What is the basis of the authenticity of those Chaitanya Charitamrita teachings that are not present in the Vedic scriptures?

Transcript

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Question, what is the authenticity of the many pastimes and philosophical points told in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, especially about things which are not told in the Vedic literature, which are told in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit? Answer, when one light is switched on then the whole room gets illumined. So the understanding that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is incarnation of the Lord is foundational for us as Gaudiya Vaishnavas and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s incarnation is mentioned in the Vedic scriptures and elsewhere I have given a PPT with a list of quotes from 24 different scriptures about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s incarnation.
So now the point to understand is that whenever an incarnation comes, that incarnation has his own pastimes. So it is not that all the pastimes of that incarnation will be described in the scripture that came before that pastime, before that incarnation appeared. The incarnation is described in the scriptures but when the incarnation comes the pastimes are performed and that time many more pastimes are revealed.
So they are revealed and they are also written down thereafter. So we have to also understand that scripture is not just a static text of books that were written some thousands of years ago. Yes it is that but scripture is also a living tradition and especially when the Lord manifests himself then that Lord who is the source of the is here.
Therefore naturally there will be revelations that will come. So our focus has to be on understanding how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s incarnation and how he will be performing pastimes and naturally those pastimes will be written down. So whenever the Lord comes this is what generally happens.
Now what about the, so the Lord’s pastimes naturally will be there which will be written after he comes along, many pastimes at least and then beyond that what about the philosophy? Now if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as I said is himself God and when he appears he reveals the same Vedic scriptures but he reveals a richer deeper understanding of those Vedic scriptures. So now Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during his time had discussions with the most prominent scholars Sarovam Bhattacharya, Prakashanand Saraswati, they were extremely respected scholars in their times and Sarovam Bhattacharya was one of the prominent proponents of Navanya system of logic which has which has had ramifications for centuries and centuries together. Similarly Prakashanand Saraswati was the leader of the Mayavadhyan.
Even before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyas or manifested his devotion, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at that time defeated Keshav Kashmiri who was also reputed to be a very extraordinary scholar. So now by talking about all these discussions and the transformation Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought about the point is not to prove Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s intellectual caliber, the point that is definitely there but the point is to prove that all of them are Vedic scholars and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he debated with them it was not just based on some some personal logical arguments, it was based on Vedic scriptures. So he showed them how the teachings of Achaitya Veda which he had taught were the essential message of the Vedic scriptures.
So the revelation is definitely progressive but that progression also has a reason. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Mahavadanya Avatara and he comes after Krishna had appeared to give us access to what Krishna has displayed. So therefore he gives us just as when Krishna comes he displays the pastimes of motherhood which are not displayed by the previous incarnations.
So when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu comes he gives what has not been given before. So if we think of authenticity only in terms of the presence of particular pastimes or particular points in the original Vedic scriptures then we have a mistaken notion of authenticity. The notion of authenticity the Vedic scriptures are authentic because they are coming from God and similarly the Chaitanya Charita Amrit and the other philosophical scriptures which are written to describe the pastime the teachings of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they are also coming from God in the sense that they are written by his intimate associates.
So if in the initial stage of our spiritual life we cannot develop faith in them as a revelation in these books as revelations then we don’t have to worry too much about that because faith is something which develops naturally organically by the practice of devotional service. So one can study these as books of wisdom and you will find that even people across various traditions who have studied Chaitanya Charita Amrit, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings and life they have been profoundly moved to see the depth of his devotion and the extraordinary structure of his exposition how bhakti has been explained in various stages with each stage categorized to sub-stages and how the beautifully through metaphors like the Bhakti Ratha which is the process of the growth of spiritual advancement has been described. So by learning this then we can understand those principles and apply those principles.
So if just as some people may have some difficulty in accepting different aspects of the philosophy, people who come from a Christian background initially have difficulty in understanding that Krishna is the same God as who the God that Jesus taught about. Similarly people who come from various backgrounds may have difficulty in understanding how the Gaudiya literature like Chaitanya Charita Amrit is in principle similar to the Vedic literature like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are described in the past times of the Lord and the associated literature elaborating in the past times in the teachings. So by understanding Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s divinity and understanding the principle of scripture being a living revelation and how every incarnation performs past times and then naturally scriptures are written about those past times and by understanding how the authenticity of scripture comes because it comes from God and even if we can’t accept the scriptures as revelations right now but we accept them as books of wisdom that provide us guidance for devotion even by that we can enrich our devotion strengthen our faith and then gain higher understanding.
Thank you. So another important point is that there is a lot of depth of literature which the Gaudiya tradition is even and for example there is Govinda Bhashyam by Baldevidya Hoshyam which explains how the Gaudiya Vishnu Siddhanta is actually the conclusion of the Vedanta Sutra. Similarly Satya Shatrandarbha’s have been written by Jiva Goswami which also explain how the Siddhanta that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given is the ultimate conclusion of the Vedic literature.
So it is not that this is just some concoction that is to be accepted on faith there is sound scriptural reasoning which is also given so we need to also study it systematically. So first we study Sri Aurobindo’s books, study the Chaitanya Charitam, study the Bhavita, Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charita, Amrit then we can if we have serious inquisitiveness then we can study the Govinda Bhashyam then we can study the Shatrandarbha’s and then we’ll be able to understand how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings are not some some arbitrary impositions of the Vedic teachings but they are the distilled essence there is their essential conclusion raised to the raised to the summit to the climax revealed in a beautiful endearing way by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So we can understand that but there is process required we have to study the basics we have to study the Vedic philosophy we have to study the writings of previous Acharyas and then we will understand how these teachings are authentic from a pure from an intellectual analytical and scriptural perspective also.
Here I have just given a broad outline thank you.