Lord Krishna descended in an especially merciful form in this age, when almost everyone suffers from degraded living in this and previous lives.
“O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krishna . We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.”
– Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 19.53
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself. Krishna ya Krishna -caitanya-namne: He has assumed the name Krishna Caitanya. Actually He is Krishna . That is confirmed in many literatures. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32) it is said,
krishna -varnam tvisakrishna m
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajñaih sankirtana prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah
“In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krishna . Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.”
After accepting the sannyasa order of life, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was called Krishna Caitanya. Rupa Gosvami, who composed the verse we are speaking on today, is saying, “You are Krishna , and You have now come as Krishna Caitanya.” Why? Krishna -premapradaya te: “Just to distribute love of Krishna .”
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission was to teach that the goal of life is love of God: prema pum-artho mahan. Generally people associated with Vedic culture understand the goals of life to be dharma, artha, kama, and moksa: religion, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that above moksa, above liberation, is love of God – prema pum-artho mahan. This is confirmed in the second verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which rejects dharma-artha-kama-moksa as kaitava-dharma, or in simple words “cheating religion.” Kaitava means cheating or false. According to Vyasadeva, the author of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, dharma-arthakama- moksa is not the essential thing. The real thing is to advance in the science of loving God, Krishna . Love for Krishna is called Krishna -prema. The Bhagavatam (1.2.6) also says,
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.” If you really want peace, then you should stand on the platform of para dharma, the supreme occupation.
The word para, or supreme, is also applicable to the supreme controller, the Purusa, who is Krishna , as described by Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita (10.12):
param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
purusam sasvatam divyam
adi-devam ajam vibhum
“You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest.” And the Brahma-samhita (5.1) states,
isvarah paramah krishnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindam
sarva-karana-karanam
“Krishna , who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.”
Krishna personally came to teach Krishna -bhakti. He came here to this district of Mathura. His birthplace is still here. Krishna came five thousand years ago to teach the science of Krishna -bhakti. When speaking the Bhagavad-gita (4.8), He proposed dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge: “I appear age after age to establish dharma.” But at the end of the Bhagavad-gita (18.66) He says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: “Abandon all varieties of dharma and just surrender unto Me.” And this is confirmed in the Srimad- Bhagavatam (1.1.2) – dharmaprojjhita kaitavo ’tra: Except surrendering to the lotus feet of Krishna , anything going on in the name of dharma is not dharma. Therefore Krishna says, sarva-dharman parityajya: “Give up all so-called dharma.”
Krishna did not come to establish the Hindu religion or the Christian religion or the Muslim religion. No. Religion is religion. Gold is gold. You cannot say “Hindu gold,” “Muslim gold,” “Christian gold.” That is not possible. That way of looking at religion is called kaitava-dharma, cheating dharma. Gold is gold – pure gold.
Therefore the Bhagavatam (6.3.19) says, dharmam tu saksad bhagavatpran itam: “Dharma means the order or the law given by God.” That is dharma. This is the simple explanation of dharma. Dharma means dharmam tu saksad bhagavatpran itam. Take, for example, the state law. The law means that which is given or sanctioned by the governor. You cannot make your own law at home. You cannot say, “I don’t care for the law given by the government or by the governor. I shall make my own law.” That is not possible. That will never be accepted as law. Similarly, if you manufacture dharma without any reference to the authority, that is not dharma. That is cheating religion.
The Beginning Of Spiritual Education
Therefore, what the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna , speaks is dharma. Mam ekam saranam vraja: “Surrender to Me alone.” All other things are cheating. And when Krishna says, mam ekam saranam vraja, He does not say it to any particular community or any country or any nation. He speaks to everyone.
sarva-yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija-pradah pita
“I am the seed-giving father of all forms of life.” (Gita 14.4) Krishna does not say, “I am speaking to Indian or Hindus.” No. Krishna is speaking to everyone, to all His sons. It doesn’t matter whether they are white or black or blue – it doesn’t matter. To see in terms of the body is called “skin disease.” Krishna says that we must not take the body as the self. The body goes through a natural transformation from childhood to youth to old age, but the part and parcel of Krishna is there within the body. You have to understand that. That is the beginning of the knowledge given in the Bhagavad-gita. We have to understand that which is within the body. That is the beginning of spiritual education.
Unfortunately, the whole world is going on under the impression that “I am this body.” They think, “I am Indian” or “I am European.” That thinking is condemned in the Srimad- Bhagavatam (10.84.13): yasyatmabuddhi h kunape tri-dhatuke . . . janesu abhijñesu sa eva go-kharah. Go means cow, and kharah means ass. If one takes it that “I am this body,” “I am Indian,” “I am American,” the Bhagavatam says, “He is not even a human being.” Sa eva go-kharah: “He is a cow or an ass.”
This Krishna consciousness movement is very, very important because everyone is thinking he is the body. Nobody understands that he is within the body, just as I am within this dress but I am not this dress. This is the primary education of spiritual life. Unfortunately, it is very much lacking.
Now you can see practically that these European and American boys, although they are all young men, have forgotten the bodily relationship. In our institution, we have Africans, Canadians, Australians, Europeans, Indians, but they do not consider with reference to the bodily concept of life. They live as eternal servants of Krishna . That is the instruction given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Jivera ‘svarupa’ haya—krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’: “It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krishna .” (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 20.108)
If we want to be happy, then we have to accept the principle of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.6), which states that the highest dharma is bhakti, or devotion, to Krishna : yato bhaktir adhoksaje. Bhakti comes out of love. You cannot force someone to love you. It comes automatically. That automatic love for Krishna is there in everyone’s heart. That is stated in the Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 22.107):
nitya-siddha Krishna -prema ‘sadhya’ kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya
“Pure love for Krishna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting [about Krishna ], this love naturally awakens.” Udaya means “it is awakened.” Everyone has love for Krishna within the heart. That is natural. But that love is distributed in different ways, to family, community, nation, country. It has to be concentrated, converted to love of Krishna . That is required. Then everything is perfect. That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teaching.
