Lord Caitanya

Thus Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami discusses Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as Sri Krsna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Lord Nityananda as Balarama, the first expansion of Krsna. Advaitacarya, another principal disciple of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's, is accepted as an expansion of the Maha-Visnu. Thus Advaitacarya is also the Lord, or, more precisely, an expansion of the Lord. The word advaita means nondual, and his name is such because he is nondifferent from the Supreme Lord. He is also called acarya, teacher, because he disseminated Krsna consciousness. In this way he is just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Although Caitanya is Sri Krsna Himself, He appears as a devotee to teach people in general how to love Krsna. Similarly, Advaitacarya appeared just to distribute the knowledge of Krsna consciousness. Thus he is also the Lord incarnated as a devotee. Krsna is manifested in five different expansions, and He and all of His associates appear as devotees of the Supreme Lord in the form of Sri Krsna Caitanya, Nityananda, Advaitacarya, Gadadhara, Srivasa and others. In all cases, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the source of energy for all His devotees. Since this is the case, if we take shelter of Caitanya Mahaprabhu for the successful execution of Krsna consciousness, we are sure to make progress. One devotional song by Narottama dasa Thakura states: "My dear Lord Caitanya, please have mercy upon me. There is no one who is as merciful as You. My plea is most urgent because Your mission is to deliver fallen souls, and no one is more fallen than I. I beg priority."    (More...)

In his Anubhasya commentary Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura describes the Panca-tattva as follows. The supreme energetic, the Personality of Godhead, manifesting in five kinds of pastimes, appears as the Panca-tattva. Actually there is no difference between them because they are situated on the absolute platform, but they manifest different spiritual varieties as a challenge to impersonalists to taste different kinds of spiritual humors (rasas). In the Vedas it is said, parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate: "The varieties of energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are differently known." From this statement of the Vedas one can understand that there are eternal varieties of humors or tastes in the spiritual world. Sri Gauraṅga, Sri Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Sri Gadadhara and Srivasa are all on the same platform, but in spiritually distinguishing between them one should understand that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the form of a devotee, Nityananda Prabhu appears in the form of a devotee's spiritual master, Advaita Prabhu is the form of a bhakta (devotee) incarnation, Gadadhara Prabhu is the energy of a bhakta, and Srivasa is a pure devotee. Thus there are spiritual distinctions between them. The bhakta-rupa (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu), the bhakta-svarupa (Sri Nityananda Prabhu) and the bhakta-avatara (Sri Advaita Prabhu) are described as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, His immediate manifestation and His plenary expansion, and They all belong to the Visnu category. Although the spiritual and marginal energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Visnu, they are predominated subjects, whereas Lord Visnu is the predominator. As such, although they are on the same platform, they have appeared differently in order to facilitate tasting of transcendental mellows. Actually, however, there is no possibility of one being different from the other, for the worshiper and the worshipable cannot be separated at any stage. On the absolute platform, one cannot be understood without the other.    (More...)

He is described as follows: Lord Chaitanya is the only shelter for the forlorn, or the most fallen, and He is the only hope for persons who are completely devoid of spiritual knowledge. Let us try to discuss His great contribution of devotional service.    (More...)

The Supremely Powerful Lord Krishna becomes manifest in five different potentialities. Although He is One without any second, still, for serving five different specific spiritual purposes, He is manifested in five. Such diversity is eternal and blissful, as opposed to the conception of montonous oneness. From the version of Vedic literature, we can understand that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, eternally exists with His diverse energies. Lord Chaitanya appeared with full diverse energies, and they are five in number; and, therefore, He is said to be Krishna with diverse energies, presented as Lord Chaitanya.    (More...)

Out of these five diversities of the Absolute Truth, the Form of Lord Chaitanya is the Original Personality of Godhead, Krishna. The identity of Krishna as Lord Nityananda is as the manifestation of the first expansion of the Supreme Lord. And, similarly, Adwaita Prabhu is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord. All these three belong to the category of Vishnu Tattwa, or the Supreme Absolute Truth. Srivas is the representation of a pure devotee, and Gadadhara is the representation of the internal energy of the Lord for advancement in the cause of pure devotion. Therefore Gadadhara and Srivas, although within the category of Vishnu, are diverse energies of the Supreme Lord. In other words, they are not different from the energetic, but, still, for relishing transcendental relationships, they are manifested diversely. The whole process of devotional service is transcendental reciprocation of the flavors of relationship between the worshipped and the worshipper. Without such a diverse exchange of transcendental flavors, devotional service has no meaning.    (More...)

In the Vedic literature (Katho Upanishad) there is a verse which says that the Supreme Lord is the Supreme Living Entity amongst all living entities. There are innumerable living entities, but there is One Living Entity Who is the Supreme Absolute Godhead. The difference between that Singular Living Entity and the plural number of living entities is that the Singular Living Entity is the Lord of all. Lord Chaitanya is that Supreme Living Entity, Who descended Himself for claiming the fallen innumerable living entities. In other words, the specific purpose of Lord Chaitanya's advent in recent ages was to establish the Vedic fact that there is One Supreme Personality of Godhead predominating over, or maintaining, the numerous personalities of living entities. The Mayavadi, impersonalist, philosophers cannot understand this, and therefore Lord Chaitanya advented Himself, to convince the people in general about the real nature of the relationship between the Supreme and the many entities.    (More...)

In this way Lord Caitanya teaches the science of Krsna consciousness. That science is absolute. Dry mental speculators try to restrain themselves from material attachment, but it is generally found that the mind is too strong to be controlled and that it drags them down to sensual activities. A person in Krsna consciousness does not run this risk. One has to engage his mind and senses in Krsna conscious activities, and Lord Caitanya teaches one how to do this in practice. Before accepting sannyasa (the renounced order), Lord Caitanya was known as Visvambhara. The word visvambhara refers to one who maintains the entire universe and who leads all living entities. This maintainer and leader appeared as Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya to give humanity these sublime teachings. Lord Caitanya is the ideal teacher of life's prime necessities. He is the most munificent bestower of love of Krsna. He is the complete reservoir of all mercies and good fortune. As confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, Mahabharata and the Upanisads, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna Himself, and He is worshipable by everyone in this age of disagreement. Everyone can join in His saṅkirtana movement. No previous qualification is necessary. Just by following His teachings, anyone can become a perfect human being. If one is fortunate enough to be attracted by His features, one is sure to be successful in one's life mission. In other words, those who are interested in attaining spiritual existence can be easily relieved from the clutches of maya by the grace of Lord Caitanya. These teachings presented in this book are nondifferent from the Lord.    (More...)