Lord Caitanya Appears
- Purujit Dasa
- Mar 15
- 8 min read
The following is an excerpt from Bhaktivedanta, the biography of Srila Prabhupada. This chapter is entitled: Lord Caitanya Appears.
The Lord says that He incarnates Himself in every millennium. This indicates that He incarnates also in the age of Kali, and as stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the incarnation in the age of Kali is Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who spread the worship of Krsna and Krsna consciousness throughout India by the sankirtan movement (congregational chanting of the holy names). Lord Caitanya, as the incarnation of Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, is described not directly but secretly in the confidential parts of the revealed scriptures, such as the Upaniñads, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam, etc. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, it is confirmed that the incarnation of Krsna, or God, in this present age of Kali-yuga, will always engage in describing Krsna. He is Krsna, but He describes Himself while garbed as a devotee of Krsna.
It is the custom in India to call an astrologer when a child is born. When Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appeared five thousand years ago, His father, Vasudeva, asked his family priest Gargamuni to visit the place of Nanda Mahäräja (Krsna's foster father) in order to astrologically calculate Krsna's future life. After making his calculation, Gargamuni to Vasudeva: "This child takes different bodily complexions in different yugas [millennia]. First of all He assumes the color white, then red, then yellow, and now He has assumed the color black."
Although Krsna exhibited His white and red complexions in the Satya and Tretä-yugas respectively, and although He has appeared as Krsna in a blackish color in the Dvapara-yuga, He did not exhibit the remaining color, yellow-gold. Therefore, the remaining color, golden, was assumed by Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the Kali-yuga. Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the self same Lord Sri Krishna, but this time He appeared as a great devotee of Lord Sri Krishna in order to preach to the religionists, philosophers, and people in general about the transcendental position of Sri Krishna, the Primeval Lord and the cause of all causes. The sum total of His preaching work was that Lord Sri Krishna, who appeared at Brajabhumi (Vrindaban) as the son of the king of Braja (Nanda Maharaj), is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and, therefore, is worshipable by all.
Vrindaban-dham is non-different from the Lord because the name, fame, form, or place where the Lord manifests Himself are all identical with the Lord as absolute knowledge. Therefore, Vrindaban-dham is also as much worshipable as the Lord. The highest form of transcendental worship of the Lord was exhibited by the damsels of Brajabhumi in the form of pure affection for the Lord, and Lord Sri Chaitanya recommends that same process as the super excellent mode of worship. He accepts the Srimad Bhagawatam Puranam as the spotless literature for understanding the Lord and He preached that the ultimate goal of life for all human beings is to attain the stage of prema (love of God). In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says:
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvataù
tyaktva dehaà punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna
"My dear Arjuna, one who simply understands My appearance, disappearance, and activities, is given, upon leaving his body, an opportunity to take birth in the spiritual world." (Bg. 4.9)
One has to give up his body. It may happen either today, tomorrow, or maybe the day after that, but one has to give up his body at some point. A person who has understood Krsna, however, will not have to take another material body again. Such a soul goes directly to the spiritual world and takes birth in one of the spiritual planets. Krsna says that one gets his material body due to sinful activities and that it does not matter if he takes his birth in India, on the moon, the sun, Brahmaloka, or anywhere else in this material world. The type of body one gets simply depends on the degree of sinfulness. Therefore, our real problem is not how to eat, sleep, mate, and defend, but how to get a body that is spiritual rather than material. That is the ultimate solution to all problems. Krsna guarantees that if one surrenders unto Him and becomes fully Krsna conscious, He will give him protection from all reactions to sinful life. Unfortunately, despite Lord Sri Krishna's direct order and teachings in the Bhagwat Geeta, less intelligent people misunderstood Him to be a mere great historical personality and thus could not accept Him as the original Personality of Godhead. Such men with poor funds of knowledge were misled by many non-devotees, and thus the teachings of the Bhagwat Geeta were misinterpreted even by great scholars. Consequently, after the disappearance of Lord Sri Krishna, hundreds of commentaries by many erudite scholars on the Bhagwat Geeta appeared, and almost every one of them tried to comment on the Bhagwat Geeta differently, according to their own self-interested motives. Practically everyone who commented on the Bhagavad-gita interpreted it to fulfill his own sense gratification. They took advantage of the Bhagavad-gétä's popularity and interpreted in different ways according to their own whims. The result was that people in general did not understand who Krsna is, although the sole purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to understand Krsna. Such people are described in the Bhagavad-gita as mudhas, or "rascals." Krsna says they do not know what He actually is. So many people misunderstood Krsna. Although Krsna gave them the message of the Bhagavad-gita so that they could understand Him, many people missed the opportunity.
