APPEARANCE

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Mayapur in the town of Nadia after

sunset on the evening of the 23rd Phalguna 1407 Sakabda, answering to the 18th of February, 1486, of the Christian era. The moon was eclipsed at the time of his birth, and the people of Nadia were then engaged, as was usual on such occasions, in bathing in the Bhagirathi with loud cheers of Haribol. His father, Jagannatha Mishra, a poor brahmana of the Vedic order, and his mother, Sachidevi, a model good woman, both descended from brahmana stock originally residing in Sylhet.

Mahaprabhu was a beautiful child, and the ladies of the town came to see him with presents. His mother's father, Pandit Nilambara Chakravarti, a renowned astrologer, foretold that the child would be a great personage in time; and he, therefore, gave him the name Vishvambhara. The ladies of the neighborhood styled him Gaurahari on account of his golden complexion, and his mother called him Nimai on account of the nimba tree near which he was born. Beautiful as the boy was, everyone heartily loved to see him every day.