Guru Nanak and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu

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Guru Nanak and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu BY: SUN STAFF Guru Nanak enroute to Jagannatha Puri Dham Jun 15, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation on Guru Nanak's role in the Bhakti Movement, and his Caitanya-lila pastimes. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the citizens of Bharat were besieged by foreign intruders, from the Delhi Sultanate to the Mughal courts of Babur and Humayun. During the same period, however, many great leaders of the Bhakti Movement appeared, by Krsna's arrangement, including the Lord Himself. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared at Navadvipa, in the Nadia district of West Bengal, on a full moon night in 1486 A.D., thus disturbing the inexorable spread of Kali's agents of misery. Along with countless Gaudiya Vaisnava luminaries who are well known to the devotees, some of the other leading Bhakta figures of the time were Tulsidas, Kabir, Meerabai, Chandidas and Vidyapati, Tukaram, Ramdas, Surdas, and Guru Nanak. It is the last -- Guru Nanak Dev, whose association with Caitanya Mahaprabhu and activities in the Bhakti society is the subject of this brief series. Although the two were contemporaries, Guru Nanak was older than Sri Mahaprabhu by 16 years, and he departed five years after the Disappearance of Lord Chaitanya. During his lifetime, Nanak Dev sought a middle path, of sorts, that served both the political, social and spiritual needs of his mission. We say 'middle path', because Nanak sought to avoid the strictures of both the established Hindu and Muslim systems of religion. Nonetheless, the sastra he preached, Guru Granth Sahib, is full of references to Krishna (Har Krishen), Gobind (Govinda), Gopal and Ram. Some pandits suggest that Guru Nanak's philosophy was not much different than Sri Chaitanya's acintya-bhedda-bhedda-tattva, in that God is both formless and has Form, nirgun and sagun. Other Vaisnavas, however, conclude that Guru Nanak was simply preaching Mayavada philosophy.   Painting of Guru Nanak at Gurdwara Baoli Sahib, Jagannath Puri, Orissa. A great deal of Guru Nanak's lifetime was spent traveling the length and breadth of India. Over 25 years, he went from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Among his most famous pada-tirtha stops was the one at Jagannatha Puri Dham, when he had the great fortune to meet Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There are several stories told about their meeting, including this one by Gaudiya Matha swami, HH Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami: "Nanak was invited to visit the temple at the time of Arati in the evening. When the arati started, Guru Nanak stood silent, not participating. Later when asked why, he said, this was not homage enough to the glory and wonder of the Lord of the Universe, to whom Nature paid a far more sublime tribute. In reply, he sang verses which remain immortal for their exquisite mystic poetry: "In the salver of the sky The Sun and Moon shine like lamps, The galaxy of stars are scattered like pearls; The chandan-scented winds waft as Thine incense, The forests are Thy flowers. (Thus) is Thy arati performed, O, Thou Destroyer of fear!" According to the written records of Ishvar Das, one of Mahaprabhu's intimate associates in Puri Dham, Sir Chaitanya and Guru Nanak spent some time together in Puri. This pastime is recorded in the Chaitanya Bhagbat written by Ishvar Das in Oriyan, in the 17th Century. Ishvar Das appears to have been the only one to record this meeting, which was brief and may only have been known to the eyewitnesses. Chaitanya Bhagavat, Adhyaya 61 states: Srinibasaye Viswambhara Kirtan madyare vihar Nanak Saranga ye dui Rupa Sanatana duibhai Jagai Madhai ekatra Kirtan Karanti Nritya "In the congregational singing led by Shri Chaitanya in Nagar Purushottama (Puri dham), Nanak and Saranga (another name for Mardana who played the sarangi), the two bothers Rupa and Sanatana along with Jagai and Madhai also joined in. Gopal Guru, for whom Guru Nanak had deep affection, was there as well, along with Nityananda Prabhu, who was considered an incarnation of Balarama. They all relished the kirtan at Jagannath Puri." The Sun News Editorials Features Sun Blogs Classifieds Events Recipes PodCasts About Submit an Article Contact Us Advertise HareKrsna.com Copyright 2005, 2012, HareKrsna.com. All rights reserved.

