mission

"My mission is to deliver all the fallen souls of this age," He thought, "but if they commit offenses against Me, thinking Me to be an ordinary man, they will not benefit.

When the Lord became aware of this, He began to consider the various types of men which are found in society. He noted that especially the students, professors, fruitive workers, yogis, nondevotees, and different types of atheists were all opposed to the devotional service of the Lord. "My mission is to deliver all the fallen souls of this age," He thought, "but if they commit offenses against Me, thinking Me to be an ordinary man, they will not benefit. If they are to begin their life of spiritual realization, they must some way or another offer obeisances unto Me." Thus the Lord decided to accept the renounced order of life (sannyasa) because people in general were inclined to offer respects to a sannyasi. (More...)

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Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, both of Them have come to deliver these fallen souls of this material world who are in the darkness of conception. So They are fighting all over the world this darkness. Just now somebody told me that the king of the Arabia... (More...)

Lord Caitanya's Mission (Śikṣāṣṭaka)

O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Krsna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by chanting Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.

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O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing constantly when I chant Your holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation of Your name?

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I know no one but Krsna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly in His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.

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A sadhu, a devotee, is never angry. Actually the real feature of devotees who undergo tapasya, austerity, is forgiveness. Although a Vaisnava has sufficient power in tapasya, he does not become angry when put into difficulty. If one undergoes tapasya but does not become a Vaisnava, however, one does not develop good qualities. For example, Hiranyakasipu and Ravana also performed great austerities, but they did so to demonstrate their demoniac tendencies. Vaisnavas must meet many opponents while preaching the glories of the Lord, but Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends that they not become angry while preaching. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given this formula: trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna/ amanina manadena kirtaniyaḥ sada hariḥ. "One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly." Those engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord should be humbler than grass and more tolerant than a tree; then they can preach the glories of the Lord without difficulty. (More...)

"O son of Maharaja Nanda [Krsna], I am Your eternal servitor, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet." Being pleased with the devotee, the Lord turns all his material impediments into spiritual service. In this connection Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura quotes a verse from the Visnu Purana: (More...)

"O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence." It is the aspiration of a devotee that while he chants the Hare Krsna maha-mantra his eyes will fill with tears, his voice falter and his heart throb. These are good signs in chanting the holy name of the Lord. In ecstasy, one should feel the entire world to be vacant without the presence of Govinda. This is a sign of separation from Govinda. In material life we are all separated from Govinda and are absorbed in material sense gratification. Therefore, when one comes to his senses on the spiritual platform he becomes so eager to meet Govinda that without Govinda the entire world becomes a vacant place. (More...)

The special feature of the pure devotee is that his work is entirely selfless, because he works entirely for the pleasure of God. Everyone else acts in this world to maintain family or paraphernalia with some self-interest and personal gratification. The gratification may be concentrated, or it may be extended. One may be out to become famous himself or to become a great enjoyer, or he may wish to extend material benefits to his family or to humanity at large. But all these are still on the platform of selfish bodily interest. The criterion of perfection is to act in God consciousness and not with a view to enjoying the fruits of work, either locally, nationally or internationally. To act in God consciousness is the duty of every living entity, because we are all constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. It is only the atheistic propaganda which has turned men to think that they are dead-end material entities unto themselves, and that there is no good except working futilely at objectives within this material life. The greatest disservice has been rendered by those who have turned men away from their natural connection with God, who is readily seen as the proprietor of everything in the universe. As the limbs of the body constitutionally work for the satisfaction of the whole body, so the living entity who acts for the satisfaction of the Supreme Whole is the perfect, selfless worker. Even among religionists, the yogis and impersonal philosophers, although acting on a level more elevated than the ordinary worker, are still not without self-interest. Either they desire to become liberated in the impersonal spiritual existence, or they desire to cease material activities in order to gain mystic perfections for the satisfaction of the personal self. But a pure devotee (the skeptic asks, "Where does such purity exist?"), acting in God consciousness, works for the satisfaction of the whole without self-interest. He has no desire for self-satisfaction. His criterion of success is the satisfaction of Krsna. Thus Lord Caitanya prays, "O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers, but what I want only is the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth." [Cc Antya ] Working in this pure consciousness and with the potent possession of love of God, such a worker can actually deliver anyone to the highest happiness. It is therefore stated in the Vedic scriptures that even a moment's association with a pure devotee can grant one all success. An unfortunate person will doubt that such purity exists or whether a devotee has the ability to give God consciousness to the masses. But one who actually meets a pure devotee can be given these highest gifts from him and will realize it without a doubt. Although they are very rare, such great souls have walked the earth throughout history. To hear of their activities is very beneficial, but it must be done with true understanding and not in the mood of psychological analysis or faultfinding, which we may apply to an ordinary person. (More...)

Traveling with him throughout the material world, He waits for the opportunity to instruct him when he begins to make serious inquiry. He constantly tries to instruct the jivatma, but due to his fallen, illusioned condition, the living entity misinterprets the Lord's instructions. Therefore the Lord manifests Himself externally as the guru and comes in a form which is more easily appreciable by the conditioned souls. He empowers His close associates to represent Him, and such mahatmas, being able to manifest the full potency of the Lord, are therefore to be worshiped as God, because they are as good as the Lord Himself and are perfectly competent to deliver anyone and everyone from the clutches of maya. simply by their speaking, the full glory of the Lord is manifest, and the intelligent living beings can take advantage of the instructions of such liberated souls for their own welfare. By simply engaging in the service of the pure devotees and hearing with all submission and attention, the candidate becomes enlightened and freed from the modes of ignorance and passion. As he hears about the Lord, his heart becomes purified and washed of all material contamination. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu glorifies this hearing and chanting in the following way: "Glory to the Sri Krsna sahkirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sahkirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious." (Siksastaka 1) (More...)

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed His disciples to write books on the science of Krsna, a task which those who follow Him have continued to carry out down to the present day. The elaborations and expositions on the philosophy taught by Lord Caitanya are in fact the most voluminous, exacting and consistent-due to the unbreakable system of disciplic succession-of any religious culture in the world. Yet Lord Caitanya, in His youth widely renowned as a scholar, Himself left us only eight verses, called Siksastakam, in which His mission and precepts are revealed. (More...)

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