The Hindu : Chaitanya lays stress on 'Sankeertan'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Chaitanya lays stress on 'Sankeertan'

CHENNAI MARCH 25. "Prayer" and "devotion" have been the watchwords of saints and seers to beckon people away from the path of misery, anguish, distrust and hate and lead us on the path of understanding. They themselves, in their appeal to God, have wished for the happiness of entire mankind. Their thoughts, philosophy and vision are eternally valid. All of them have been responsible, each in his own way in making the country great and sacred by living therein a dedicated life of absolute purity. We, in the modern day, derive light and peace from the examples they have left and have hopes for betterment. It may not be possible all of a sudden to switch over to righteous path overnight. But devotion to God will surely take a person towards the goal and as he progresses evil habits will themselves drop off.

In the Uddhava Gita, Lord Krishna states that as fire kindles into a blaze, burns the faggots to ashes, devotion to Him consumes all evil, purifies even the lowliest and purges the sinner of all his base thoughts. One of our saints has emphasised the value of reciting God's names. Each repetition carries a devotee nearer and nearer to the Almighty. The purpose of spiritual culture has always been to refine man. All the saints derived their strength, not because they were physically big sized, economically wealthy or politically powerful, but because they were human, loved the entire mankind and tried to raise them from ignorance, narrowness and moral depravity. This is the cultural adventure of man and the life of one such torchbearer instils in us a hope and provides inspiration. That was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, whose Jayanthi was celebrated last week.

He was born in Bengal in February 1486 AD. A transformation took place in him at the age of 18 after a visit to Gaya and he became filled with a deep and passionate love for Lord Krishna and at the age of 24 he took to "Sanyas". He toured all over India and spent the latter part of his life at Puri at the feet of Lord Jagannath, explained Sri Lalith Krishna in a lecture. He brought about a great revival of the Bhakti cult through the power of chanting and singing (called Sankeertan). He was the greatest exponent of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the school that teaches man to attain salvation through the path of devotion.

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