The First Meal at Siddhavata #
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's tour through South India brought Him first to see the Deity of Lord Nrisimha, and from there to Siddhavata - a pilgrimage town known for its great banyan tree and for a Deity of Ramachandra, Lord of Sitadevi, whom Mahaprabhu greeted with prayers and obeisances. A brahmana there invited Him to take lunch. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami is specific about this brahmana's character before the story moves any further: "That brahmana constantly chanted the holy name of Ramachandra. Indeed, but for chanting Lord Ramachandra's holy name, that brahmana did not speak a word." Mahaprabhu accepted prasadam at his home that day and, after showing him this mercy, continued on His way.
A Visit to Skanda-kshetra and Trivikrama #
What makes this brahmana's story different from a simple pilgrimage-stop encounter is what happened next. From Siddhavata, Mahaprabhu went on to visit the temple of Skanda at Skanda-kshetra, and from there to Trimatha, where He saw the Deity of Vishnu known as Trivikrama. Only after these two further stops did He turn back and return to Siddhavata - to the same brahmana's house, for a second time.
A Different Name on His Lips #
What Mahaprabhu found on returning was a man transformed. The brahmana who had spoken almost nothing but Rama's name at their first meeting was now chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra continuously instead. Mahaprabhu asked him directly: "My dear friend, kindly tell Me what your position is now. Formerly you were constantly chanting the holy name of Lord Rama. Why are you now constantly chanting the holy name of Krishna?" The brahmana's answer is unusually candid about how sudden and involuntary the change had felt to him: "This is all due to Your influence, Sir. After seeing You, I have lost my lifelong practice. From my childhood I have been chanting the holy name of Lord Ramachandra, but upon seeing You I chanted the holy name of Lord Krishna just once. Since then, the holy name of Krishna has been tightly fixed upon my tongue. Indeed, since I have been chanting the holy name of Krishna, the holy name of Lord Ramachandra has gone far away."
Two Names, One Truth #
What follows in Chaitanya-charitamrita is not simple confusion on the brahmana's part but a scholar's attempt to reconcile what scripture had taught him with what he was now experiencing. He recalls verses holding Rama and Krishna's holy names to be on an equal footing as the Supreme Absolute Truth - one from the Padma Purana's Shata-nama-stotra explaining that "Rama" names the Lord because transcendentalists take unlimited pleasure (ramante) in Him, another from the Mahabharata explaining "Krishna" through the verbal root krish, meaning attractive existence, joined to a syllable meaning spiritual pleasure. Yet he also recalls further verses - Lord Shiva's own words to Durga, and a line traced in the Laghu-bhagavatamrita to the Brahmanda Purana - holding that a single utterance of Krishna's name yields what three full repetitions of Vishnu's thousand names would give. "According to this statement of the shastras," the brahmana says, "the glories of the holy name of Krishna are unlimited. Still I could not chant His holy name. Please hear the reason for this... My worshipable Lord has been Lord Ramachandra, and by chanting His holy name I received happiness... By Your appearance, Lord Krishna's holy name also appeared, and at that time the glories of Krishna's name awoke in my heart."
Falling at the Lord's Feet #
The brahmana's conclusion, once he reached it, was unambiguous: "Sir, You are that Krishna Himself. This is my conclusion." Saying this, Chaitanya-charitamrita records, he fell down at Mahaprabhu's lotus feet. Mahaprabhu showed him mercy and left the following day, continuing south toward Vriddhakashi and the temple of Lord Shiva there. Nothing further is recorded of this brahmana - no name beyond "the brahmana of Siddhavata," no later life, no other appearance anywhere in Chaitanya-charitamrita. What remains is this one afternoon: a lifelong devotee of Rama's holy name who found, in the presence of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that a different name of God had quietly taken its place on his tongue - and who understood exactly what that meant.