13.42
vidyapati, jayadeva, candidasera gita
asvadena ramananda-svarupa-sahita
SYNONYMS
vidyapati—the author of the name Vidyapati; jayadeva—of the name Jayadeva; candidasera—of the name Candidasa; gita—their songs; asvadena—tastes; ramananda—of the name Ramananda; svarupa—of the name Svarupa; sahita—along with.
The Lord used to read the books of Vidyapati, Jayadeva and Candidasa, relishing their songs with His confidential associates like Sri Ramananda Raya and Svarupa Damodara Gosvami.
PURPORT
Vidyapati was a famous composer of songs about the pastimes of Radha-Krsna.
He was an inhabitant of Mithila, born in a brahmana family.
It is calculated that he composed his songs during the reign of King Sivasimha and Queen Lachimadevi in the beginning of the fourteenth century of the Saka Era, almost one hundred years before the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The twelfth generation of Vidyapati’s descendants is still living.
Vidyapati’s songs about the pastimes of Lord Krsna express intense feelings of separation from Krsna, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu relished all those songs in His ecstasy of separation from Krsna.
Jayadeva was born during the reign of Maharaja Laksmana Sena of Bengal in the eleventh or twelfth century of the Saka Era.
His father was Bhojadeva, and his mother was Vamadevi.
For many years he lived in Navadvipa, then the capital of Bengal.
His birthplace was in the Birbhum district in the village Kendubilva.
In the opinion of some authorities, however, he was born in Orissa, and still others say that he was born in southern India.
He passed the last days of his life in Jagannatha Puri.
One of his famous books is Gita-govinda, which is full of transcendental mellow feelings of separation from Krsna.
The gopis felt separation from Krsna before the rasa dance, as mentioned in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the Gita-govinda expresses such feelings.
There are many commentaries on the Gita-govinda by many Vaisnavas.
Candidasa was born in the village of Nannura, which is also in the Birbhum district of Bengal.
He was born of a brahmana family, and it is said that he also took birth in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Sakabda Era.
It has been suggested that Candidasa and Vidyapati were great friends because the writings of both express the transcendental feelings of separation profusely.
The feelings of ecstasy described by Candidasa and Vidyapati were actually exhibited by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
He relished all those feelings in the role of Srimati Radharani, and His appropriate associates for this purpose were Sri Ramananda Raya and Sri Svarupa Damodara Gosvami.
These intimate associates of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu helped the Lord very much in the pastimes in which He felt like Radharani.
Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura comments in this connection that such feelings of separation as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu enjoyed from the books of Vidyapati, Candidasa and Jayadeva are especially reserved for persons like Sri Ramananda Raya and Svarupa Damodara, who were paramahamsas, men of the topmost perfection, because of their advanced spiritual consciousness.
Such topics are not to be discussed by ordinary persons imitating the activities of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
For critical students of mundane poetry and literary men without God consciousness who are after bodily sense gratification, there is no need to read such a high standard of transcendental literature.
Persons who are after sense gratification should not try to imitate raganuga devotional service.
In their songs, Candidasa, Vidyapati and Jayadeva have described the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Mundane reviewers of the songs of Vidyapati, Jayadeva and Candidasa simply help people in general become debauchees, and this leads only to social scandals and atheism in the world.
One should not misunderstand the pastimes of Radha and Krsna to be the activities of a mundane young boy and girl.
The mundane sexual activities of young boys and girls are most abominable.
Therefore, those who are in bodily consciousness and who desire sense gratification are forbidden to indulge in discussions of the transcendental pastimes of Sri Radha and Krsna.