Sri Advaita Acarya
ESP
Who is Advaita Acarya
vraje avesha-rupatvad
vyuho yo’pi sadashivah
sa evadvaita-gosvami
caitanyabhinna-vigrahah
Sadashiva, an expansion of the supreme lord in Vraja, is here known as Advaita Acharya. He is non-different from Chaitanya.
(Gaura-ganoddesha- dipika 76)
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has written,
“Maya has two functions, and Maha Vishnu appears in two ways according to those functions. When he is within the material world as creator, he is the universe’s effective cause (nimitta-karana) in his form as Vishnu. In the unmanifest material energy (pradhana), appearing in the form of Rudra, he has a second identity as Advaita.”
Advaita’s Appearance
Advaita Acharya appeared in the village of Navagrama near the city of Sylhet as the son of the Varendra Brahmin Kuvera Pandita and his wife Nabha Devi, on the seventh day of the waxing moon in the month of Magh.
In that auspicious moment, the moon of Advaita descended in the blessed womb of Nabha Devi.
In his ecstasy, Kubera Pandit gave in charity to the Brahmins and the poor. He tiptoed to the birthing room and his heart was filled with gladness upon seeing his son’s face. All the villagers came running to his house and said to each other,
“What pious works did this Brahmin do that in his old age he has been blessed with such a jewel of a son?”
The gods rained down flowers without being seen. There is nothing with which this scene can compare. Ghanashyama sings of this great auspicious occasion when a joyous uproar rang around the earth.
(Bhakti-ratnakara 12.1759-62)
His full name was Sri Kamalaksha or Kamala Kanta Vedapanchanana. His birth took place in 1434 AD and he disappeared in the year 1559, at the age of 125 years.
Advaita’s birthplace
In the Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, Advaita’s birthplace is given as Laura Gram. It is also said there that Advaita Prabhu left Laura to go to live in Sylhet and then from there moved to Shantipur. He also had a home in Nabadwip.
Advaita Prabhu’s Travels
When Kubera Pandit and Nabha Devi disappeared, Advaita went to Gaya on the pretext of performing the appropriate rituals of mourning, and thence continued on a pilgrimage tour of all of India’s holy places.
When he came to Vrindavan, he became absorbed in the worship of Krishna, but through his meditation he was able to understand that Krishna was about to appear in Nabadwip.
While on this pilgrimage tour, he came to Mithila where he met the poet Vidyapati. This encounter is beautifully described in the Advaitavilasa.
Advaita Prabhu finally returned from Vrindavan to Shantipur after spending several days in Nabadwip. The people of Shantipur had been suffering from his separation for a long time and were very happy to see him back.
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Advaita’s wives and residences
Advaita had two wives; one was named Sri, the other Sita. In the Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika, it is written that the divine Yogamaya took the form of Advaita’s wife Sita, and that Sri is her prakasha expansion.
(Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 86)
Advaita Acharya also had two residences, one in Shantipur, the other not far from Srivasa’s home in Nabadwip-Mayapur.
Advaita’s preaching
His heart was greatly pained at seeing that the people of the world were devoid of any devotion to Vishnu and were as a consequence greatly suffering the pains of material life. Overwhelmed with compassion, he began to teach the Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavat, explaining that the purport of the scriptures was to engage in devotional service to Krishna.
Madhavendra Puri
At about the same time, Madhavendra Puri had a dream in which Govardhanadhari Gopal commanded him to find sandalwood paste for the Deity service. Madhavendra then started out for Puri, taking the road through western Bengal. While there, he stopped at Advaita’s house in Shantipur. Advaita became convinced to accept Madhavendra Puri as his guru when he saw his devotional ecstasies, even though he himself is an expansion of the supreme lord. He underwent this ritual in order to demonstrate to the conditioned souls the necessity of accepting a spiritual master.
So, he took care to receive the mantra from him, after which Madhavendra left to continue his voyage to the south.
(Caitanya Charitamrita 2.4.110-1)
The Cause of the Lord’s Incarnation
Advaita appeared along with the other elderly members of Chaitanya’s retinue and when he did so, he observed that the sinfulness of the age of Kali had reached a disturbing limit and that the world was entirely devoid of devotion to Krishna. He thought that a partial incarnation of the lord would not be sufficient to completely bring about the welfare of the earth in this state.
He thought, “The world will only benefit if the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself descends to the earth.” So he began to worship Krishna’s lotus feet with Ganges water and tulasi leaves, shouting and pleading to the lord to become incarnate. With roars of love (prema-hunkara) Advaita showed his desire for the lord of Goloka to descend to the earth.