Therefore, although Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself, in this incarnation He teaches people how to practically execute the mission of the Bhagavad-gita. He is not teaching anything extraordinary beyond the process of surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which was already taught in the Bhagavad-gita. In other words, His teaching is not a different teaching, but is presented in various ways for different kinds of people so they may take advantage of the opportunity to approach God. Furthermore, Caitanya Mahaprabhu gives people the opportunity to reach God directly. Rupa Gosvami, the principal disciple of Lord Caitanya, was a minister in the government of Bengal, but he wanted to join Caitanya Mahaprabhu's movement. He gave up his position as a minister and came to join, and when he first saw Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he surrendered and offered Him a nice prayer. This prayer says:
namo maha-vadanyaya
krsna-prema-pradaya te
krsnaya krsna-caitanya-
namne gaura-tvise namah
(Cc. Madhya 19.53)
"My dear Lord, You are the most munificent of all the incarnations, because You are directly giving love of God, without any other purpose, and Your process is so nice that, by applying it, one can immediately learn to love God. It is not possible for any personality other than Krsna Himself to deliver this benediction; therefore I say that You are Krsna. You are Krsna, but You have assumed the name Krsna Caitanya. I surrender unto You."
Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself, and He is teaching how to develop love of God by the very simple method of chanting Hare Krsna.
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha
(Cc. Adi 17.21)
"In this age, one should simply engage in continuous chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. There is no other alternative."People are embarrassed by so many methods of realization. They cannot take to the actual ritualistic processes of meditation or yoga. Therefore, Lord Caitanya says that if one takes up this process of chanting, then he can immediately reach the platform of realization. The chanting process offered by Lord Caitanya for achieving love of God is called sankirtan. In the Caitanya-Caritamrta it is stated:
kali-yuge yuga-dharma—namera pracara
tathi lagi' péta-vara caitanyavatara
"The religious practice for the Age of Kali is to broadcast the glories of the holy name. Only for this purpose has the Lord, in a yellow color, descended as Lord Caitanya." (Adi 3.40)
In this Age of Kali, the practical system of religion for everyone is the chanting of the name of Godhead. Bhakti-yoga actually begins with the chanting of the holy name, as confirmed by Madhvacarya in his commentary on the Mundaka Upanisad. He quotes this verse from the Narayana-samhita:
dvapariyair janair visnu
pancaratrais tu kevalaih
kalau tu nama-matrena
pujyate bhagavan harih
"In the Dvapara-yuga, people should worship Lord Visnu only by the regulative principles of the Narada-pancaratra and other such authorized books. In the Age of Kali, however, people should simply chant the holy names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
The Hare Krsna mantra is specifically mentioned in many Upanisads, such as the Kali-santarana Upanisad, where it is said:
hare krsna hare krsna
krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare
So-called meditation, yoga, karma, and jnana will all fail. Of course, these are standard processes, but in the present age it is not possible to execute them. Even five thousand years ago, as mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita, when taught the practice of yoga (the sitting posture, breathing exercise, sense control, and how to regulate one's eating and sleeping), Arjuna finally said, "My dear Krsna, it is not possible for me to execute these." Actually, as a military man, Arjuna frankly admitted that he had no time to practice meditation and all these things, but people at present are so proud that they want to surpass even a personality like Arjuna and imitate the practice of these methods. But imitation has no value. The real meditation in this age is to chant and to hear about Krsna. According to the standard scriptures, and in the practice of the yogic formula, the whole aim is to absorb one's mind in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is called samadhi, or ecstasy. Such ecstasy is immediately brought about by the chanting process. When one begins to chant, and he hears for a few seconds or a few minutes, he immediately comes to the platform of ecstasy.
On the full-moon evening of the month of Phalguna, when the Lord took His birth, coincidentally there was also a lunar eclipse. In jubilation everyone was chanting the holy name of the Lord—"Hari! Hari!"—and Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then appeared, after first causing the appearance of the holy name. At His birth, in His childhood, in His early and later boyhood, as well as in His youth, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, under different pleas, induced people to chant the holy name of Hari (the Hare Krsna maha-mantra). In His childhood, when the Lord was crying, He would stop immediately upon hearing the holy names Krsna and Hari. All the friendly ladies who came to see the child would chant the holy names, "Hari, Hari!" as soon as the child would cry. When all the ladies saw this fun, they enjoyed laughing and called the Lord "Gaurahari." Since then, Gaurahari became another one of His names. His childhood lasted until the date of hate khadi, the beginning of His education, and His age from the end of His childhood until He married is called pauganda. After His marriage, His youth began, and in His youth, He induced everyone to chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra anywhere and everywhere. Actually, He began the sankirtan movement just prior to His youthful life. Day and night He used to dance in ecstasy with His devotees. In this way, He inundated the whole town of Navadvipa with the chanting of Hare Krsna.
If you enjoyed reading this, then you can find the entire Bhaktivedanta here:
