Introduction

Those who have read Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta freely admit that there is no other book in the Bengali language which is full of bhakti and tattva. Such an unparalleled book absolutely requires a commentary in the colloquial language. All the ślokas quoted in this exceptional work have been commented on and translated by previous mahājanas. My friend, the best of paṇḍitas, Śrī Jagadīśvara Gupta Mahāśaya has published this book with a commentary and translation. The friend of the Vaiṣṇavas and best of paṇḍitas, Śrīyuta Rāma Nārāyaṇa Vidyāratna Mahāśaya has provided an extensive translation of this book. A few intellectuals of Ambikā-Kālnā have come together and published a kind of commentary on this work. My godbrother Śrīyuta Paṇḍita Mākhana Lāla Dāsa Mahāśaya has published some portions of this book. After reading all those commentaries and translations, the assembly of scholars has ordered me to write another commentary on this book, and receiving the order of the Vaiṣṇava I am composing this commentary in the vernacular.

I did not wish to enlarge this unnecessarily by giving a Sanskrit commentary on the Sanskrit ślokas within this simple book. It is not difficult for the readers to understand the ślokas if they have a Bengali commentary. Those who only wish to savor the Sanskrit scholarship of the commentary on the ślokas can study commentaries such as the Sandarbhas on the Śrīmad Bhāgavata. If one interprets every śloka of Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī, the book will increase unnecessarily. Only obscure verses (as simple as they are) can be explained so briefly. The unfortunate thing is that if there is no thorough teaching of that śāstra for the common man, no matter how simply it is written, it will not be easily understood. In the last section of this commentary, difficult words used by Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī are explained. All those ślokas in which those who identify themselves as rasikas such as the sahajiyās, bāulas etc. abandon the main meaning of the śloka and express a distorted meaning through secondary meanings, I have given the necessary correct explanations to those verses there. Places where there is some connection to tattva-śāstras such as the Vedānta etc, with the rasa-trantras which have been presented by Śrīpāda Kavirāja Gosvāmi are shown briefly.

My appeal to the readers is that they do not read this unparalleled work as some ordinary poetry or history. Read this great book as carefully as one would read the Vedānta-śāstra and rasa-śāstra with a true guru. Nowadays, many people have an overestimation of their own knowledge without reading anything, and some become proud paṇḍitas by accepting the explanations of scholars without doing any research themselves. To study this book in an impartial way, one must give up all these faults. In this book, pure bhakti-tattva based upon vedānta-śāstra and rasa-śāstra is shown within the description of Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s character. This work has no connection with the wicked philosophy of māyāvāda and the perverted beliefs propagated by the sahajiyās and bāulas. Gentlemen should read this book fully believing and remembering this point.

vaiṣṇava-jana-kiṅkara
(A servant of the Vaiṣṇavas)

Śrī Kedaranātha Bhaktivinoda