Caitanya Mahaprabhu on the poetic mistakes of great vaisnavas
March 25, 2014 in Ajit Krishna Das by Yasoda nandana dasa
 Caitanya Mahaprabhu said:
“Even in the poetic compositions of such great poets as Bhavabhuti, Jayadeva and Kalidasa there are many examples of faults. Such mistakes should be considered negligible. One should see only how such poets have displayed their poetic power.” (Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi-Lila, 101-102)
Prabhupada’s purport to text 102:
In Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.5.11) it is said:
tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavo
yasmin prati-slokam abaddhavaty api namany anantasya yaso ‘nkitani yat srnvanti gayanti grnanti sadhavah “In explaining the glories of the Lord, inexperienced men may compose poetry with many faults, but because it contains glorification of the Lord, great personalities read it, hear it and chant it.” Despite its minute literary discrepancies, one must study poetry on the merit of its subject matter. According to Vaisnava philosophy, any literature that glorifies the Lord, whether properly written or not, is first class. There need be no other considerations. The poetic compositions of Bhavabhuti, or Srikantha, include Malati-madhava, Uttara-carita, Vira-carita and many other similar Sanskrit dramas. This great poet was born during the time of Bhojaraja as the son of Nilakantha, a brahmana. Kalidasa flourished during the time of Maharaja Vikramaditya, and he became the state poet. He composed some thirty or forty Sanskrit dramas, including Kumara-sambhava, Abhijnana-sakuntala and Megha-duta. His drama Raghu-vamsa is especially famous. We have already described Jayadeva in Chapter Thirteen of this Adi-lila.
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