He constantly offered water from the Ganges and tulasi manjaris while meditating on Krishna’s lotus feet, at the same time calling to Krishna with loud roars. This is the way that he caused Krishna to descend. This, then, is the chief reason that Krishna Chaitanya became incarnate on this earth. He who is the bridge of justice descends at the wish of the devotee.
(Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.3.107-9)
Visvarupa
Advaita Acharya established a tol for teaching Sanskrit in Nabadwip-Mayapur and started to engage in a deep study of the scriptures. Every day, Mahaprabhu’s older brother Vishvarupa used to go to Advaita’s house after bathing in the Ganges to listen to him lecture. On certain occasions, when Advaita was engaged in performing his puja, Vishvarupa would explain to everyone present there that devotion to Krishna was the ultimate purport of all the scriptures.
When Advaita heard him speaking in this way, he got up from worshiping his deity and embraced him.
Sachi regularly sent little Nimai at lunchtime with something for Vishvarupa to eat. When Advaita Prabhu saw Nimai’s beautiful face he became enchanted, but was unable to recognize him as his worshipable lord, the Supreme Truth.
In the meantime, Vishvarupa had secretly decided that he would renounce family life out of a realization that the material world is temporary and that a human being’s only real duty is to worship the lord. When he saw that his parents were starting to make wedding plans for him, he quickly left home and took sannyasa, after which he was known by the name Shankararanya.
Sachi, Jagannath and other devotees all lamented his loss. Advaita too was pained by Vishvarupa’s departure, but pacified everyone by saying that Krishna himself would appear soon to eradicate everyone’s distress.
Sachi and Jagannath became afraid that Nimai
After Vishvarupa’s abandonment of the hearth, Sachi and Jagannath became afraid that Nimai would follow his example and so they put a stop to his education.
Later, however, when they heard Nimai speaking sweetly in the mood of Dattatreya, they decided it would be better to send him back to school. Jagannath Mishra left this world not long after Nimai was given the sacred thread and had become fully absorbed in his studies.
Marriage to Laksmipriya and Isvara Puri
While Mahaprabhu was still fully devoted to his pastimes as a scholar, his marriage to Ballabha’s daughter Lakshmipriya was arranged.
In those days, Advaita was holding Bhagavat lectures and kirtan at his house in Nabadwip. All the devotees including Advaita were very enthused about the singer Mukunda Datta’s voice. On one occasion Isvara Puri came to Advaita’s house while on a visit to Nabadwip. From his vigorous appearance, Advaita was able to recognize that he was a Vaishnava sannyasi. Later, Gauranga also met him.
At that time, Isvara Puri arrived in Nabadwip in a most discrete manner. Constantly preoccupied with the taste of Krishna devotion, he was single-minded, dear to Krishna and compassionate. No one was able to recognize him because he was not dressed as a sannyasi, until one day, by chance, he arrived at Advaita’s house.
(Chaitanya Bhagavat 1.11.70-72)
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Advaita and Hari Das Thakur
By his pastimes, Advaita Prabhu revealed that a Vaishnava is praiseworthy and worthy of worship, no matter what his family background. Namacharya Hari Das Thakur was born in a Muslim family in Burihan village in the district of Jessore, but later came to live in the village of Phuliya near Shantipur where he would come to associate with Advaita Prabhu. He was staying in a grotto where he was engaged in solitary devotional practices. This was after he had spent time preaching the glories of the Holy Names at the Chandpur house of Raghunatha Das Goswami’s father and uncle, Govardhana and Hiranya Majumdar.
Advaita used to invite Hari Das to come to his house in Shantipur to take prasad. This made Hari Das Thakur feel somewhat uneasy. However, Advaita Prabhu, the teacher of the people, claimed that his behavior was in conformity with all the scriptures, for to feed a great devotee like Hari Das is equal to the feeding of millions of Brahmins. In order to demonstrate this, he honored Hari Das by giving him the plate offered in the shraddha ceremony. On the annual date set aside for offering oblations to the forefathers, a householder Vaishnava offers all kinds of foodstuffs to the Lord and then invites Brahmins and Vaishnavas to take prasad. The mahaprasad is given to the guest of honor and Advaita Prabhu chose Hari Das for this special treatment.
Advaita said, “Please don’t be afraid. I shall only do what is accepted in scripture. If you eat, it is as though ten million Brahmins had eaten.” After saying these words, he gave him the shraddha plate to eat.
(Chaitanya Charitamrita 3.3.219-20)
One of the branches of the Chaitanya tree is Hari Das Thakur, whose activities are amazing. He would unfailingly chant 300,000 names of the lord every day. I only give an indication here of his unlimited virtues; Advaita Acharya honored him by giving him the shraddha plate.
(Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.10.43-4)
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