Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
The Lord as devotee
Lord Caitanya appeared in Mayapur, West Bengal,
more than 500 years ago. He is an incarnation of Krishna
who descended to this material world for two purposes,
to spread the chanting of the holy names of God to deliver
all the people from their material bondage, and to
simultaneously taste the nectar of pure love of God,
Krishna, as it was tasted by His topmost devotee,
Srimati Radharani, who is the internal energy of Krishna.
In His early life, Lord Caitanya played the part
of an
ordinary scholar with enormous knowledge and talent,
while hiding the truth of His incarnation. However,
when the time was right, He manifested Himself as
the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His devotees
who chanted together with Him His holy names in the
topmost ecstasy of love of God.
After His 24th year, He accepted the renounced
order
of life, sannyasa, and left His home in Mayapur to travel
throughout India to convert all the people to lovers of God.
He would transform anyone, be he an atheist, rascal, or worse,
as well as the pious and good, to the platform of love of
Godhead. Lord Caitanya did not consider whether the
recipients of love of God were worthy or not, He
indiscriminately bestowed what no other incarnation
of God every gave before, pure love of the Lord.
After traveling and preaching for six years, when
all the
people were absorbed in love of Godhead, He resided
in Jagannatha Puri for twelve years and intensely tasted
the love that His pure devotees have for Him. Although
He is Krishna Himself, He accepted the mood and color
of Srimati Radharani, His spiritual counterpart, and thought
of Himself as His own devotee. Thus, although He is God
Himself, He always was absorbed in the mood of His topmost
devotees and thus He relished the highest love of Krishna
together with His confidential associates.
Lord Caitanya started the sankirtan movement which
continues
to this day in the form of this ISKCON society. He established
the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna, hare
krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare / hare rama,
hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. It is due to the movement
of Lord Caitanya that the people of this world can have some
idea of the highest position of love of God.
One who is interested in understanding more about
Lord
Caitanya and His associates and expansions should read
Srila Prabhupada's Teachings of Lord Caitanya or The
Caitanya-caritamrta, both available in your local language
from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT).