After his conversion, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not retire from public life. If anything, the years that followed made him busier than before. He was a host and a spokesman. He was also the one man in Puri whose word carried weight with both the Lord's devotees and the Gajapati king.
Sending the Lord to Ramananda Raya #
In the month of Vaishakha, 1510, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prepared to leave on His tour of South India. Sarvabhauma gave Him four sets of cloth for the journey. He also made one final, strong request. The Lord must not fail to meet Ramananda Raya, the governor of Vidyanagara on the Godavari. Sarvabhauma openly admitted that he had once mocked Ramananda Raya for talking like a devotee, though he was born in a family of lower rank. Only now, by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, could he see that no one in the world understood the transcendental mellows of devotion better (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 7.59-69). When the Lord departed, Sarvabhauma fainted on the spot, and Nityananda Prabhu had to raise him and take him home.
A Household Bound to the Lord's Daily Life #
Sarvabhauma's home life stayed closely joined to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own. His wife, remembered in the Chaitanya-charitamrita as Sathi's mother, cooked for the Lord with real devotion. His son Chandaneshvara had earlier guided the newly arrived Bengali devotees to their first darshan of Jagannatha. Once Sarvabhauma invited the Lord to eat at his home for an entire month. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu pointed to a sannyasi's rule against regular invitations, and step by step He brought the number down to five days a month. He also asked that Paramananda Puri and Svarupa Damodara Goswami be invited on their own separate days, so that no single house would have too many guests at once.
Sarvabhauma's Anger and a Son-in-Law's Illness #
Not every episode in this household was gentle. During one such meal, Sarvabhauma's son-in-law Amogha wandered in and openly mocked the size of the feast prepared for a single sannyasi. Sarvabhauma, furious, chased him off with a stick. His wife, deeply ashamed at the insult to the Lord, struck her own chest in grief. The next day Amogha fell seriously ill, and Sarvabhauma took it as just punishment. Then Gopinatha Acharya brought word to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that the whole household was now fasting in distress. The Lord went personally to Amogha's bedside and placed a hand on his chest. He told Amogha that his heart was naturally holy, but he had simply allowed it to be spoiled by envy. His connection to Sarvabhauma's own household had already cleared away whatever sin lay behind it. Amogha rose and began chanting. At the Lord's request, Sarvabhauma and his wife then broke their own fast.
An Uneasy Question About Caste #
Sarvabhauma's change of heart did not remove all his old, inherited ideas overnight. Kashishvara and Govinda had been the two personal servants of Ishvara Puri, who had recently departed. Ishvara Puri was the very sannyasi who had given Chaitanya Mahaprabhu His diksha at Gaya. When these two servants arrived in Puri to continue serving the Lord, Sarvabhauma asked why a guru would keep a shudra as a personal attendant. The Lord's answer was that service offered out of affection is greater than service offered out of formal duty, and that a spiritual master's order cannot be set aside. Sarvabhauma then replied that a disciple must never disregard his guru's instruction in any situation. The old scholar's discipline was still there, but now it served a very different conclusion.
Advocate to a King #
Because Maharaja Prataparudra respected Sarvabhauma, he was the natural link between the throne and the Lord. While Chaitanya Mahaprabhu toured the south, Prataparudra heard about Him constantly from Sarvabhauma and grew eager to meet Him. Sarvabhauma had to explain that a sannyasi under strict vows does not meet kings. Even after the Lord's return, repeated efforts to arrange a meeting failed. But the Lord did at last agree to send the king an outer garment through Sarvabhauma and Nityananda Prabhu. It was a small gift. Yet the tradition records that it was enough to bring the symptoms of love of God onto Prataparudra's own body the moment he touched the cloth. This was the beginning of the process that would later bring the Gajapati king fully into the Lord's mercy.
The Praise That Outlasted the Argument #
Years into this new life, the scholar Vallabha Bhatta came to Puri. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then summed up what Sarvabhauma had become to Him. He called Sarvabhauma a master of the six philosophical systems who had, in the end, taught the Lord Himself the true extent of devotional service. Sarvabhauma had also shown Him that union with Krishna is the essence of every mystic path (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila 7.21-22). It is hard to imagine a more complete turn-around of Sarvabhauma's original plan, which was to correct a promising but over-emotional young sannyasi.
