[Advaita-l] Sri Krishna Chaitnya and Tat Tvam Asi

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

 Hare Krishna. I am working on an article on Mayavadam Asat Sastram. One of
my positions is that Sri Krishna Chaitanya is a Sankaracharya because


   1. He took mantra diksha from Isvara Puri
   2. He took sannyasa diksha from Kesava Bharati
   3. He shaved his head and removed the thread  (in addition to textual
   evidence also found an ancient painting that proves this)
   4. He subscribed to Sridhara Swami's commentary on Bhagavatam
   5. The opposition to Advaitam seems to be more of a later day
   development.
   6. Madhusudana Saraswati, a contemporary of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, who
   took the pains to critique the works of Sri Vaishnava and Madhwa traditions
   did not criticize his works

However, the gaudiya counter to #2 is that He, as Krishna, initiated Kesva
Bharathi in to Vaishnavism and then accepted him as a guru! The evidence
for this counter is that Murari Gupta, who wrote a diary of Sri Krishna
Chaitanya's activities during his time mentions that the maha-valkya was
not accepted in the advaita sense but in the vaishnava sense.

>From Murari Gupta's Notes:

tatah kiyad dine praha / bhagavan karyya-manuah  svapne dto maya kashcid /
agatya brahmanottamah

tatah - then; kiyat dine - after a few days; praha - He said; bhagavan -
the Lord; karya-manuah - the duties of a man; svapne - in a dream; dta -
seen; maya - by Me; kashcit - a certain; agatya - coming; brahmana-uttamah
- elevated brahmana.

After a few days, Bhagavan, who had accepted the duties of a human being,
said, "In a dream, I saw a certain exalted brahmana come to Me.

sannyasa-mantra mat-karne / kathayam asa su-smitah
tat shrutva vyathito ratrau / diva caha virodimi 2
sannyasa-mantram - the mantra for acceptance of sannyasa; mat-karne - in my
ear; kathayam asa - he spoke; su-smitah - nicely smiling; tat - that;
shrutva - hearing; vyathita - troubled; ratrau - at night; diva - by day;
ca - and; aham virodimi - I weep.
"Brightly smiling, he spoke the sannyasa mantra into My ear. After hearing
it I became troubled, and thus I weep by day and night.

katha priya hari natha / tyaktvanyad ucita mama
murarih praha tat shrutva / tan-mantre bhagavan svayam 3
ati-samasa manasa / vicintya tva sukhi bhava 4
katham - how; priyam - dear; harim - Hari; natham - Lord; tyaktva - having
given up; anyat - other; ucitam - suitable; mama - My; murarih - the enemy
of Mura; praha - said; tat - that; shrutva - hearing; tat-mantre - in the
sannyasa mantra, tat tvam asi; bhagavan - O Lord; svayam - by spontaneous
nature; ati-samasam - the sixth form of samasa (joining of nouns in
Sanskrit grammar) in this case referring to the Mayavada sannyasa-mantra,
tat tvam asi); manasa - in mind; vicintya - pondering; tvam - You; sukhi -
happy; bhava - be.
"How can I abandon Shri Hari, the Lord of My life? No one else is suitable
for Me?" Hearing this, Murari replied, "He Bhagavan, You are Yourself the
original Supreme Lord, You can contemplate the sannyasa-mantra - `tat tvam
asi' - in terms of the sixth form of Sanskrit compound words. Thus the
meaning will become, `You are His (Krishna's),' Be happy!"