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Guru Nanak and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Part 2

BY: SUN STAFF

Nityananda Prabhu and Nanak Dev

Jun 16, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation on Guru Nanak's role in the Bhakti Movement, and his Caitanya-lila pastimes.

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is known to have traveled extensively throughout India, and one of his most famous trips took him to Jagannatha Puri. He went there with two of his disciples, Bala and Manda. Bala was a Hindu while Manda was Muslim. The three stayed in Puri Dham for some days.

One of the pastimes said to have taken place at Puri occurred when one of Nanak's disciples dug a hole in the sea beach in search of potable water for the use of their Guru. Sweet water is said to have sprung forth, therefore the place was considered holy and it was subsequently converted into a well. A Gurudwara called Bauli Saheb was eventually built nearby in memory of Guru Nanak. Today it is a pilgrimage site for Sikhs, who visit Baulimath to hear from the Guru Grantha Sahib (sastra) installed there.

There is another well known story about Guru Nanak's time in Puri Dhama -- this one involving Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. As Guru Nanak was entering the temple of Lord Jagannath, he met Sri Chaitanya, who was just then leaving the temple. Both offered pranams to one other. But Guru Nanak then turned and started to leave the temple, instead of proceeding inside. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu inquired why he was not going inside to have darshan, and Nanak replied, "I have already seen the Lord".

According to Dr. Durgadas Basu, a National Research Professor and Padma bhushan, Guru Nanak was given mantra diksa by none other than Prabhu Nityananda. This is said to have taken place while Nityananda was traveling through Bangladesh (Bengal). Guru Nanak's status as a mantra shishya of Nityananda is recorded in his autobiography.

In the final chapter of the Guru Grantha Sahib, while elaborating the greatness and glory of the holy ‘Naam', we read:

"Swasi grasi harinam samali
Simar bus vishwambhar ak"

"In order to attain salvation, one must chant the holy name of Ram, Hari or Vishwambhar."

Asked about Sikh-dharma, Srila Prabhupada answered:

"Guru Nanak, he chanted the name, holy name of Rama, the holy name of Krsna, Govinda. So if we follow Guru Nanak, we are fortunate. Anyone who presents a science of God, it doesn't matter whether he is this man or that man; he is our guru."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 03-02-75, Atlanta)

The basic tenets of Nanak's Sikh religion reflect the time and place circumstances of its development. Essentially, the Sikhs believe that there is only one God, who is the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer. They say God cannot take human form. The goal of human life is to break the cycle of birth and death and merge with God. This can be accomplished by following the teachings of the Guru, meditation on the Holy Name and performance of acts of service and charity. The five cardinal vices are; kam (lust), krodh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (worldly attachment) and ahankar (pride).

Narm marg emphasizes daily devotion to the remembrance of God. However, Sikhs reject rituals, which includes fasting, vegetarianism, pilgrimage and yoga, as idol worship. Family life (grasth) is encouraged, and celibacy or renunciation is not. The Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib is the perpetual Guru, and there is no place in Sikhism for a living Guru today.

In his lecture on Bhagavad-gita (Montreal June 13, 1968), Srila Prabhupada stated:

"Similarly, in the temple of Guru-dvaras, Sikhs... (break) ...like the Hindus. And they also offer flower, fruits, and sweetmeat, but they read their Granthasahib. As we are reading Bhagavad-gita they read Granthasahib enunciated by Guru Nanak. So this temple worship or accepting some authority, either you accept Krsna or you accept Lord Jesus Christ or Jehovah or Lord Buddha or Guru Nanak, that is a different, I mean to say, kinds of faith, but this acceptance of authority is there in everywhere. Now who is the highest authority, that we have to see by understanding Vedic literature, by our arguments, by our sense, by our understanding. But this acceptance of authority is there."

