BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 4432 i] es instead of singing and reciting the name of God, one day sang. “Praises to you O Chaitanya’’—and — Chaitanya heard it, he stopped the singing, _and asked the party to retire for the night. Such ‘instances are numerous in his several biographies. But when in one of his trances he would lose all consciousness of the outer-world and picture- like or like a figure sculptured in fine clay, would Sean on the shoulders of a comrade, his eyes over flowing with unconscious tears—wide-open yet not ‘cognizant of this phenomenal world—a celestial joy ‘beaming out of his countenance that spoke of the soul enjoying divine communion within, he was some- times heard to murmur “I am He.” The mystic words were cought by his followers who based their faith on them. But when reminded of this on return of his consciousness, he denied all knowledge of such unholy utterance, cried for forgiveness in remorse and said that he was a great Sinner. The fact of this utterance coming from his lips during occasional fits of unconsciousness is related in Chaitanya Bhagbata and other works which were written many years after Chaitanya Deva had pased away, and we all know how fertile | is the Indian soil for the growth of wild stories }about saintly characters whom, it is to the advan- tage of their followers to deify. In the contem- porary records left by Govinda Das, whom we con- sider to be one of the most authentic biographers ০ Chaitanya, no reference is made to any such utterances, though he describes Chaitanya Deva’'s _eestacies more often that any other biographer. It
is for such omissions and for the rational view of the matters which he took, that orthodox Vaisnavas | | | v |
