8.39
manusye racite nare aiche grantha dhanya
vrndavana-dasa-mukhe vakta sri-caitanya
SYNONYMS
manusye—a human being; racite—compiled; nare—cannot; aiche—such; grantha—book; dhanya—so glorious; vrndavana-dasa—the author, Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura; mukhe—from his mouth; vakta—speaker; sri-caitanya—Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The subject matter of this book is so sublime that it appears that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has personally spoken through the writings of Sri Vrndavana dasa Thakura.
PURPORT
Srila Sanatana Gosvami has written in his Hari-bhakti-vilasa:
avaisnava-mukhodgirnam
putam hari-kathamrtam
sravanam naiva kartavyam
sarpocchistam yatha payah Transcendental literature that strictly follows the Vedic principles and the conclusion of the Puranas and pancaratrika-vidhi can be written only by a pure devotee.
It is not possible for a common man to write books on bhakti, for his writings will not be effective.
He may be a very great scholar and expert in presenting literature in flowery language, but this is not at all helpful in understanding transcendental literature.
Even if transcendental literature is written in faulty language, it is acceptable if it is written by a devotee, whereas so-called transcendental literature written by a mundane scholar, even if it is a very highly polished literary presentation, cannot be accepted.
The secret in a devotee’s writing is that when he writes about the pastimes of the Lord, the Lord helps him; he does not write himself.
As stated in the Bhagavad-gita (10.10), dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te.
Since a devotee writes in service to the Lord, the Lord from within gives him so much intelligence that he sits down near the Lord and goes on writing books.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami confirms that what Vrndavana dasa Thakura wrote was actually spoken by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and he simply repeated it.
The same holds true for Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.
Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami wrote Sri Caitanya-caritamrta in his old age, in an invalid condition, but it is such a sublime scripture that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja used to say, “The time will come when the people of the world will learn Bengali to read Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.” We are trying to present Sri Caitanya-caritamrta in English and do not know how successful it will be, but if one reads the original Caitanya-caritamrta in Bengali he will relish increasing ecstasy in devotional service.