In the Caitanya-sampradaya, there is sometimes a demoniac misconception about the descent of Nityananda Prabhu. Nityananda Prabhu’s body is spiritual, but demoniac persons consider the body of the Supreme Personality to be material, just like ours. Avajananti mam mudhah: (Bg. 9.11) persons who have no intelligence deride the transcendental form of the Lord as material.
So, in the Middle Ages, after the disappearance of this great associate of Lord Caitanya, a class of priestly persons started claiming to be His descendants and calling themselves the gosvami caste. The first and foremost task of Srila Sarasvati Thakura was to excavate the holy birthplace of Lord Caitanya at Sridhama Mayapur in the district of Nadia in West Bengal, and in order to substantiate this preliminary act of His great future movement, Srila Sarasvati Thakura had to face tremendous difficulties offered by such caste gosvamis at Navadvipa, who even apprehended a lawyer in that initial movement in order to stop him from doing so.
These caste gosvamis were and still are exploiting the religious sentiments of the common people in the name of Lord Caitanya, and they present themselves as so-called relatives and descendants of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda. Factually, neither Lord Caitanya nor Lord Nityananda accept anyone as their relative or kinsmen if they are not devotees of the Lord. On the contrary, Lord Caitanya accepted Thakura Haridas, who happened to come out of a Mohammedan family, as the namacarya, the most powerful authority for preaching the sankirtana movement which Lord Caitanya inaugurated so arduously. Lord Caitanya wanted to re-establish the Vaisnava-dharma on the real basis of spiritualism, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita and in other authentic scriptures.
He never deprecated the natural caste system but He did not approve of the birth-right caste system, which has degenerated into a slut of anachronism. The caste gosvamis, assisted by the other pseudo-transcendentalists, made a clique to check the universal movement of Lord Caitanya by making a business out of false promises to dispatch their foolish followers to the kingdom of heaven after having drawn a lumpsum amount for their priestcraft hooliganism.
Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja wanted to check these pseudo-spiritualistic activities of the so-called followers of Lord Caitanya and present the actual understanding for the general public, religious folk, and modern philosophers so that they can critically study the sublime gift of Lord Caitanya. It was the honest belief of Srila Sarasvati Thakura that people in general, modern philosophers, thinkers, and the religious will be struck with wonder when they make a serious study of the gift of Lord Caitanya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu clearly said,
kiba sudra kiba vipra nyasi kene naya
yei krsna tattva vetta sei guru haya
“There is no consideration whether a man is a sannyasi, a brahmana, a sudra, or a grhastha. Anyone who knows the science of Krsna is a gosvami and a brahmana.” (Cc. Madhya 8.128)
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s contribution was that he defeated the caste gosvamis and the so-called brahmanas in the same way as Caitanya Mahaprabhu did at His time, and for this reason, he had to face so many vehement protests from the brahmana class gosvamis. They even conspired to kill him. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta confided: “These people wanted to kill me. They collected 25,000 rupees and went to the police officer in charge of that area and asked him, ‘Take these 25,000 rupees. We shall do something against Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, but don’t take any steps.’ The officer could understand that they wanted to kill me, but he frankly said, ‘Of course, we accept bribes and do indulge in such things, but not against a sadhu, not against a saintly person. I cannot dare do this.’ The officer refused and later came and warned me.”
From Bhaktivedanta, Chapter "Caste Gosvamis Defeated" TO BE RELEASED EARLY 2025!
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