Then the Master broke in, "You do not know the essence of dharma. It is the dharma of a true wife to obey her husband's commands. Our husband has commanded us to chant his name ceaselessly. No true wife can disobey his command, and so we chant his name and derive from it the fruit of the birth of love for Krishna's feet." This silenced Vallabh Bhatta and he went home sorrowing at his public humiliation.
Another day he came to the Master's assembly and said rather boastfully, "I have refuted [Shridhar] Swami's commentary on the Bhágabat. I cannot accept his interpretation Where his view differs from mine, I do not follow the Swami." The Master smiled and remarked,. "One who does not follow (her) swami (=husband) is ranked among harlots!"
Chaitanya had come to earth as an avatár for the good of mankind; by various humiliations He purified the proud heart of the Bhatta. At night Vallabh Bhatta began to reflect in his own house, "Formerly the Master favoured me greatly at Allahabad, when He accepted my invitation to dinner in the company of His disciples. Why then is His heart turned away from me now? Let my heart be free from the pride of gaining victories in debate. The God-souled does good to all. I am filled with the pride of asserting myself, and He humiliates me in order to cure me of this pride."
So thinking, next morning he came to the Master and meekly praising Him took refuge at His feet, saying, "I am ignorant and have foolishly displayed my learning before you. You are God and out of your natural grace you have removed my pride by means of disgrace. The blindness of pride has been removed from my eyes through the collyrium of your grace now, and true knowledge has dawned on me. I have sinned. Forgive me; take refuge with thee; lay thy feet on my head."
The Master checked him saying, "You are a scholar and a devotee at the same time. Where these two qualities are present, there pride cannot exist. You have written a commentary on the Bhágabat in scorn of Shridhar Swami! I understand the Bhágabat through the grace of Shridhar Swami; he is the world's guru, my guru. What you write contrary to Shridhar is labour lost; no one will accept it. Therefore, write your commentary on the Bhágabat in the footsteps of Shridhar. Leave off your pride and adore the Lord Krishna. Give up your failings and join the kirtan of Krishna, and you will soon attain to Krishna's feet."
Then the Master agreed to dine at Vallabh Bhatta's house once again. The Bhatta used to meditate on God as the child Gopal. But the society of Gadadhar Pandit turned his mind, and he longed to adore the youthful Gopal. He begged the Pandit to teach him the mantra and ceremonial of this kind of adoration, but Gadadhar declined to act without the Master's permission ... Another day Gadadhar Pandit invited the Master, who agreed and at the dinner permitted Vallabh Bhatta to be initiated by Gadadhar.
HOW THE MASTER STINTED HIS FOOD
Ramchandra Puri Goswámi came to Niláchal and there met the Master and Paramananda Puri Jagadananda Pandit invited Ramchandra Puri and fed him on the prasád of Jagannáth. After the meal the Puri asked Jagadananda to feed on the food left over, and serving the prasád repeatedly made him eat much. And thereafter, washing his hands and mouth, Ramchandra Puri began to cavil, "I had heard that Chaitanya's bhaktas were great gluttons. Now I see it with my own eyes to be true. By gorging sannyasis with so much food, their piety is destroyed. You are bairagis and yet you are such huge eaters! Your bairagya is not sincere."
Ramchandra Puri was notorious as the universal fault finder, having been cursed for it by his own religious preceptor, Madhavendra Puri. He now dwelt at Niláchal, detached by nature, staying at one place for some time, taking his meal at some [other] place without having been bidden, and taking note of what others ate.
The Master was daily fed at different houses, at a cost of four pan of cowries [i.e., one anna] for the three of them,—the Master, Kashishwar, and Govinda (His body-servant.) Ramchandra Puri closely inquired into the Master's abode, manners, food, bed and travels. He could not reach the Master's merits, but roaming in search of His defects, could not find any. Then he began to slander the Master to all the people, saying, "He is a sannyasi and yet eats sweetmeats. How can such luxury enable him to control the lusts of the flesh?"