadeva described the pastimes of Krsna in Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Vyasa of the pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was Vrndavana dasa.

CC Adi 11.56: Among all the branches of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Virabhadra Gosani was the topmost. His subbranches were unlimited.

CC Adi 11.57: No one can count the unlimited followers of Nityananda Prabhu. I have mentioned some of them just for my self-purification.

CC Adi 11.58: All these branches, the devotees of Lord Nityananda Prabhu, being full of ripened fruits of love of Krsna, distributed these fruits to all they met, flooding them with love of Krsna.

CC Adi 11.59: All these devotees had unlimited strength to deliver unobstructed, unceasing love of Krsna. By their own strength they could offer anyone Krsna and love of Krsna.

CC Adi 11.60: I have briefly described only some of the followers and devotees of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Even the thousand-mouthed Sesa Naga cannot describe all of these unlimited devotees.

CC Adi 11.61: With an ardent desire to serve the purpose of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, I, Krsnadasa, narrate Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, following in their footsteps.

Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness