Some years after His conversation with the two brothers at Puri, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu set out from Nilachala on what would become His first attempt to reach Vrindavana. The journey was cut short in Bengal by the huge crowds of devotees who wanted to see Him. Moving through Nadia district, the Lord visited one household after another: Srivasa Thakura's house, then Shivananda Sena's, then Vasudeva Datta's. From there He came to the house of Vidya-Vacaspati at Vidyanagara, Madhusudana Vachaspati's own home.
News Travels Faster Than the Lord #
The Chaitanya-charitamrita, quoting the Chaitanya-bhagavata's account of the same events, describes what happened next in vivid terms. Word of the Lord's arrival at Vidyanagara spread through the surrounding countryside almost instantly, and people came from every direction chanting the names of Hari. The crowd grew so dense that people could not find open ground to stand on. They had to clear paths through the forest simply to approach the house. Across the Ganges, still more people tried to reach Vidyanagara by boat. The crossing became so crowded that Madhusudana Vachaspati acted at once. He hurried to assemble as large a fleet of boats as he could gather, and still it was not enough. People crossed however they were able, some without waiting for a boat at all.
It is easy to miss how extraordinary this scene was when we read only a list of place names in a purport. For a few days, an ordinary scholar's house on the bank of the Ganges became the place that the devotees of an entire district most wanted to reach. Its owner found himself, in effect, running a ferry service he had set up in a hurry, so that his neighbors could see the Lord he was hosting.
A Quiet Departure at Night #
The crowd around Vachaspati's house did not grow smaller. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu consistently avoided public show when He could, so in the end He chose to leave instead of letting the commotion continue. The Chaitanya-charitamrita states simply that "the Lord remained some time at the house of Vidya-Vacaspati, but then, because it was too crowded, He went to Kuliya," the nearby town on the far side of the Ganges, in what is now Nabadwip itself. Srila Prabhupada's purport gives the exact place of Vachaspati's house: Vidyanagara, close to Koladvipa, the older name for the Kuliya area. From Kuliya the Lord's Bengal travels continued, and in time they drew in a still larger crowd, which included Sri Nityananda Prabhu. As is well known, the attempt to reach Vrindavana ended altogether when the devotees persuaded the Lord to turn back toward Puri.
For Madhusudana Vachaspati himself, this episode is the last full account that the Chaitanya-charitamrita gives of him in Bengal. What is recorded after this comes from a different city entirely, and it is told on Teacher of the Goswamis in Kashi.
