CHAPTER -15 The Lord’s Paugaṇḍa-līlā
A synopsis of the fifteenth chapter is as follows. The Lord took lessons in grammar from Gaṅgādāsa Paṇḍita and became very expert in commenting upon grammar. He forbade His mother to take grains on the Ekādaśī day. He narrated a story that Viśvarūpa, after accepting the sannyāsa order, invited Him in a dream to accept sannyāsa also, but the Lord refused and was therefore sent back home. When Jagannātha Miśra passed away, the Lord married the daughter of Vallabhācārya, whose name was Lakṣmī. All these events are summarized in this chapter.
श्लोक 1: I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya because simply by offering a flower at His lotus feet even the most ardent materialist becomes a devotee.
श्लोक 2: All glories to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu! All glories to Lord Nityānanda Prabhu! All glories to Advaita Ācārya! And all glories to all the devotees of Lord Caitanya!
श्लोक 3: Let me now enumerate the activities of the Lord between the ages of five and ten. His chief occupation during this period was to engage Himself in study.
श्लोक 4: The pastimes of the Lord during His paugaṇḍa age were very extensive. His education was His chief occupation, and after that His very beautiful marriage took place.
श्लोक 5: When the Lord was studying grammar at the place of Gaṅgādāsa Paṇḍita, He would immediately learn grammatical rules and definitions by heart simply by hearing them once.
श्लोक 6: He soon became so expert in commenting on the Pañjī-ṭīkā that He could win victory over all the other students, although He was a neophyte.
श्लोक 7: In his book Caitanya-maṅgala [which later became Caitanya-bhāgavata], Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has very elaborately described the Lord’s pastimes of study.
श्लोक 8: One day Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu fell down at the feet of His mother and requested her to give Him one thing in charity.
श्लोक 9: His mother replied, “My dear son, I will give You whatever You ask.” Then the Lord said, “My dear mother, please do not eat grains on the Ekādaśī day.”
श्लोक 10: Mother Śacī said, “You have spoken very nicely. I shall not eat grains on Ekādaśī.” From that day, she began to observe fasting on Ekādaśī.
श्लोक 11: Thereafter, seeing that Viśvarūpa was a grown-up youth, Jagannātha Miśra wanted to find a girl and arrange a marriage ceremony for Him.
श्लोक 12: Hearing of this, Viśvarūpa immediately left home and went away to accept sannyāsa and travel from one place of pilgrimage to another.
श्लोक 13: When Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra heard of the departure of their elder son, Viśvarūpa, they were very unhappy, but Lord Caitanya tried to console them.
श्लोक 14: “My dear mother and father,” the Lord said, “it is very good that Viśvarūpa has accepted the sannyāsa order, for thus He has delivered both His father’s family and His mother’s family.”
श्लोक 15: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu assured His parents that He would serve them, and thus the minds of His father and mother were satisfied.
श्लोक 16: One day Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu ate betel nuts offered to the Deity, but they acted as an intoxicant, and He fell down on the ground unconscious.
Text 17: After His father and mother sprinkled water on His mouth with great haste, the Lord revived and said something wonderful they had never heard before.
श्लोक 18: The Lord said, “Viśvarūpa took Me away from here, and He requested Me to accept the sannyāsa order.
श्लोक 19: “I replied to Viśvarūpa, ‘I have My helpless father and mother, and also I am but a child. What do I know about the sannyāsa order of life?
श्लोक 20: “ ‘Later I shall become a householder and thus serve My parents, for this action will very much satisfy Lord Nārāyaṇa and His wife, the goddess of fortune.’
श्लोक 21: “Then Viśvarūpa returned Me home and requested, ‘Offer thousands and thousands of obeisances unto My mother, Śacīdevī.’ ”
श्लोक 22: In this way Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu performed various pastimes, but why He did so I cannot understand.
श्लोक 23: After some days, Jagannātha Miśra passed away from this world to the transcendental world, and both mother and son were very much aggrieved in their hearts.
श्लोक 24: Friends and relatives came there to pacify Lord Caitanya and His mother. Then Lord Caitanya, even though He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, executed the rituals for His dead father according to the Vedic system.
श्लोक 25: After some days the Lord thought, “I did not take sannyāsa, and since I am remaining at home it is My duty to act as a gṛhastha.
श्लोक 26: “Without a wife,” Lord Caitanya considered, “there is no meaning to householder life.” Thus the Lord decided to marry.
श्लोक 27: “Merely a house is not a home, for it is a wife who gives a home its meaning. If one lives at home with his wife, together they can fulfill all the interests of human life.”
श्लोक 28: One day when the Lord was coming back from school He accidentally saw the daughter of Vallabhācārya on the way to the Ganges.
श्लोक 29: When the Lord and Lakṣmīdevī met, their relationship awakened, having already been settled, and coincidentally the marriage-maker Vanamālī came to see Śacīmātā.
श्लोक 30: Following the indications of Śacīdevī, Vanamālī Ghaṭaka arranged the marriage, and thus in due course the Lord married Lakṣmīdevī.
श्लोक 31: Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has elaborately described all these pastimes of the Lord’s early age. What I have given is but a condensed presentation of the same pastimes.
श्लोक 32: The Lord performed many varieties of pastimes in His early age, and Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura has described them elaborately.
श्लोक 33: I have given but a single hint of these pastimes, for Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura, in his book Caitanya-maṅgala [now Caitanya-bhāgavata], has described them all vividly.
श्लोक 34: Praying at the lotus feet of Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Raghunātha, always desiring their mercy, I, Kṛṣṇadāsa, narrate Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, following in their footsteps.
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