According to solar calculation, it was the day of Makara-sankranti, an auspicious conjunction of the stars, that Nimai Pandita went to Katwa to take sannyasa, the renounced order of life. After this. He would become known as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He swam across the Ganges and in wet cloth ran towards Katwa. Just before this. He told only a few of His friends, including Nityananda Prabhu, Gadadhara Pandita, Mukunda, and others, “The time when I will accept the robe of renunciation is very near.”
Just a few days before this, an opposition party had been raised against Nimai Pandita. Those who believed that material nature is the highest principle and that consciousness is a product of matter, began to abuse Nimai Pandita. He thought, “I came to deliver the lowest of men, but if they commit offenses against Me, there will be no hope for their upliftment.” Suddenly, He said, “I came with that medicine which gives the greatest relief, but now I find that their disease is rapidly growing worse and seems beyond treatment. It will take its own course towards doom. The patients are committing offenses by abusing their doctor. They are making arrangements to insult Me. They take it that I am a family man—their nephew—they take Me as one of them. I came with the best medicine for the present degraded age, but now I find that they are plotting against Me. Now they are doomed. At least I have to show them that I am not one of them.” He thought, “I shall leave family life and take sa nnyasa and wander from village to village, town to town, preaching the holy name of Krsna.” That was His decision, and within a few days He went to take sannyasa at Katwa from Kesava Bharati Maharaja.
