Page:Chaitanya's Life and Teachings.djvu/19

Rh, and his victories in argument made him slight other men. During a pilgrimage to Gayá, he met Ishwar Puri, a Vaishnav monk of the order of Mádhaváchárya and a disciple of that Mádhavendra Puri who had first introduced the cult of bhakti for Krishna among the sannyásis. Vishwambhar took this Ishwar Puri as his guru or spiritual guide. A complete change now came over his spirit. His intellectual pride was gone; he became a bhakta; whateyer subject he lectured on, the theme of his discourse was love of Krishna. Indeed, he developed religious ecstasy and for some time behaved like a mad man: he laughed, wept, incessantly shouted Krishna's name, climbed up trees, or raved in abstraction imagining himself to be Krishna. He now made the acquaintance of the elderly scholar and bhakta Adwaita Acharya, and was joined by a sannyási named Nityánanda, who became to him even more than what Paul was to Christ.

Many people of Navadwip now believed Chaitanya to be an incarnation of Krishna and did him worship, while Nityananda came to be regarded as Balaram, (the elder brother of Krishna). Religious processions were frequently got up, in which the devout, headed by the two, went dancing and singing through the streets or assembled in the courtyards of houses. This was the origin of the nám-kirtan ('chanting God's name') which has ever been the most distinctive feature of this creed. Chaitanya's greatest achievement at this time was the reclamation of two drunken ruffians, Jagái and Mádhái, who were a terror to the city. The apostles of bhakti had also to face mockery and persecution from scoffers and unbelievers (páshandi),—which were overcome by supernatural signs. We pass over the scenes of ecstasy,