How old is Caitanya now (second act of a play on Lord Caitanya) ?

Expressions researched:
"How old is Caitanya now"

1967 Conversations and Morning Walks

Fifteen, sixteen, like that. Yes. Fifteen, sixteen. Yes, you ask me questions, any about that.

Discourse on Lord Caitanya Play Between Srila Prabhupada and Hayagriva -- April 5-6, 1967, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Fifth scene, Lord Caitanya's mother, Śacīdevī, is sitting underneath a tree, a nīm tree. It is called nīm tree. And the little child on her lap, and the visitors, so many visitors are coming, and they are offering some presentation. Somebody is offering gold necklace, somebody offering some bangles, some cloth, some money, and His father, he . . . what is called?

Jagannātha Miśra. Jagannātha Miśra is there? Yes. Jagannātha Miśra, His father. He was, whatever money and clothes and gold and silver they were coming, he was also distributing to poor men, some dancers. In India there is a system . . . what do you call? The eunuchs? Those who are neither male or female. What do you call? What is their name?

Hayagrīva: A combination of both, male and female?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: A hermaphrodite. A hermaphrodite.

Prabhupāda: Eunuchs, what is that eunuch?

Hayagrīva: A eunuch is . . .

Prabhupāda: Feminine.

Hayagrīva: Impotent, an impotent . . . someone who's been castrated.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that is called eunuch. By nature, neither man, neither woman.

Hayagrīva: Oh, this is also called asexual, that is to say no sex.

Prabhupāda: No sex.

Hayagrīva: Hermaphroditic means they have the physical features of both man and woman.

Prabhupāda: Oh. At the same time?

Hayagrīva: At the same time.

Prabhupāda: I do not exactly . . . but such people, they have their own society, and their means of living is that whenever there is some good occasion, a marriage or childbirth, like that, so they go there and pray to God that, "This child may be very long living." In this way they make some prayer and get some . . .

Hayagrīva: These people . . . now I don't understand . . . this takes place at . . . the sixth scene . . .?

Prabhupāda: At Jagannātha Miśra's house.

Hayagrīva: Jagannātha Miśra's house. And his wife is who?

Prabhupāda: This scene should be mentioned as Jagannātha Miśra's courtyard.

Hayagrīva: And who is his wife, again?

Prabhupāda: Śacīdevī.

Hayagrīva: Śacīdevī, yes.

Prabhupāda: Śacīdevī is the mother of Lord Caitanya. She is sitting with the child, and everyone is visiting, visiting, presenting, or all . . . everyone's saying: "Oh, how nice child He is."

Hayagrīva: And these asexual people . . .

Prabhupāda: They are dancing.

Hayagrīva: They are dancing.

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are dancing, "Hare Kṛṣṇa." Yes, like that. So Hare Kṛṣṇa dancing is going there.

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And visitors coming and presenting. That is a very nice scene. Yes. The sixth scene is Lord Caitanya, a naughty boy. He would go to the Ganges side, and it is the system of orthodox brāhmins that they meditate in the Ganges, half. That is the system.

Now He will go and swim over the water and throw water in their mouth in this way. Naughty boy. And they will be very much disgusted. "You naughty boy! You come here!" "Stop your meditation. What is this meditation? Chant! Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!" He would say like that.

So they will come and complain to His father: "Your child has become too much naughty, and just see that . . . teased us like this." The father will say: "Oh, the boy is going to be very naughty. I'll punish Him. Let Him come."

So father, angry father, was waiting. As soon as the boy will come he would punish. But when the boy returns the father sees that "He's just coming from school. There is no sign that He has gone to Ganges and taken bath. How is that these gentlemen complained?" He will be puzzled. In that way, we have to show.

Hayagrīva: How old is He here? How old is Caitanya here? Maybe five, six?

Prabhupāda: That was, He was five or six years old. That's all.

Hayagrīva: And this is . . . what's the location again?

Prabhupāda: This location is the front of Jagannātha Miśra's house.

Hayagrīva: Yes. Six years later, in other words.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: All right. And then that's the . . .

Prabhupāda: I think . . .

Hayagrīva: Does He meet any of these characters at the river? Does He meet any of the characters up there?

Prabhupāda: No. General public. General public. But they are all brāhmins, rigid brāhmins. They are taking bath. Yes.

Hayagrīva: Now is that the end of the first act?

Prabhupāda: End of the first . . . I think you should first of all write this, then you take. Or you take all the notes at a time.

Hayagrīva: Do you feel like going on? I don't think I'm going to write these down. I'm just going to use this tape. When I go over a scene I'll just play it back. It's too much to write.

Prabhupāda: Oh, alright. That's all right.

Hayagrīva: If you feel like going on, then go ahead.

Prabhupāda: No, I can talk.

Hayagrīva: Oh, good.

Prabhupāda: I can talk.

Hayagrīva: Well let's do as much as possible, because you're leaving Sunday.

Prabhupāda: All right. All right. Do it.

Hayagrīva: This is second act now.

Prabhupāda: Second act. Then Lord Caitanya's saṅkīrtana organization in the house of Śrīnivāsa. Śrīnivāsācārya. The saṅkīrtana movement was . . . they were all chanting together Hare Kṛṣṇa, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked the devotees that, "Hello, My dear friends. What do you want to eat?" So some of them said . . .

That was out of season, and still some of them asked that, "We shall be very glad if You give us some mangoes." (laughs) So Lord Caitanya said that "All right. You just bring one seed of mango."

So in Bengal there is . . . seed of mango is available always, because the people in the village, they eat mango and throw it in the ground, they say they come out as creep, creeper. So it is not very difficult. So he brought some creeper like that, and he sowed it, and at once it became a tree, and there was sufficient quantity of mango fruits. So all the devotees were distributed. And that mango tree remained there, and they were taking mango every day. And in that scene, just try to . . .

The next scene is brāhmins' dissatisfaction. Now some of the brāhmins . . .

Hayagrīva: How old is Caitanya now?

Prabhupāda: He was about . . .

Hayagrīva: Sixteen?

Prabhupāda: Fifteen, sixteen, like that. Yes. Fifteen, sixteen. Yes, you ask me questions, any, about that.