
Chapter Four

GAURANGA-NAGARIS (Rasabhasa Bhaktas)


"From the life of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, an intelligent person engaged in
pure devotional service can understand that He always felt separation from
Krsna within Himself. In that separation He sometimes felt that He had found
Krsna and was enjoying the meeting. The significance of this separation and
meeting is very specific. If someone tries to understand the exalted position
of Lord Caitanya without knowing this, he is sure to misunderstand it. One
must first become fully self-realized. Otherwise he may misidentify the Lord
as nagara, or the enjoyer of the damsels of Vraja, thus committing the mistake
of rasabhasa, or overlapping understanding." (C.C. Adi 4.106, Purport)

The gauranga-nagaris are quite prominent in Bengal and Bangladesh. Outwardly,
they appear as regular Bengali Vaisnavas, but there is a subtle sahajiya
contamination in their conception of Lord Caitanya's mood of devotion. Thus
their position is strongly refuted by the acaryas of the Gaudiya Vaisnava
sampradaya, even though other aspects of this sect may seem praiseworthy: like
staunch Vaisnavas, they wear tilaka and neck beads, are good kirtana
performers and strictly abstain from flesh and fish.

In his purport to Bhag. 4.23.31, Srila Prabhupada focuses on the sahajiya
contamination that the gauranga-nagaris represent:

"Sometimes the sahajiya class of devotees are interested only in Krsna's
personal pastimes to the exclusion of the activities of the devotees."

But such an attitude can only baffle the attempt to comprehend the person and
activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, for C.C. Adi 1.14 states:

panca-tattvatmakam krsnam bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam namami bhakta-saktikam

"I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Krsna, who is non-different from
His features as a devotee, devotional incarnation, devotional manifestation,
pure devotee and devotional energy."

The gauranga-nagaris are not interested in Lord Caitanya as a devotee, or in
His five features as the Sri Panca-Tattva. They desire to relate to Lord
Caitanya as Krsna Himself, particularly as lampat (yatha-tathava
vidhadhatu-lampato: "He is a debauchee, so it is His nature to do as He
likes"). They style Him as nagara, and themselves as nagari.

The gauranga-nagari doctrine is very briefly and yet very completely explained
by Srila Prabhupada in several purports of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. A few
relevant quotes are as follows.

"...the gaura-nagaris, who place Lord Caitanya in the position of enjoyer and
themselves as His enjoyed, are not approved by Lord Caitanya or by Lord
Caitanya's followers. Instead of being blessed, the foolish imitators are left
completely apart. Their concoctions are against the principles of Lord
Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The doctrine of transcendental enjoyment by Krsna cannot
be mixed up with the doctrine of transcendental feeling of separation from
Krsna in the role of Radharani." (C.C. Adi 4.41, Purport)

"Doctrines like those of the nadiya-nagaris, a class of so-called devotees,
are never presented by authorized persons like Svarupa Damodara or the six
Gosvamis. The ideas of the nadiya-nagaris are simply mental concoction, and
they are completely on the mental platform." (C.C. Adi 4.107, Purport)

"...a so-called party of devotees named nadiya-nagari has sprung up and
introduced the worship of Visnupriya. This certainly indicates ignorance of
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes. In the opinion of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati Thakura, such worship is a product of the imagination." (C.C. Antya
14.7, Purport)

Refuting the Gauranga-nagari Doctrine:

In C.C. Adi 1.5, Lord Caitanya is described as radha-bhava-dyuti-suvalita,
"adorned with the mood and luster of Srimati Radharani." Nowhere in any
revealed scripture is He said to be krsna-bhava-dyuti-suvalita, "adorned with
the mood and luster of Sri Krsna," which would support the gauranga-nagari
conception. Spokesmen of this apasampradaya not only say that Lord Caitanya
exhibited Krsna's enjoying mood, they claim further that Visnupriya-devi, the
Lord's second wife, is Srimati Radharani, and that her close female friends
are gopis. But as Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura makes clear in Sri Caitanya-
bhagavata, Visnupriya-devi is actually Bhu-sakti, a form of Laksmi.  The
wives, mothers and daughters of Lord Gauranga's associates in Nadia attend
Visnupriya in her bathing and dressing exactly as the maidservants of Lakmiji
serve Her in Vaikuntha-dhama. Their mood is different from the mood of the
damsels of Vrndavana.

Sri Caitanya-bhagavata is also very clear about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's
extreme gravity in His dealings with women - even with His own wives, what to
speak of other women. He never so much as looked at the village girls of
Nadia, let alone smile or talk to them. But in the tradition of the sahajiyas,
the gauranga-nagaris have invented offensive myths about Lord Caitanya's
supposed love affairs with a mistress named Kancana and other fictional
consorts. These stories should never be heard.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura appreciated the manifestation of Krsna's mood in
Lord Caitanya in His dealings with Sri Gadadhara Prabhu. Sri Gadadhara was so
meek and submissive that the Lord sometimes remarked to His confidential
associates, "Gadadhara is My consort in the spiritual world." Indeed,
Gadadhara Prabhu's spiritual emotions for Lord Caitanya are described as
suddha gadha bhava rukmini-devira ("pure, deep ecstatic love in the mood of
Rukmini-devi") in Antya 7.144 of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura thus worshiped Sri Sri Gaura-Gadadhara Deities in his bhajana. Here is
an example of an internal flavor of attraction in an advanced devotee for a
confidential feature of Lord Caitanya's pastimes. But this is not a subject
matter for preaching. Lord Caitanya's preaching pastimes are relished in Sri
Sri Gaura-Nitai worship, as seen in ISKCON temples around the world. This mode
of Deity worship is performed to inspire the public at large to engage in
harer-nama-sankirtana. But in any case, the worship of Sri Gaura-Gadadhara by
the pure devotee has nothing to do with the rasabhasa of the gauranga-nagaris.

As Srila Prabhupada states above, the gauranga-nagaris are on the mental
platform. Their so-called mood of devotion is really just eroticism, a
creation of their impure minds. Their wrong meditation upon Lord Caitanya
simply arouses their lust, and they foolishly take that lust to be spiritual
ecstasy.

