Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

and give reports about messages received, including secrets to be revealed at appropriate times by specially chosen priests.

The Bible gives records of appearances of God on earth in periods from perhaps 6,000 to 2,000 years ago. But the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition of India records such appearances as recently as the fifteenth century. According to Gaudiya Vaishnava historical records, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who appeared at Mayapur, West Bengal, in 1486, was an avatar , a descent of the Godhead to the earthly plane of existence. He disappeared from this world in 1534. Among the contemporaries of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Europe were Magellan (1480–1521), Copernicus (1473–

1543), da Vinci (1452–1519), Columbus (1451–1506), and other figures of the early modern period. India itself was at this time recognized as a prosperous land, with a reputation for learning in philosophy and the sciences. Biographical accounts recognizing the divinity of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became classics of Bengali literature. For the sketch of his life that follows, my main source is the Chaitanya Charitamrita, by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, who lived in the sixteenth century. He composed this work shortly after the departure of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from this world. One thing that is quickly apparent from this biography is that Gaudiya Vaishnavas were cautious in accepting the divinity of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, basing their judgement upon a combination of scriptural evidence predicting his appearance, displays of superhuman powers, and experimental tests of his symptoms.

One of the predictions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance can be found in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, sometimes called the Bhagavata Purana. In the fifth chapter of the eleventh canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, the great sage Narada Muni tells Vasudeva the identity of the principal avatar worshiped in each of the four ages ( yugas ) in the Vedic yuga cycle (Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga). Having described the avatars for the first three yugas, Narada Muni then described the avatar for the fourth. Because Narada Muni was speaking at the end of the third yuga, his statements about the fourth avatar, the one for the Kali Yuga, were therefore predictive. According to the Shrimad Bhagavatam itself, the text itself was composed five thousand years ago. And even modern scholars, who attribute a younger age to the work, say it is at least one thousand years old. Either way, the descriptions of the fourth avatar predate the appearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Narada Muni said: “In Kali-yuga also people worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead by following various regulations of the revealed scriptures. Now kindly hear of this from me. In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krishna” ( Shrimad Bhagavatam 11.5.31–32). When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was present, he traveled widely all over India, chanting the names of Krishna in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Millions of people joined him in this congregational chanting.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that this chanting would spread to every town and village in the world, and within recent times, this prediction has come true. In 1965, my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a guru in the line of succession coming from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, came by sea from India to New York, and began to introduce the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra worldwide, in fulfillment of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction. And now the chanting can be seen and heard in the streets of cities and villages everywhere.

The birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was preceded by announcing dreams. His father Jagannatha Mishra told his wife Sachi Devi, “In a dream I saw the effulgent abode of the Lord enter my heart. From my heart it entered your heart. I therefore understand that a great personality will soon take birth” ( Chaitanya Charitamrita, adi-lila 13.84–85). The birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu coincided with a lunar eclipse. According to custom, during a lunar eclipse Vaishnava Hindus take baths in sacred rivers like the Ganges while loudly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Thus at the moment of Lord Chaitanya’s birth, in Navadvipa, West Bengal, on the banks of the Ganges, the atmosphere was filled with the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, giving a prophetic glimpse of his future mission. The horoscope of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu confirmed that he was a great godlike personality who would deliver humankind from the miseries of existence in the material world. His feet, hands, and body also displayed an auspicious combination of features and marks indicating he was an incarnation of the Personality of Godhead.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent his first twenty-four years in Navadvipa, performing many miracles. Then he became a sannyasi, a member of the renounced spiritual order of life. Sannyasis take a lifelong vow of celibacy, and travel widely to give their spiritual teachings. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first went to the home of one of his chief associates, Advaita Prabhu. There he showed Advaita Prabhu his universal form, thus confirming his status as an incarnation of the Personality of Godhead ( Chaitanya Charitamrita, madhya-lila 17.10). The universal form is an awe inspiring display whereby all of the planets and celestial bodies become present in the form of the incarnation, which becomes simultaneously present in all of them.

Afterwards, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu journeyed to the sacred city of Jagannatha Puri, in the state of Orissa. Upon arriving, he entered the famous temple of Jagannatha, a form of Vishnu, and, displaying signs of spiritual ecstasies, fainted when he saw the altar deity. The temple guards were used to seeing pilgrims imitate ecstatic symptoms, in hopes of passing themselves off as incarnations of God. Thinking that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was another such imposter, they came forward to expel him from the temple. But they were stopped by Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, one of the leading teachers of Jagannatha Puri. He sensed that sannyasi lying on the floor might not be the usual kind of fake.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada comments in his introduction to his Shrimad Bhagavatam translation and commentary: “Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who was the chief appointed pandit in the court of the King of Orissa, Maharaja Prataparudra . . . could understand that such a transcendental trance was only rarely exhibited. . . . The Lord was at once carried to the home of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who at that time had sufficient power of authority due to his being the sabha-pandita , or the state dean of faculty in Sanskrit literatures. The learned pandita wanted to scrutinizingly test the transcendental feats of Lord Caitanya because often unscrupulous devotees imitate physical feats in order to flaunt transcendental achievements just to attract innocent people and take advantage of them. A learned scholar like the Bhattacarya can detect such imposters, and when he finds them out he at once rejects them. In the case of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Bhattacarya tested all the symptoms in the light of the shastras [Sanskrit literatures]. He tested as a scientist, not as a foolish sentimentalist. He observed the movement of the stomach, the beating of the heart and the breathing of the nostrils. He also felt the pulse of the Lord and saw that all His bodily activities were in complete suspension. . . . Thus he came to know that the Lord’s unconscious trance was genuine, and he began to treat Him in the prescribed fashion.”