Å›eá¹£a-lÄ«lÄya dhare nÄma 'Å›rÄ«-kṛṣṇa-caitanya'
Å›rÄ«-kṛṣṇa jÄnÄye saba viÅ›va kaila dhanya
Å›eá¹£a-lÄ«lÄya - in His final pastimes; dhare - He held; nÄma - the name; Å›rÄ«-kṛṣṇa-caitanya - ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa Caitanya; Å›rÄ«-kṛṣṇa - about Lord Kṛṣṇa; jÄnÄye - He taught; saba - all; viÅ›va - the world; kaila - made; dhanya - fortunate.
In His later pastimes He is known as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. He blesses the whole world by teaching about the name and fame of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
Lord Caitanya remained a householder only until His twenty-fourth year had passed. Then He entered the renounced order and remained manifest in this material world until His forty-eighth year. Therefore His Å›eá¹£a-lÄ«lÄ, or the final portion of His activities, lasted twenty-four years.
Some so-called Vaiṣṇavas say that the renounced order of life was not accepted in the Vaiṣṇava sampradÄya, or disciplic succession, until Lord Caitanya. This is not a very intelligent proposition. ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu took the sannyÄsa order from ÅšrÄ«pÄda KeÅ›ava BhÄratÄ«, who belonged to the Åšaá¹…kara sect, which approves of only ten names for sannyÄsÄ«s. Long before the advent of ÅšrÄ«pÄda Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya, however, the sannyÄsa order existed in the Vaiṣṇava line of Viṣṇu SvÄmÄ«. In the Viṣṇu SvÄmÄ« Vaiṣṇava sampradÄya, there are ten different kinds of sannyÄsa names and 108 different names for sannyÄsÄ«s who accept the tri-daṇá¸a, the triple staff of sannyÄsa. This is approved by the Vedic rules. Therefore Vaiṣṇava sannyÄsa was existent even before the appearance of Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya, although those who know nothing about Vaiṣṇava sannyÄsa unnecessarily declare that there is no sannyÄsa in the Vaiṣṇava sampradÄya.
During the time of Lord Caitanya, the influence of Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya in society was very strong. People thought that one could accept sannyÄsa only in the disciplic succession of Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya. Lord Caitanya could have performed His missionary activities as a householder, but He found householder life an obstruction to His mission. Therefore He decided to accept the renounced order, sannyÄsa. Since His acceptance of sannyÄsa was also designed to attract public attention, Lord Caitanya, not wishing to disturb the social convention, took the renounced order of life from a sannyÄsÄ« in the disciplic succession of Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya, although sannyÄsa was also sanctioned in the Vaiṣṇava sampradÄya.
In the Åšaá¹…kara-sampradÄya there are ten different names awarded to sannyÄsÄ«s: (1) TÄ«rtha, (2) Āśrama, (3) Vana, (4) Araṇya, (5) Giri, (6) Parvata, (7) SÄgara, (8) SarasvatÄ«, (9) BhÄratÄ« and (10) PurÄ«. Before one enters sannyÄsa, he has one of the various names for a brahmacÄrÄ«, the assistant to a sannyÄsÄ«. SannyÄsÄ«s with the titles TÄ«rtha and Āśrama generally stay at DvÄrakÄ, and their brahmacÄrÄ« name is SvarÅ«pa. Those known by the names Vana and Araṇya stay at Puruá¹£ottama, or JagannÄtha PurÄ«, and their brahmacÄrÄ« name is PrakÄÅ›a. Those with the names Giri, Parvata and SÄgara generally stay at BadarikÄÅ›rama, and their brahmacÄrÄ« name is Ä€nanda. Those with the titles SarasvatÄ«, BhÄratÄ« and PurÄ« usually live at ŚṛṅgerÄ« in South India, and their brahmacÄrÄ« name is Caitanya.
ÅšrÄ«pÄda Åšaá¹…karÄcÄrya established four monasteries in India, in the four directions (north, south, east and west), and he entrusted them to four sannyÄsÄ«s who were his disciples. Now there are hundreds of branch monasteries under these four principal monasteries, and although there is an official symmetry among them, there are many differences in their dealings. The four different sects of these monasteries are known as Ä€nandavÄra, BhogavÄra, KÄ«á¹avÄra and BhÅ«mivÄra, and in course of time they have developed different ideas and different slogans.
According to the regulation of the disciplic succession, one who wishes to enter the renounced order in Åšaá¹…kara’s sect must first be trained as a brahmacÄrÄ« under a bona fide sannyÄsÄ«, The brahmacÄrī’s name is ascertained according to the group to which the sannyÄsÄ« belongs. Lord Caitanya accepted sannyÄsa from KeÅ›ava BhÄratÄ«. When He first approached KeÅ›ava BhÄratÄ«, He was accepted as a brahmacÄrÄ« with the name ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa Caitanya BrahmacÄrÄ«. After He took sannyÄsa, He preferred to keep the name Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.
The great authorities in the disciplic succession had not offered to explain why Lord Caitanya refused to take the name BhÄratÄ« after He took sannyÄsa from a BhÄratÄ«, until ÅšrÄ«la BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« GosvÄmÄ« MahÄrÄja volunteered the explanation that because a sannyÄsÄ« in the Åšaá¹…kara-sampradÄya thinks that he has become the Supreme, Lord Caitanya, wanting to avoid such a misconception, kept the name ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, placing Himself as an eternal servitor. A brahmacÄrÄ« is supposed to serve the spiritual master; therefore He did not negate that relationship of servitude to His spiritual master. Accepting such a position is favorable for the relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master.
The authentic biographies also mention that Lord Caitanya accepted the daṇá¸a (rod) and begging pot, symbolic of the sannyÄsa order, at the time He took sannyÄsa.
