After the events at Benapola and Chandapura, Srila Haridasa Thakura (Haridāsa Ṭhākura) went to live near Advaita Acharya at Shantipura. There, in a cave on the bank of the Ganges, he faced the strangest test of his life. This time the tester was not a woman sent by an envious man, as at Benapola, but Maya Devi herself, the illusory energy who keeps the whole world bound. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami tells the story in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila, chapter three. The earlier test, by the prostitute whom Ramachandra Khan sent, is told in The Vow of Chanting and the Prostitute's Test.
Maya Devi Herself Comes to Test Him #
From Chandapura, Haridasa went to Advaita Acharya at Shantipura, and Advaita made him a cave-like home in a lonely spot on the bank of the Ganges (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.214-216). Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami tells one more story about that cave, but first he asks his readers to hear it with faith: "Hear about such incidents without putting forth dry arguments, for these incidents are beyond our material reasoning. One must believe in them with faith" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.228).
It was a bright moonlit night. The Ganges sparkled, the tulasi stood on her clean altar at the cave door, and Haridasa sat inside chanting the holy name aloud (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.229-231). Then a woman appeared in the courtyard. The glow of her body turned the whole place yellow, her fragrance filled every direction, and her ornaments tinkled (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.232-233). Like the woman of Benapola, she bowed to tulasi first. Then she walked around the plant and, with folded hands, bowed at Haridasa's feet. She called him "the friend of the entire world," said she had come only for him, and reminded him that saints are kind to the poor. Then she showed herself in ways that would shake the patience of even a great sage (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.234-238).
"Haridāsa Ṭhākura was immovable, for he was deeply determined." Still, he answered her, "being very merciful toward her" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.239). It was the same answer he had given at Benapola. He told her that chanting his fixed number of names every day was a great sacrifice he had vowed to perform. So she should sit at the door and hear the chanting, and when it was finished he would please her (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.240-242). For three nights she came back, with charms that could bewilder even Lord Brahma. But Haridasa's mind was fixed on Krishna's name, and all her display was "just like crying in the forest" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.243-246). At the end of the third night she complained that he had cheated her, because his chanting never ended, day or night. He said only: "My dear friend, what can I do? I have made a vow. How, then, can I give it up?" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.247-249). Then she bowed and told him who she was:
tabe nārī kahe tāṅre kari’ namaskāra
‘āmi — māyā’ karite āilāṅa parīkṣā tomāra
"After offering obeisances to Haridāsa Ṭhākura, the woman said, ‘I am the illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I came here to test you." (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.250)
brahmādi jīva, āmi sabāre mohiluṅ
ekelā tomāre āmi mohite nāriluṅ
"‘I have previously captivated the mind of even Brahmā, what to speak of others. Your mind alone have I failed to attract." (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.251)
In his purport, Srila Prabhupada links this to Lord Krishna's promise in Bhagavad-gita 7.14 that a surrendered soul can cross over His illusory energy. Then he explains how Haridasa did it: "It was because Haridāsa Ṭhākura, fully surrendered to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, was always absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa by chanting the holy names of the Lord 300,000 times daily as a vow."
The Name That Maya Begged For #
Now the tester became a beggar. She said that seeing him and hearing him chant had purified her heart, and now she wanted to chant too (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.252-253). She spoke of the flood of love of Godhead that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had released by His appearance (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.254-255). Long ago she had received Lord Rama's name from Lord Shiva. Now she longed for Krishna's name, because "the holy name of Kṛṣṇa transports one to the other side of the ocean of nescience and at last gives one ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.256-258).
eta bali’ vandilā haridāsera caraṇa
haridāsa kahe, — “kara kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana”
"After speaking in this way, Māyā worshiped the lotus feet of Haridāsa Ṭhākura, who initiated her by saying, ‘Just perform chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.’" (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.259)
In his purport, Srila Prabhupada writes: "Now even Māyā wanted to be favored by Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Therefore Haridāsa Ṭhākura formally initiated her by asking her to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra."
Maya went away full of joy (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.260). Some readers may doubt this story, so Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami explains why it should not surprise us. In Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's time, Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva, the four Kumaras, Narada Muni, Prahlada and the goddess of fortune all took human birth because they were greedy for love of Krishna (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.261-265). So why should anyone be surprised if Maya, the Lord's maidservant, also begs for that love? "Without the mercy of a devotee and without the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, love of Godhead cannot be possible" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.266).
Two Tests, One Answer #
Both women came by night and bowed to tulasi before they spoke. Both heard the same reply, and both went away chanting Krishna's name. One was a bound soul hired by an envious man, and the other was the energy that binds the whole world. Yet Haridasa treated them both in the same way: he let them sit, let them hear, and gave them the holy name. Srila Prabhupada calls his victory "practical proof of the strength of devotional service" (purport to Antya 3.251). Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj turns the same lesson into a warning: "If one sees someone who is apparently taking shelter of the Holy Name, but at the same time succumbs to the temptations of women, wealth and power, it can be understood that he is not truly surrendered to the Name."
Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami ends by saying that he has told "but a fragment of the glories of Haridāsa Ṭhākura" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Antya 3.271). The same steadiness carried him through the qazi's canes in the twenty-two marketplaces, and it is the reason he is honored as the teacher of the holy name.
