A convinced devotee still had to learn how to behave like one, and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's first lessons in devotional life were as concrete and personal as the debate that produced them had been abstract.
Maha-Prasadam Before the Morning Bath #
Early one morning, before Sarvabhauma had washed his mouth, bathed or performed any of the ritual duties a brahmana of his standing owed the day, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu arrived at his house carrying garlands and food remnants from the Jagannatha temple and placed them directly in his hands. For a scholar of Sarvabhauma's rank, eating anything before the morning bath was, by every rule he had followed his whole life, unthinkable. He quoted two verses on honouring maha-prasadam without regard for time or circumstance and ate it on the spot, without hesitation. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced him, and the two of them danced together; the Lord later said that on that day He had conquered the three worlds, simply because Sarvabhauma had developed faith in Jagannatha's prasadam.
A Question About Worship #
On another day Sarvabhauma asked the Lord directly what the single most important item of devotional service was. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's answer — chanting the holy name of Krishna — became the seed of everything Sarvabhauma would teach for the rest of his life, replacing decades of instruction in Sankaracarya's Vedanta with instruction in the maha-mantra. He explained at length how the practice of chanting alone gradually strips away the deep-rooted bodily conception of life that had, until only weeks earlier, been the unquestioned starting point of Sarvabhauma's own philosophy.
Two Verses Composed in Secret #
Some days later, still working in the only medium he fully trusted, Sarvabhauma composed two Sanskrit verses on a palm leaf and sent them, by way of Jagadananda Pandit, to the Lord. Mukunda Datta intercepted the leaf before it could be delivered and copied both verses onto the wall outside the room; only then did Jagadananda hand it over. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu read the two verses and immediately tore the leaf up — but the devotees had already read them from the wall and kept them in their hearts (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 6.250-253).
In them Sarvabhauma declared that the Supreme Personality of Godhead had descended in the form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to teach real knowledge, detachment and devotional service to Himself, an ocean of transcendental mercy to whom he now surrendered; and that this same Lord had appeared to restore an ancient system of devotional service nearly lost to the passage of time, a system his own mind, like a honeybee, now wished only to drink in at His lotus feet (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 6.254-255). Krishnadasa Kaviraja records that these two verses would go on to announce Sarvabhauma's name as loudly as a beaten drum, treasured by devotees like pearls around the neck.
The Word He Could No Longer Say #
The clearest sign of how far Sarvabhauma had travelled came in a much smaller exchange. Reciting a verse of Lord Brahma's from the Bhagavatam that describes the Lord as mukti-pada, the shelter of liberation, Sarvabhauma quietly substituted bhakti-pada, the shelter of devotion. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu caught the change immediately and asked why: the original word, He pointed out, refers directly to Krishna, at whose feet every form of liberation already stands, so there was no need to alter it. Sarvabhauma agreed the Lord's reading was correct — and held his changed word anyway. He knew mukti-pada was accurate, he said, but the very sound of the word "liberation" had come to unsettle him, while "devotion" filled his mind with joy; a pure devotee, he added, would sooner go to hell than merge into the impersonal effulgence (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 6.262-274). Chaitanya Mahaprabhu laughed and embraced him. A man who had spent his career teaching that merging into Brahman was the goal of life had come, within weeks, to flinch at the very word liberation — and the other scholars of Jagannatha Puri, watching this, began taking shelter of the Lord themselves.