Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionThere are different stages of devotional service and God realization. Strictly speaking, anyone who accepts the existence of God is situated in devotional service. To acknowledge that God is great is …
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionHowever, Lord Caitanya’s greatest gift was His teaching that Kṛṣṇa can be treated as one’s lover. In this relationship the Lord becomes so much attached to His devotee that He expresses His inability …
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionCaitanya Mahāprabhu informs us that in every country and in every scripture there is some hint of love of Godhead. But no one knows what love of Godhead actually is. The Vedic scriptures, however, are…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionThis brings up the question of who Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is and what Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is. Actually Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is the exchange of love — but not ordinary love. Kṛṣṇa has immense potencies, of which three are p…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionTo learn how Kṛṣṇa enjoys pleasure, we must study the first nine cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then we should study the Tenth Canto, in which Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure potency is displayed in His pastimes w…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionRādhā and Kṛṣṇa are one, and when Kṛṣṇa desires to enjoy pleasure, He manifests Himself as Rādhārāṇī. The spiritual exchange of love between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is the actual display of Kṛṣṇa’s internal p…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionAfter offering respects to Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja begins offering them to Lord Nityānanda in the seventh verse of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The author explains that Lord Nityānanda is
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionBalarāma, who is the origin of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Kṛṣṇa’s first expansion is Balarāma, a portion of whom is manifested as Saṅkarṣaṇa, who then expands as Pradyumna. In this way so many expansions take place.…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionMahā-Viṣṇu is actually an expansion of Balarāma, who is Kṛṣṇa’s first expansion and, in the Vṛndāvana pastimes, His brother. In the mahā-mantra — Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare R…
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta - Ādi-līlā - IntroductionThe subject matter of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta primarily deals with what is beyond this material creation. The cosmic material expansion is called māyā, illusion, because it has no eternal existence. B…