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In a 2008 article for Sangai Express Dr. Dwijendra Narayan Goswami described Guru Nanak's travels through northeastern India and into Manipur, and his meeting with Lord Chaitanya in Jagannath Puri. He states that it is recorded that Guru Nanak met Sri Chaitanya Deva at Puri and sang dohas (bhajans) and danced with Him. This is narrated in the Chaitanya Bhagabat of Iswara dasa, an Oriyan devotee of Sri Chaitanya that:

Sri Nibas O Biswambhar kirtana madheya beteare
Jagai Madhi ekatra karanti a nritya
"Nagar Purusotham and dasa Jangali nandini tapasa
Nanak Sahitegahen Gropal Guru sanga tena
sangeta matta Balaram bbihar Nilgiri dham.

Here saranga means Mardana, who used to play a sharengi with the songs of the Guru, and Matta Balaram means Prabhu Nityananda, who is the incarnation of Lord Balarama of Dwarpar age. Chaitanya Deva came to Puri in 1431 A.D. saka in the month of Falgoon, or first week of Caitra. If he had gone there after 8th Caitra then the saka would be changed to 1432.

According to Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak visited Puri in the Bikrami year 1566, which falls within the period of April 1509 to March 1510. 1431 saka year corresponds to 1509 AD. The 15th or 16th of March is the corresponding date of 1st Caitra. This supports the historical record of the meeting between Sri Chaitanya and Nanak Dev at Jagannath Puri.

In a paper entitled Guru Nanak in Oriya Sources, author Raghubir Singh Tak describes an Oriyan palm leaf manuscript preserved in the Jagannath Temple Museum, which documents the point in history when Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Guru Nanak were visiting the holy dhama at Puri Jagannath at the same time, along with other associates. Raghubir Singh Tak, formerly a Professor in the Department of Guru Nanak Studies, GNDU, describes the manuscript:

"There is an entrenched tradition in Sikh religion that Guru Nanak during his sojourns visited Jagan Nath Puri and recited Arti- ‘Gagan main thai ravi chand deepak bane..: enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (pp. 13, 363) . In this paper, I shall try to present some rare and valuable Oriya Source material hitherto not very much known but significant for Guru Nanak's visit to Jagan Nath Puri in particular and Orissa in general.

Bhakta Panchak (Five Saints):

It is the title of a Palmleaf Oriya manuscript (No. 143), preserved in the Jagannath Temple Museum, Jagannath Puri. According to Sri Sada Shiv Rath Sharma, the Curator of the Museum, the author of the manuscript was Jasobant Das of Sisu Math, Puri. He is said to have been a contemporary of Raja Pratap Rudra Deo, who reigned over Orissa from 1504 to 1534 A.D.

The manuscript. written (engraved) in Oriya script, contains description of the five saints: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Jagan Nath Das, Achuta Nand Das, Nanak Acharya and Sisuant Das. The size of the palmleaf is just that of a foot rule. Each page of the palmleaf manuscript contains five verse lines. The manuscript was copied by Sri Madhu Sudan Das in 1807 A.D. from an old manuscript. The opening lines of manuscript on page 14, dealing with Guru Nanak, are as under:

"I shall tell the life account of bhakta. In the north, there was a Guru named Nanak, whose miraculous life account I will propound that will fascinate the heart of bhaktas. The theme of the portion dealing with Guru Nanak's visit read out by Sri Sada Shiv Rath Sharma is as under:

During the 13th year of the reign of Raja Pratap Rudra Deo of Puri, on Bhadon Shukla Ekadashi sal 924 (Oriya year), Guru Nanak along with Mardana and fourteen other sanyasis arrived in the morning at Puri to visit Jagan Nath temple. From Guru Nanak's dress (detailed in the manuscript) he was mistook for a khaleefa (Caliph) and was not permitted to enter the premises of the temple. One of the sanyasis explained that Guru Nanak was the same person who had shown/kautak (miracles) at Kaliaboda (Cuttack). Guru Nanak, along with the sanyasis, went near the seashore and started reciting bhajans (devotional songs), as per his wont.