Rescuing Jagais and Madhais
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (7.3),
manusyanam sahasresu
kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam
kascin mam vetti tattvatah
“Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.” We cannot even understand what Krishna is, what to speak of loving Him. That is a very difficult job. But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu distributed love of Krishna . Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, standing before you with Lord Nityananda, delivered many, many sinful persons to the transcendental position of love of Krishna . Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura has sung, vrajendra-nandana yei, saci-suta hoilo sei, balarama hoilo nitai: Krishna became Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Balarama became Nitai, or Nityananda. The same two brothers who came as Rama-Laksmana and Krishna -Balarama came again as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. What was Their business? Papi-tapi jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo: They delivered all the sinful persons and those suffering from material anxieties by giving them the holy name of Krishna . Tara saksi jagai madhai: “The evidence is Jagai and Madhai.” The brothers Jagai and Madhai were great debauchees. Though born in a brahmana family, they became woman-hunters and drunkards and cheaters. But Nityananda Prabhu delivered them, and they became first-class Vaisnavas.
Five hundred years ago, to become a drunkard was most abominable, especially in the higher section of Hindu society. But now it has become a fashion. So if you want to advance the position of society or of the country, which is now full of the sinful and the suffering (papi-tapi), you have to accept the process of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is practically being manifested. These European and American boys are also the same type – Jagai and Madhai. That is a fact. They were at least. Now they are not. How have they been delivered? The same process: by chanting the holy name. Papi-tapi jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo.
This Krishna consciousness movement is so important, and there are practical results. Introduce the offenseless chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and then the world situation will improve very much. That’s a fact. And it is being actually enacted in the present position. We are sending our men from village to village in Europe and America. We are taking advantage of the modern facilities. We are using the microphone for chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, we are using nice buses, cars, and vans to go from village to village to distribute books and chant Hare Krishna .
One of the leaders is present here, Sriman Tamala Krishna Gosvami. He is controlling about one dozen buses. And here is Hamsaduta also. He is doing the same in Germany. We have introduced this as Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered: prthivite ache yata nagaradigrama . . . : “In every town and village of the world, the chanting of My name will be heard.” (Caitanyabhagavata, Antya 4.126)
Throughout the whole world, in as many villages and towns as there are, this sankirtana movement should be introduced. And especially in India, because in India the people are generally Krishna conscious. By artificial means they are trying to forget Krishna . This is the position. This should be stopped. They have a natural tendency to become Krishna conscious. Therefore in these days, still so many hundreds and thousands of people come to Vrindavan to relish the transcendental mellow of Krishna consciousness.
Now the foreigners are also attracted to Krishna consciousness, and I am trying to place them in our temples. This temple is one of them. We have four or five temples in India. We are constructing a big temple in Hyderabad, and we are getting a good response.
Take the Hare Krishna Movement Seriously
It is our request to the leaders of society and to the people of India that they take this Krishna consciousness movement, the Hare Krishna movement, very seriously. It will be good for everyone, and the whole world will become peaceful. We do not expect that throughout the whole world everyone will take to Krishna consciousness. But if even five percent, two percent, three percent of the people take to Krishna consciousness, that will be a great example.
Our only request is this simple thing:
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha
“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.” (Brhannaradiya- purana 3.8.126) This is the formula of the sastra, the Vedic scriptures. And you will be surprised. I invite you to come to our centers in Europe and America, and you will see how they are chanting and dancing before the deities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda or Radha-Krishna . Recently I have been to Atlanta for the first time. The boys and the girls there have taken three big, big houses. The middle house has been transformed into a temple. How nicely they are chanting and dancing! You will be surprised if you go.
This movement is undoubtedly increasing in the foreign countries, and why not in our country? The government, the leaders, and the guardians should deeply contemplate on the serious nature of this movement and help us. We are bringing men from the foreign countries to preach. How long shall I bring them? We want to spread this movement all over India very seriously, and we invite educated, intellectual young men to come forward to study this movement. It is not blind sentiment; we have books. We have already published about fifty books on this movement. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement is meant for both kinds of men: The ordinary men without any education, even the illiterate, can take to it, and the most advanced scientists, philosophers, philanthropists, politicians can take to it. We are helping in both ways. Those who are educated scientists, philosophers, for them we have volumes of books. And those who are not educated can simply chant Hare Krishna . This movement has become important and of interest. Our books are being purchased by the topmost class of men. Big, big professors in the universities are giving standing orders for the books that are not yet published. Here our sannyasi is present, Satsvarupa. He is visiting the libraries, universities, professors, and we are getting very good response.
Don’t take it as a sectarian movement. Don’t misunderstand this movement as a CIA movement. These are all foolish ideas. Do you think the Americans are such fools that to propagate their CIA movement they will become Vaisnavas and chant and dance? The Americans have become such fools? No. They have taken it very seriously. They are not CIA, not Americans, not Europeans. They are Vaisnavas; they are servants of Krishna . Don’t misunderstand them. Try to cooperate and help this movement for the benefit of the whole human society.
Thank you very much.