DOL PURNIMA AND THAT REMARKABLE MAN
Dol Purnima also marks the traditional birth anniversary of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that outstanding ‘revolutionary’ to whom Bengal is more indebted than we usually acknowledge.
One of the greatest champions of the medieval Bhakti movement, Chaitanya of Nadia’s (informally known as ‘Gour’ — for his fair skin) primary credit lay in primarily establishing and popularizing his personal relationship with his God. His was a relationship based on close and warm bonding with Krishna (similar to Meera and Surdas). And, it blurred the traditional master-and-follower distinction between god and devotee, and largely bypassed the elaborate priest-class and their ‘middleman’ trade.
Secondly, Chaitanya encouraged everyone — regardless of caste and class — to join him, as long as they found comfort and happiness in this personalized bhakti, minus brahmanical rules. His was a movement of social equality based on love, not social hierarchy based on birth. not only lower castes, even muslims — including the governor of Orissa and pathaans (way before srk came along 😉 ) — joined his fold.
Obviously, priest hegemony and casteism didnt die down and over centuries, the Vaishnavas again came up with their own rigid versions of it (the parallels with the history of Christianity and Islam are obvious). But, the overall long-term result of Chaitanya’s socioreligious movement in Bengal was that, not only Vaishnavs, but also the Shaivas and Shaktas of bengal gradually moved away from the ‘more rigid religious rules’ prevalent in the north and south and developed a more ‘close, family-type’ relationship with the patron gods and goddesses.
It is no coincidence (though not the only reason) that Mansa mangal, Chandi mangal — medieval bengali socioreligious dramatic texts which form the basis to major Bengali festivals till today — gained popularity soon after Chaitanya. And Agambagish, a Shakta (or Tantrik ? ) scholar who is credited with coming up with the uniquely Bengali model of the feared Kali, was also a contemporary of Chaitanya. The underlying reasons are not difficult to understand. Bhakti was zeitgeist. Every sect realized that the fundamental basis to Chaitanya’s popularity was that he was breaking barriers and cementing everything with the basic human glue of love. Hence, if the others had to continue to be socially relevant, they’d have to evolve similar ideas and ideals.
Chaitanya ‘disappeared’ ~1533 from Puri. The legends believe that, while in a trance, he walked into the sea or ‘merged’ with the idol of his patron god. This has been doubted and it is not impossible he met the same fate as what happened to Jesus of Nazareth on the hill of Calvary or what’d have happened to the Prophet if he had not wisely escaped from mecca to medina that cold night. Sadly, what happened to that finest among bongs remains unresolved to this day.
Nevertheless Chaitanya is an ‘immortal’, ‘cos 500 years on, amidst terrible ups and downs, his philosophy has stayed alive and beating in various forms in the bengali subconscious — where Krishna is not only GOD, he is also bosom friend and lover; where Durga is not only a warrior-goddess, she is also a daughter ; where Shiva is simultaneously the top-god as well as the cool, rather laid-back head-of-celestial-family; and where even the feared Kali is an eccentric but warm mum. Ramprasad, Tagore, Nazrul, Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Lalan and Chittaranjan are travellers of the same path which Chaitanya had first walked, as are the Bengal’s famous bards — the Bauls. Of course, bengal’s geographic location — away from the main ‘aryavarta heartland’ and rather difficult to penetrate cos of endless rivers and rivulets with forests abound - helped this. The countless songs, satirical dramas, jokes, illustrations and now whatsapp memes about Krishna, Durga, Shiva and Kali that bengalis share till today (and which are often resented by more orthodox people) largely owe their origin to the great Chaitanya.
regards to all on Dol and Holi.