The king of Puri in his dream saw Lord Jagan Nath telling him not to perform any rituals and ceremonies in the temple (of Lord Jagan Nath) when He (Lord Jagan Nath) goes (in the morning and evening) to hear /katha, bhajan (devotional service) of a saint (Guru Nanak) on Swarga Dwar near Pitri Stambh. On enquiry, it was found that there had been some disruptions in the daily performance of rituals in the temple. The king went to pay homage to Guru Nanak and saw, to his great surprise, that Lord Jagan Nath, Balram and Subhadra were standing there, while bhajans were being recited. The king tendered his apology to Guru Nanak, presented him clothes and ornaments and took him to the temple of Lord Jagan Nath in a royal procession along with a band.

After visiting the temple, Guru Nanak sat near a banyan tree just opposite the temple, where now stands Mangu Math. Guru Nanak, while delivering his sermon, raised his palm vertically and the king saw the image of Lord Jagan Nath on the palm (the flags of Mangu Math and Bauli Math still bear the insignia of a white palm on their red flags). Guru Nanak was given a royal send off when after a stay for 24 days, he left Puri along with the sanyasis. The king of Puri and other persons accompanied him (Guru Nanak) to Chandi Nala (a place at a distance of about 23 Miles from Puri) on Jagannath road and bade him an impressive farewell.

Sri Chaitanya Bhagwata

It is an Oriya manuscript written by Sri Ishwar Das. It was donated by Prachi Samiti, Cuttack to Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar. The manuscript was edited by Rai Bahadur Arthabaltaba Mohanty and published by the University in 1953. The author does not provide any date of his work. However, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhaya deems it as a work of sixteenth century, whereas Bimanbehari Majumdar is of the opinion that the work is of eighteenth century.

Sri Chaitanya Bhagwata is a detailed biographical account of Sri Chaitanya (1485-1533 A.D.) but no incident of his life is dated; The book contains as many as five references to Guru Nanak on pages 268, 279-80, 382-83, 405-9 and 429."

Both Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Swami (mentioned in our first segment and Raghubir Singh Tak, in his Guru Nanak in Oriya Sources article, which describes the Oriyan palm leaf manuscript narrating Lord Caitanya and Guru Nanak's visit to Puri, make reference to the statements found in Ishwar Das's Chaitanya Bhagavata.

Bhakti Sravan Tirtha notes that Ishvar Das was a close associate of Mahaprabhu's in Puri, and is thought to have been the only biographer to write about the event of the Lord's meeting with Guru Nanak, so it's not surprising that these Bhagavata references are frequently mentioned in narrations about Lord Caitanya and Nanak Dev in Puri. However, some Gaudiya Vaisnavas believe Ishvar Das to be in an apasampradaya, and his Chaitanya Bhagavata to be unbonafide literature. This is evidenced by the fact that his Oriyan Bhagavata states that Lord Caitanya is an incarnation of the Buddha.

Over the years, we have featured many articles in the Sun about the Orissan amalgamation of Buddha/Jagannath worship, which attempted to codify Buddhism by associating it with Lord Visnu and His Dasavatar incarnations. In fact, that debate is actively going on today, as recently report by our Sun Correspondent in Puri: "Jagannatha Among Dasavatar? Puri Priests Unhappy".

So while it is interesting to read narrations by the Orissan Vaisnavas as to the great historical events surrounding Lord Caitanya's visit to Jagannatha Puri, and Guru Nanak's simultaneous visit there, the reader should proceed with caution in accepting such narrations as fact.