Continuing our series on sharanagati, with this post we begin presenting the content of our upcoming release of Sharanagati accompanied by the Gentle Moonlight Commentary by Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj.
Sharanagati
by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur
Mangalacharana
Invocation of Auspiciousness
śrī-kṛṣṇa-chaitanya prabhu jīve dayā kari’
sva-pārṣada svīya dhāma saha avatari’ [1]
śrī-kṛṣṇa-chaitanya–Śrī Gaurasundar; prabhu–Lord; jīve–to the conditioned souls; dayā–mercy; kari’–doing; sva-pārṣada–His own associates; svīya–His own; dhāma–abode; saha–with; avatari’–descending. [1]
(1) Being merciful to the jivas, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode.
Sri Laghu-chandrika Bhashya
by Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj
(1) śrī-kṛṣṇa-chaitanya: ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ is the sannyas name of Sri Gaurasundar. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya uses this name in his prayers to the Lord:
kālān naṣṭaṁ bhakti-yogaṁ nijaṁ yaḥ
prāduṣkartuṁ kṛṣṇa-chaitanya-nāmā
āvirbhūtas tasya pādāravinde
gāḍhaṁ gāḍhaṁ līyatāṁ chitta-bhṛṅgaḥ
(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata: Antya-lila, 3.123)
“May the honeybee of my heart be ever more deeply attached to the lotus feet of He who has now appeared as ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ in order to revive the practice of devotion for Himself, which had become lost due to the influence of time.”
In Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata (Madhya-lila, 28.175–176, 181), the sannyas ceremony of Sri Gaurasundar is described:
yata jagatere tumi ‘kṛṣṇa’ bolāilā
karāilā chaitanya—kīrtana prakāśilā
eteke tomāra nāma śrī kṛṣṇa chaitanya
sarvaloka tomā’ haite yāte haila dhanya
[Sri Keshav Bharati said:] “You have induced the whole world to chant the Name of ‘Krishna’ and brought everyone to life (chaitanya) by inaugurating the sankirtan movement. Therefore Your name will be ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’. Because of You, everyone in the whole universe has become fortunate.”
hena mate sannyāsa kariyā prabhu dhanya
prakāśila ātma-nāma “śrī kṛṣṇa chaitanya”
“In this way, the Lord gloriously accepted sannyas and revealed His name, ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’.”
sva-pārṣada: “His associates.” This means His servants, as is implied in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (9.25):
yānti deva-vratā devān pitṛn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām
“Those who are devoted to the demigods go to the realm of the demigods; those who are devoted to the ancestors go to the realm of their ancestors; those who are devoted to ghosts and spirits go to the realm of such beings; and those who are devoted to Me come to Me (reside in My abode).”
dhāma: “Abode.” This means the spiritual domain of the Lord. Krishna describes His abode in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (15.6):
na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ
yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
“Having reached My supreme abode, which cannot be illuminated by the sun, the moon, or fire (anything material), the surrendered souls never return to this mundane world.”
Sri Krishna Chaitanyadev has clearly declared within this material world the message that the fortune of Sri Krishna-prem, divine love for Sri Krishna, which condemns the four ends of conventional religiosity—dharma, piety; artha, wealth; kama, enjoyment; and moksa, liberation—is the fifth and supreme end of human life. Sharanagati is the sole means to obtain that topmost end of human life. To enlighten the jivas conditioned in the material world about this, and to reveal the process of sharanagati, Sri Krishna Chaitanyadev Himself descended, along with His eternal associates and divine abode of Sri Nabadwip Dham. He taught sharanagati through His own practice and preaching, as well as through the practice and preaching of His capable servants. Some time later, one of His devotee-associates, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, gave extensive guidance about the practice of sharanagati through analysis and description of its limbs and sub-limbs, in this small book named Sharanagati.
Prior to Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, other acharyas also spoke at length about sharanagati. The fundamental teachings of sharanagati are additionally found within Srimad Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. The subject of sharanagati is also especially well known within the Sri-sampraday. Still, the way in which Sri Krishna Chaitanyachandra has revealed the fundamental nature of sharanagati is unparalleled; He has taught that sharanagati is the appropriate means of obtaining the fortune of the divine loving service (prema-seva) of Vrajendra Nandan Krishna, the whimsical enjoyer of the wives of the cowherd men of Vraja, whose divine form is the origin of the Absolute Truth. Therefore, in order to distribute these illustrious teachings of sharanagati, Srimad Bhakti Vinod Thakur has invoked the benediction of that supreme munificent origin of all Avatars, Sri Chaitanyachandra, by first mentioning His name while establishing the theme of his treatise within his invocation of auspiciousness.