7.33
eta bali’ mane kichu kariya vicara
sannyasa-asrama prabhu kaila angikara
SYNONYMS
eta bali’-saying this; mane—within the mind; kichu—something; kariya—doing; vicara—consideration; sannyasa-asrama—the renounced order of life; prabhu—the Lord; kaila—did; angikara—accept.
Thus the Lord accepted the sannyasa order of life after full consideration.
PURPORT
There was no need for Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to accept sannyasa, for He is God Himself and therefore has nothing to do with the material bodily concept of life.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not identify Himself with any of the eight varnas and asramas, namely, brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa.
He identified Himself as the Supreme Spirit.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, or for that matter any pure devotee, never identifies with these social and spiritual divisions of life, for a devotee is always transcendental to these different gradations of society.
Nevertheless, Lord Caitanya decided to accept sannyasa on the grounds that when He became a sannyasi everyone would show Him respect and in that way be favored.
Although there was actually no need for Him to accept sannyasa, He did so for the benefit of those who might think Him an ordinary human being.
The main purpose of His accepting sannyasa was to deliver the Mayavadi sannyasis.
This will be evident later in this chapter.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has explained the term “Mayavadi” as follows: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to the material conception of life.
A Mayavadi is one who considers the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna to be made of maya and who also considers the abode of the Lord and the process of approaching Him, devotional service, to be maya.
The Mayavadi considers all the paraphernalia of devotional service to be maya.” Maya refers to material existence, which is characterized by the reactions of fruitive activities.
Mayavadis consider devotional service to be among such fruitive activities.
According to them, when bhagavatas (devotees) are purified by philosophical speculation, they will come to the real point of liberation.
Those who speculate in this way regarding devotional service are called kutarkikas (false logicians), and those who consider devotional service to be fruitive activity are also called karma-nisthas.
Those who criticize devotional service are called nindakas (blasphemers).
Similarly, nondevotees who consider devotional activities to be material are also called pasandis, and scholars with a similar viewpoint are called adhama paduyas.
The kutarkikas, nindakas, pasandis and adhama paduyas all avoided the benefit of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement of developing love of Godhead.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu felt compassion for them, and it is for this reason that He decided to accept the sannyasa order, for by seeing Him as a sannyasi they would offer Him respects.
The sannyasa order is still respected in India.
Indeed, the very dress of a sannyasi still commands respect from the Indian public.
Therefore Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyasa to facilitate preaching His devotional cult, although otherwise He had no need to accept the fourth order of spiritual life.