(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 29 November 2008, India, Lecture at Mamgachi)
namo brahmanya–devaya, go brahmana–hitaya ca, jagad-dhitaya krishnaya, govindaya namo namah
As Advaita Acharya continued his worship, he chanted this verse. Advaita Acharya fell prostrate before the Lord, seeking shelter at His lotus feet. Lord Gauranga lifted His lotus feet and placed it on Advaita Acharya’s head. Upon seeing this, the devotees became mad with jubilation, completely forgetting themselves. Some rolled on the ground; others embraced one another or slapped each other boisterously while many others cried out loudly. Advaita Acharya felt as if all of his desires had been fulfilled because the Lord had placed His lotus feet upon his head. Lord Caitanya then instructed, “Let Me see you dance!”
Advaita Acharya was not a young man. It said that when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this world that Advaita Acharya was already fifty-two years old! So after the Lord revealed Himself which was in His twenty-second year, that means Advaita Acharya was seventy-four years old, and he was supposed to dance! Advaita Acharya lived another twenty-five years after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya and thus we understand that Advaita Acharya actually became a hundred and twenty-five years old.
Advaita Acharya happily began to dance and so the devotees started a very sweet melodious kirtan. As he continued dancing in front of the Lord, Advaita Acharya sometimes moved in a spirited manner and sometimes moved very gracefully. Sometimes, he felt very humbled and kept a bunch of straw in between his teeth. Sometimes, Advaita Acharya would spin around, jump into the air, then fall to the ground and roll back and forth. At other times, he would breathe deeply and quickly, and then fall unconscious.
We know that keeping a bunch of straw between the teeth indicates humility. It is in a mood of humility that one keeps straw between the teeth. Exactly why this custom is there, I cannot say, but it is there. And more important than the custom, is the mood that Advaita Acharya manifested because no one can do anything without the mercy of the Supreme Lord.
Although Advaita Acharya himself was also the Supreme Lord, still he was not govindam adi purusam – the original purusa, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, but rather, he was the avatar of Lord Sri Krsna.
In the Bhagavad-gita (4.8) it is stated, paritranaya sadhunam, vinasaya ca duskrtam, dharma-samsthapanarthaya, sambhavami yuge yuge, that the Lord appears in various millenniums for the sake of establishing the principles of religion and to annihilate the miscreants. That is the work of the incarnations of the Lord. Only the Supreme Lord can give krsna-prema and that is why Advaita Acharya was very eager for Krsna to appear, because Advaita Acharya was not interested just to establish the principles of dharma; Advaita Acharya wanted to drown the entire world in love of God.
Now we can see how it is happening! We can see how gradually, little-by-little, invisibly, the sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya is infiltrating. Because, as a person becomes touched by this sankirtan movement, as one hears the holy name or as one engages in devotional service, one becomes captured.
