Śrī Chaitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself engaged in Śaraṇagati.

Prapanna-Jivanāmṛtam


द्वितियो ऽध्याय

Dvitiyo ‘dhyāya

Second Chapter

श्री शास्त्र-वचनामृतम्

द्वितियो ऽध्याय

Dvitiyo ‘dhyāya
Second Chapter

श्री शास्त्र-वचनामृतम्

Śrī Śāstra-Vacanāmṛtam
Holy Scriptural Nectar

CHAPTER II

29

श्रीमन्-महाप्रभो॒ पदाश्रय-माहात्म्यम्—

ध्येयं सादा पारिभव-घ्नम्-अभिष्टदोहं

तिर्थास्पदं शिव-विरिञ्चि-नुतं शरणयम् ।

भृतयार्त्ति-हं प्रणतपाल भवाब्धि-पोतं

वन्दे महापुरुष ते चरणरविन्दम् [३०]

śrīman-mahāprabho: padāśraya-māhātmyam—

dhyeyaṁ sādā pāribhava-ghnam-abhiṣṭadohaṁ

tirthāspadaṁ śiva-viriñci-nutaṁ śaraṇayam |

bhṛtayārtti-haṁ praṇatapāla bhavābdhi-potaṁ

vande mahāpuruṣa te caraṇaravindam [30]

The glories of surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya who is the highest shelter: Mahāprabhu, the Golden Volcano of Divine Love, Kṛṣṇa Himself  performing his līla as a mahābhagavata. 

“O Mahāprabhu, Your lotus feet are the highest object of meditation, for they not only destroy the pain of material existence, but they bestow the greatest fulfilment to all souls who take shelter beneath them. Your lotus feet even purify all saintly persons and holy places. Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā aspire to take shelter beneath Your lotus feet. O Mahāprabhu, You give shelter to all who simply bow down before You. You relieve all the miseries of Your surrendered servants. In the grand ship of Your lotus feet, we can cross over this ocean of material miseries. O Mahāprabhu, I bow down before Your lotus feet.”

"After mentioning the incarnation of Godhead for the Age of Kali, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam suddenly begins this song in praise of that great Yuga-avatār, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. With a grand voice the Bhāgavatam has come to sing the praise of that guide for Kali-yuga. This follows the verse which hints at the Avatār of Kali-yuga. Kṛṣṇa-varṇam means one who is always describing Kṛṣṇa, who always has on his lips the words “Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.” Another meaning of this expression is “One who is Kṛṣṇa Himself, but whose lustre is not black.” If we look deeply, we shall find that hidden beneath His golden lustre is the blackish body of Kṛṣṇa. ”

“With His own paraphernalia He has come to this plane, and service to Him is performed only by saṅkīrtan, divine sound in mass prayer. By that symptom we can recognise His divine position.

"Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is a hidden incarnation; He comes in disguise. Such an Avatār is worshipped by the divinely intellectual. In this way, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam first describes that uncommon, extraordinary personality, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, in a mystic way and then proclaims His nobility and greatness.

The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam explains, “That same personality who came as Rāmachandra and Kṛṣṇa has again appeared. He has come to direct you to the real fulfilment of life. He is drawing the sweetest nectar from above for the sake of everyone. Only meditate on Him and all your troubles will be finished. He is the agent purifying all the holy places of pilgrimage and saintly persons by His touch, by His saṅkīrtan, by His drawing the highest things down from the highest plane.

 And even Brahmā and Śiva, puzzled by His noble gift, will begin to praise Him. They will eagerly aspire to take shelter under His lotus feet in surrender. The pains of all who come to serve Him“will be removed, and their inner necessities will be fulfilled. 

And He will take care of those who take shelter of Him; they will be given protection as well as everything they may need. In this world where mortality rules, where we are continually experiencing the undesirable changes of repeated birth and death, in this area where no one wants to live, a great ship will come for us and take us within and carry us away from this unpleasant position. Let us fall at the feet of that great personality who comes to give the highest nectar.”

