The Chaitanya Charitamrita is the magnum-opus of the Bengali saint/author Krishna Dasa Kaviraja (1496-? CE). The book, a hybrid Bengali and Sanskrit biography, documents the life and precepts of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 – 1533), who is considered by his followers to be an incarnation of Radha and Krishna combined. Chaitanya is a pivotal figure of the Hindu sect Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

As a religious text, the Chaitanya Charitamrita is the main theological resource for Gaudiya Vaishnava Theology and is divided into three sections, Adi-lila, Madhya-lila and Antya-lila.

Adi-lila

The Adi-lila explains Chaitanya's identity and his personal lineage, his closest companions and their paramparas (guru heritage) and the characters of his other devotees. This section ends with a brief summary

Madhya-lila

The Madhya-lila details his sannyasa, the life of Madhavendra Puri, the conversion of the Advaitin scholar Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Chaitanya’s pilgrimage to ], examples of the daily and annual activities of Chaitanya and his devotees during the Ratha-yatra festival of Jagannatha in Puri, their observance of other festivities, and his instructions to Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami.

Antya-lila

The Antya-lila gives a survey of the devotional plays composed by Rupa Goswami, activities of various devotees and occasional critics and their interactions with Chaitanya, Chaitanya’s interactions with Raghunatha Dasa, and Jagadananda, Chaitanya's increasing experience of the searing agony of separation from Krishna (viraha or vipralambha bhava) and concludes with the famous Siksastaka (eight instructions) written by Chaitanya himself.

Although Krishna Dasa never met Chaitanya personally, his guru Raghunatha Dasa Goswami (1494 – 1586 CE) was an associate of Chaitanya and was close to others who were intimates of his. In composing his work, Krishna Dasa also referred to the diaries of Murari Gupta and Swarupa Damodara,

Composition of the Chaitanya Charitamrita

Krishna Dasa composed the Chaitanya Charitamrita in his old age after being requested by the Vaishnavas of Vrindavana to write a hagiography about the life of Chaitanya. Although there was already a biography written by Vrindavana Dasa, called the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the later years of Chaitanya’s life were not detailed in that work. Krishna Dasa’s Chaitanya Charitamrta covers Chaitanya’s later years and also explains in detail the rasa philosophy that Chaitanya and his followers expounded. The Chaitanya Charitamrta also serves as a compendium of Gaudiya Vaishnava practices and outlines the Gaudiya theology developed by the Goswamis in metaphysics, ontology and aesthetics.

The Chaitanya Charitamrta was frequently copied and widely circulated amongst the Vaishnava communities of Bengal and Orissa during the early 17th Century. Its popularity during this period can be acreditted to the propagation of three Vaishnava preachers called Narottama Dasa, Shyamananda and Srinivasa who were trained by Jiva Goswami and Krishna Dasa Kaviraja himself. However, during the 18th Century, copies of the Chaitanya Charitamrita became rare. In his autobiography, Kedarnatha Dutta Bhaktivinoda writes that for many years he found it difficult to procure a copy of the book. Upon finally finding a copy of the Charitamrita, Bhaktivinoda reprinted it along with his Amrita Pravaha commentary. After his passing, his son Bimala Prasada (later to become known as Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati) printed the Chaitanya Charitamrita en masse. He also wrote his Anubhasya commentary to this book

Chaitanya Charitamrita Edition of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In the 1970’s Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s renowned disciple, the world teacher A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, published a deluxe 17-volume English edition with his own commentary based upon the Amrita Pravaha and Anubhasya commentaries of Bhaktivinoda and Bhaktisiddhanta. This edition has been distributed in mass quantities worldwide and is arguably the best-known and most influential edition of Chaitanya Charitamrita today. It is available from the .

References

• Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta (Bengali), Published by Sri Chaitanya Matha, Kolkata, W.Bengal, 1992.