CC Adi 13.42 (1975)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Below is the 1996 edition text, ready to be substituted with the 1975 one using the compile form.
TEXT 42
- vidyāpati, jayadeva, caṇḍīdāsera gīta
- āsvādena rāmānanda-svarūpa-sahita
SYNONYMS
vidyāpati—the author of the name Vidyāpati; jayadeva—Jayadeva; caṇḍīdāsera—Caṇḍīdāsa; gīta—their songs; āsvādena—tastes; rāmānanda—Rāmānanda; svarūpa—Svarūpa; sahita—along with.
TRANSLATION
The Lord used to read the books of Vidyāpati, Jayadeva and Caṇḍīdāsa, relishing their songs with His confidential associates like Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī.
PURPORT
Vidyāpati was a famous composer of songs about the pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. He was an inhabitant of Mithilā, born in a brāhmaṇa family. It is calculated that he composed his songs during the reign of King Śivasiṁha and Queen Lachimādevī, in the beginning of the fourteenth century of the Śaka Era, almost one hundred years before the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The twelfth generation of Vidyāpati’s descendants is still living. Vidyāpati’s songs about the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa express intense feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu relished all those songs in His ecstasy of separation from Kṛṣṇa.
Jayadeva was born during the reign of Mahārāja Lakṣmaṇa Sena of Bengal, in the eleventh or twelfth century of the Śaka Era. His father was Bhojadeva, and his mother was Vāmādevī. For many years he lived in Navadvīpa, then the capital of Bengal. His birthplace was in the Birbhum district, in the village Kendubilva. In the opinion of some authorities, however, he was born in Orissa, and still others say that he was born in southern India. He passed the last days of his life in Jagannātha Purī. One of his famous books is Gīta-govinda, which is full of transcendental mellow feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa. The gopīs felt separation from Kṛṣṇa before the rāsa dance, as mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and the Gīta-govinda expresses such feelings. There are many commentaries on the Gīta-govinda by many Vaiṣṇavas.
Caṇḍīdāsa was born in the village of Nānnura, which is also in the Birbhum district of Bengal. He was born of a brāhmaṇa family, and it is said that he also took birth in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Śakābda Era. It has been suggested that Caṇḍīdāsa and Vidyāpati were great friends because the writings of both express the transcendental feelings of separation profusely. The feelings of ecstasy described by Caṇḍīdāsa and Vidyāpati were actually exhibited by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He relished all those feelings in the role of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and His appropriate associates for this purpose were Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī. These intimate associates of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu helped the Lord very much in the pastimes in which He felt like Rādhārāṇī.
Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection that such feelings of separation as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu enjoyed from the books of Vidyāpati, Caṇḍīdāsa and Jayadeva are especially reserved for persons like Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Svarūpa Dāmodara, who were paramahaṁsas, men of the topmost perfection, because of their advanced spiritual consciousness. Such topics are not to be discussed by ordinary persons imitating the activities of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. For critical students of mundane poetry and literary men without God consciousness who are after bodily sense gratification, there is no need to read such a high standard of transcendental literature. Persons who are after sense gratification should not try to imitate rāgānuga devotional service. The songs of Caṇḍīdāsa, Vidyāpati and Jayadeva describe the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Mundane reviewers of these songs simply help people in general become debauchees, and this leads only to social scandals and atheism in the world. One should not misunderstand the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be the activities of a mundane young boy and girl. The mundane sexual activities of young boys and girls are most abominable. Therefore, those who are in bodily consciousness and who desire sense gratification are forbidden to indulge in discussions of the transcendental pastimes of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.