अणुभाष्य (महाप्रभु वल्लभाचार्य - शुद्धाद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र महाभाष्य प्रकाश टीका सहित)

( 10 ) It seems, Bengal Vaishṇavas who used to carry on the worship, secretly carried away these presents to their Goswāmis who lived at Brindāvan. This created great dissatisfaction among the Vaishṇavas of Gujarāt. One Anantadāsa raised an emphatic protest against this misuse of the offerings to the Deity. He persuaded Krishṇadāsa Adhikārī to put a stop to this and drive out the said Bengali worshippers. Krishṇadāsa could not do it unless he had the sanction of Vitthales'vara. For this purpose he was persuaded to approach Vitthales'vara, who at first hesitated, because these Bengalees were appointed by his father. But after some deliberations, Krishṇadāsa succeeded in obtaining a letter of recommendation to Rājā Birbal to help him in his mission. With this letter Krishṇadāsa saw Birbal, then collected a number of men with him and set fire to the huts of the Bengalees. The moment the latter came to know of this, they came down from the Govardhana hill where the shrine was situated. At first they offered great resistance to Krishṇadāsa, but ultimately yielded, and he got exclusive control and possession of the shrine. Rājā Birbal was intimate with Giridharajī, the eldest son of Vitthales'vara. Perhaps to establish his absolute control, Giridharajī brought the shrine of Gopāla-S'ree Nāthajī to his own house in Mathurā in 1623. From this date the mode of worship was greatly elaborated by Vitthales'vara. It became the exclusive resort of Vallabha Vaishṇavas, and Bengal Vaishṇavas began to forget their early connection with it. The personal relations of Valla- bhāchārya and Chaitanya were very cordial as can be inferred from the above facts regarding the setting up of the shrine of S'ree Nāthajī. The Chaitanya writers, and especially Krishṇadāsa, who lived in Bengal and who is the author of Chaitanya-Charitāmrita perhaps felt bitterly this loss of the control of the above shrine. In their zeal to extol Chaitanya they try to belittle the achievements of Vallabhāchārya. Vallabhāchārya's records are singularly devoid of any unpleasant reference to Chaitanya, while the statement of Chaitanya writers that Vallabhāchārya, though praising Chaitanya, slighted his companions, and that he had to take lessons in Bhā- gavata at Puri from Jagadānanda, pupil of Chaitanya, seems to be due merely to some sort of prejudice and historically impossible. There can be no greater nonsense than this. The present Bengal writers like Dr. Sen and others who copy this, seem to be rather uncritical. We believe the above statements are the result of the disappointment felt by Chaitanya Goswāmis of Brindābana on account of the loss of S'ree Nāthajī as mentioned above. We are told that in an early work, Brindāvandāsa's Chaitanya Bhāgavata, there is no reference to the incident of Puri. The transference of the control of the shrine to Vitthales'vara had very marked results. Emperor Akbar presented the Jatipurā village to Vitthales'vara by a special Firmān. The inner worship became confined to the agnates of Vitthales'vara and their wives and daughters only. Among Brāhmaṇas, Geernārās and Sāchorās who early joined the Faith were allowed to take part in the worship. But the mass of Vaishṇavas were henceforth excluded from coming into direct 2010