Showing posts with label Caitanya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caitanya. Show all posts

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Lord Caitanya taught this philosophy through the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. He taught that the holy name of the Lord is the sound incarnation of the Lord and that since the Lord is the absolute whole, there is no difference between His holy name and His transcendental form. Thus by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can directly associate with the Supreme Lord by sound vibration.


At His birth, in His childhood and 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. During His pauganda age He became a serious student and also taught disciples. In this way He used to explain the holy name of Krsna everywhere. When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was a student, He asked whomever He met to chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. In this way He inundated the whole town of Navadvipa with the chanting of Hare Krsna.

Just prior to His youthful life, He began the sankirtana movement. Day and night He used to dance in ecstasy with His devotees. The sankirtana movement went on from one part of the town to another, as the Lord wandered everywhere performing kirtana. In this way He inundated the whole world by distributing love of Godhead.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu lived in the Navadvipa area for twenty-four years, and He induced every person to chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and thus merge in love of Krsna. For His remaining twenty-four years, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, after accepting the renounced order of life, stayed at Jagganatha Puri with His devotees. For six of these twenty-four years in Jagganatha Puri He distributed love of Godhead by always chanting and dancing. Beginning from Cape Comorin and extending through Bengal to Vrndavana, during these six years He toured all of India , chanting, dancing and distributing love of Krsna.

The activities of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His travels after He accepted sannyasa are His principal pastimes. His activities during His remaining eighteen years are called the antya-lila, or the final portion of His pastimes. For six of the eighteen years He continuously stayed in Jagganatha Puri, He regularly performed kirtana, inducing all the devotees to love Krsna simply by chanting and dancing. For the remaining twelve years He stayed in Jagganatha Puri, He taught everyone how to taste the transcendental mellow ecstasy of love of Krsna by tasting it Himself.

One may raise the question how all three worlds became inundated with love of Krsna, since Caitanya Mahaprabhu performed kirtana only in the Navadvipa area. The answer is that Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself. The entire cosmic manifestation results from the Lord’s first setting it in motion. Similarly, since the sankirtana movement was first set in motion five hundred years ago by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s desire that it spread all over the universe, the Krsna consciousness movement, in continuity of that same motion, is now spreading all over the world, and in this way it will gradually spread all over the universe. With the spread of the Krsna consciousness movement, everyone will merge in an ocean of love of Krsna. (CC Adi-lila 13:22-38)

O most munificent incarnation! You are Krsna Himself appearing as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krsna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You. (Rupa Goswami CC Madhya-lila 19.54)


Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare,

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Material Gain is Benediction or Poison?


There are two classes of men — namely the kṛpaṇa and the brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa is one who knows Brahman, the Absolute Truth, and who thus knows his real interest. A kṛpaṇa, however, is one who has a material, bodily concept of life. Not knowing how to utilize his human or demigod life, a kṛpaṇa is attracted by things created by the material modes of nature. The kṛpaṇas, who always desire material benefits, are foolish, whereas brāhmaṇas, who always desire spiritual benefits, are intelligent. If a kṛpaṇa, not knowing his self-interest, foolishly asks for something material, one who awards it to him is also foolish. Kṛṣṇa, however, is not a foolish person; He is supremely intelligent. If someone comes to Kṛṣṇa asking for material benefits, Kṛṣṇa does not award him the material things he desires. Instead, the Lord gives him intelligence so that he will forget his material desires and become attached to the Lord's lotus feet. In such cases, although the kṛpaṇa offers prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa for material things, the Lord takes away whatever material possessions the kṛpaṇa has and gives him the sense to become a devotee. As stated by the Lord in theCaitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.39):

āmi — vijña, ei mūrkhe 'viṣaya' kene diba?

sva-caraṇāmṛta diyā 'viṣaya' bhulāiba

"Since I am very intelligent, why should I give this fool material prosperity? Instead I shall induce him to take the nectar of the shelter of My lotus feet and make him forget illusory material enjoyment." If one sincerely prays to God for material possessions in exchange for devotional service, the Lord, who is not foolish like such an unintelligent devotee, shows him special favor by taking away whatever material possessions he has and gradually giving him the intelligence to be satisfied only by rendering service to His lotus feet. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura comments in this regard that if a foolish child requests his mother to give him poison, the mother, being intelligent, will certainly not give him poison, even though he requests it. A materialist does not know that to accept material possessions means to accept poison, or the repetition of birth and death. An intelligent person, a brāhmaṇa, aspires for liberation from material bondage. That is the real self-interest of a human being.

A devotee may foolishly ask for material benedictions, but Lord Kṛṣṇa does not give him such benedictions, despite the devotee's prayers. Therefore people who are very attached to material life do not generally become devotees of Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu. Instead they become devotees of the demigods (kāmais tais tair hṛta jñānāḥ prapadyante'nya-devatāḥ [Bg. 7.20]). The benedictions of the demigods, however, are condemned in Bhagavad-gītā. Antavat tu phalaḿ teṣāḿ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām: "Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary." A non-Vaiṣṇava, one who is not engaged in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is considered a fool with a small quantity of brain substance.
SBG 6.9.50