“The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam continues:

त्यक्त्वा सुदुस्त्यज-सुरेप्सित-राज्य-लक्ष्मीं

धर्मिष्ठ आर्य-वछसा यद् अगाद् अरण्यम्

माया-मृगम् दयितयेप्सितम् अन्वधावद्

वन्दे महा-पुरुष ते छरणारविन्दम्

tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīṁ

dharmiṣṭha ārya-vachasā yad agād araṇyam

māyā-mṛgam dayitayepsitam anvadhāvad

vande mahā-puruṣa te charaṇāravindam

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam  11.5.34

“O Supreme Lord, You gave up the Goddess of fortune and Her great opulence, which is most difficult to abandon, and is sought after even by the gods. In order to perfectly establish the principles of religion, You left for the forest to honour the brāhmaṇ’s curse. To deliver the sinful souls who chase illusory pleasures, You search after them and award them Your devotional service. At the same time, You are engaged in search of Yourself, in search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa: Reality the Beautiful.”

“Śrīla Viśvanāth Chakravartī Ṭhākur has given his explanation that although it seems that this verse applies to Lord Rāmachandra, who left His kingdom and went with Sītā Devī to the forest to discharge the duties designed by His father, this also applies to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. 

Viśvanāth Chakravartī Ṭhākur has drawn out the internal meaning of this verse and applied it in the case of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu: Tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīm means "He left imperial prosperity which is hard to abandon. Generally we find this in the case of Lord Rāmachandra,

. although it seems that this verse applies to Lord Rāmachandra, who left His kingdom and went with Sītā Devī to the forest to discharge the duties designed by His father, this also applies to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. Viśvanāth Chakravartī Ṭhākur has drawn out the internal meaning of this verse and applied it in the case of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. 

Tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīm means He left imperial prosperity which is hard to abandon. Generally we find this in the case of Lord Rāmachandra, but Viśvanāth Chakravartī Ṭhākur says that surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīm means the valuable devotional company of Viṣṇu Priyā Devī. 

That may not appear to be a materially big thing, but the dedication that Viṣṇu Priyā has shown in Her heart for Śrīman Mahāprabhu is greater than any imperial standard. And He had to leave that behind. Such a standard of sacrifice and service is never  “ound even among the great society of the gods. For the sake of the public welfare, He had to ignore the serving, loving attitude of Viṣṇu Priyā.”

“Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu felt a great pain of separation from Kṛṣṇa which burned like fire and was expressed as the Śikṣāṣṭakam. This is explained in Prema-dhāma-deva-stotram (54):

श्री-स्वरूप-राय-सङ्ग-गम्भिरान्त्य-लीलनं

द्वादशाब्द-वह्नि-गर्भ-विप्रलम्भ-शीलनम्

राधिकाधिरूढ-भाव-कान्ति-कृष्ण-कुञ्जरं

प्रेम-धाम-देवम् एव नौमि गौर-सुन्दरम्

śrī-svarūpa-rāya-saṅga-gambhirāntya-līlanaṁ
dvādaśābda-vahni-garbha-vipralambha-śīlanam
rādhikādhirūḍha-bhāva-kānti-kṛṣṇa-kuñjaraṁ
prema-dhāma-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram

“Diving deep into the reality of His own beauty and sweetness, Kṛṣṇa stole the mood of Rādhārāṇī and, garbing Himself in Her brilliant lustre, appeared as Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. For the last twelve years of His manifest Pastimes, He was deeply absorbed in the mood of union and separation, and shared His heart’s inner feelings with His most confidential devotees. In the agony of separation from Kṛṣṇa, volcanic eruptions of ecstasy flowed from His heart, and His teachings, known as Śikṣāṣṭakam, appeared from His lips like streams of golden lava. I fall at the feet of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, the golden volcano of divine love.”

He was vomiting the fire of painful separation from Kṛṣṇa in the form “of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. Therefore, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is compared to a golden volcano and the Śikṣāṣṭakam is compared to divine lava.

Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu has taught us that separation is the highest principle in divinity. Just as the most intense conception of ecstasy is association with Kṛṣṇa, the most intense conception of pain is separation from Kṛṣṇa. Yet the pain felt from Kṛṣṇa’s separation is far more intense than the ecstasy felt from His association. Śrīman Mahāprabhu says, “Can’t you understand the painful situation you are in? Your senses must have all been destroyed. Otherwise you would have died from the pain of separation from Kṛṣṇa. It is inconceivable. We belong to Him wholesale. He is all-in-all to us, but we can’t see Him. We are forcibly separated from Him. How can we tolerate this?” And Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur once said, “I can’t tolerate separation from Kṛṣṇa any longer. I can go on for only three or four more days, and then I shall have to leave this body.”

To love Kṛṣṇa means that we shall have to “die to live”. In the beginning divine love seems like lava, death, but really it is nectar, life. Many persons in this ordinary world are also frustrated in love. They sometimes go mad and commit suicide because they can’t tolerate the pain. But the pain which comes with separation from Kṛṣṇa, although compared with lava, is not injurious like lava. Kavirāj Goswāmī explains:

বাহ্যে ৱিষ-জ্ৱালা হয, ভিতরে আনন্দ-ময,
কৃষ্ণ-প্রেমার অদ্ভুত ছরিত

bāhye viṣa-jvālā haya, bhitare ānanda-maya,
kṛṣṇa-premāra adbhuta charita

“The wonderful characteristic of divine love of Kṛṣṇa is that although externally, it works like fiery lava, internally it is like sweet nectar that fills the heart with the greatest joy.”

“Although He felt the greatest pain of separation from Kṛṣṇa, still, within His heart, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu experienced the deepest ecstatic joy. The ecstatic symptoms manifested by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu have never been found in the history of the world or even expressed in any scripture. In Him, we find the highest conception of the ultimate reality. This is explained in my Prema-dhāma-deva-stotram (66):

आत्म-सिद्ध-सावलील-पूर्ण-सौख्य-लक्षणं
स्वानुभाव-मत्त-नृत्य-कीर्तनात्म-वण्टनम्
अद्वयैक-लक्ष्य-पूर्ण-तत्त्व-तत्-परात्परं
प्रेम-धाम-देवम् एव नौमि गौर-सुन्दरम्

ātma-siddha-sāvalīla-pūrṇa-saukhya-lakṣaṇaṁ
svānubhāva-matta-nṛtya-kīrtanātma-vaṇṭanam
advayaika-lakṣya-pūrṇa-tattva-tat-parātparaṁ
prema-dhāma-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram

“This is the all-conquering conclusion. The highest conception of the ultimate reality must also be the highest form of ānanda, ecstasy. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa, ecstasy Himself, tasting His own sweetness and dancing in ecstatic joy. His own Holy Name is the cause of His ecstasy, expressed as dancing, and the Holy Name is the effect of His ecstasy, expressed as chanting. The cause is the effect. The dynamo is creating ecstatic energy which makes Him dance, and His chanting distributes that ecstasy to others.”

 (30)

Bha: 11/5/33

श्री-चैतन्य-चरण-शरणे चिद्-एक-रस-विलास-लाभः॒—

संसारा-सिन्धु-तरणे हृदयं यदि स्यात् ।

सङ्किर्त्तनामृत-रसे रमते मानश्चेत्

प्रेमाम्बुधौ विहाराणे यदि चित्त-वृत्तिश्

चैतान्य-चन्द्र-चरणे शरणं प्रयतू॥३२॥

चैतन्य-चन्दामृत ८/९३

śrī-caitanya-caraṇa-śaraṇe cid-eka-rasa-vilāsa-lābhaḥ:—

saṁsārā-sindhu-taraṇe hṛdayaṁ yadi syāt |

saṅkirttanāmṛta-rase ramate mānaścet

premāmbudhau vihārāṇe yadi citta-vṛttiś

caitānya-candra-caraṇe śaraṇaṁ prayatū||32||

Caitanya-candāmṛta 8/93

The souls who are surrendered to Śrī Chaitanya dive and surface in the ocean of rāsa.

If, within your heart, you want to cross the ocean of saṁsāra and taste the rasik amṛta  of sankirtan; if you want to leave the ocean of birth and death and frolic in the ocean of prema, then surrender to the lotus feet of Śrī Chaitanya Candra. (31)

Caitanya-Candramrta 8/93