What Raghupati Taught the Lord

As Raghupati Upadhyaya continued reciting his verses, he watched Mahaprabhu's ecstatic symptoms: the trembling, the loss of composure, the tears. He then came to a private conclusion of his own. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami records it in a single blunt line: "manusya nahe, iho krishna" - He is not a human being. He is Krishna Himself. Mahaprabhu never directly confirmed or denied this conclusion to him. The text simply notes that Raghupati Upadhyaya made up his own mind, based on what he had personally seen.

Four Questions and Four Answers #

Mahaprabhu then began to question him. In quick succession, He asked Raghupati Upadhyaya four questions that any Vaishnava theologian of that time would have recognized. Which of Krishna's countless forms is supreme? Which of His abodes is best? Which age of His life is most worth meditating on? And which devotional mood (rasa) is higher than all others? Raghupati Upadhyaya answered each in a single Sanskrit phrase: shyamam eva param rupam, "the form of Shyamasundara is supreme"; puri madhu-puri vara, "Mathura is the best of cities"; vayah kaishorakam dhyeyam, "fresh youth is the age to meditate on"; and adya eva paro rasah, "the original mellow - conjugal love - is the highest rasa." In his purport on the first answer, Srila Prabhupada explains why Shyamasundara, and not any of Krishna's other forms, was named supreme. He turns back to two verses of Brahma-samhita. Among them is the well-known description of devotees who see that form "within the heart," their eyes "anointed with the pulp of love." He also turns to Srimad-Bhagavatam's own declaration that "Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead," the source from which every other form and incarnation expands. Years earlier, in Jagannatha Puri, Mahaprabhu had explored these same four questions in a long night of conversation with Ramananda Raya. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami records that dialogue elsewhere in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, at much fuller length. Here at Adaila, a scholar he had met only that evening answered the same four questions in four lines, without hesitation.

You Have Taught Me Well #

Mahaprabhu's response is recorded directly: "You have certainly given first-class conclusions." Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami says that He then spoke "in a faltering voice," reciting the full four-line Sanskrit verse that combines all of Raghupati Upadhyaya's answers. Rupa Gosvami would later place this same verse in the Padyavali as its eighty-second entry. Overcome, Mahaprabhu embraced Raghupati Upadhyaya in ecstatic love. Raghupati Upadhyaya, "overwhelmed by love" in his own turn, began to dance.

A Household and a Village Transformed #

Vallabha Bhattacharya, watching Mahaprabhu and Raghupati Upadhyaya dance together, was struck with wonder. He brought his sons forward and had them fall at Mahaprabhu's feet. But Srila Prabhupada's own purport points out a small problem with the dates here. The purport names the two sons as Gopinatha and Vitthalesvara, and says that Vitthalesvara was not yet born when Mahaprabhu visited Prayag, in 1512 or 1513. Prabhupada does not explain how this fits with the "two sons" of the verse. He simply notes it and points the reader elsewhere in the text. Word of Mahaprabhu's presence spread through Adaila all the same. Villagers came simply to see Him, and, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami writes, became Krishna's devotees by that sight alone. Local brahmanas lined up to invite Mahaprabhu into their own homes. But Vallabha Bhattacharya himself declined the invitations, so that he could keep his unexpected guest a little longer.

Raghupati Upadhyaya does not appear again by name anywhere else in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. The tradition kept only these memories of him. He received a blessing. He recited two verses that broke Mahaprabhu's composure. He answered four questions without pause. And he shared a dance with the Lord whom, in his own understanding, he had just recognized.