A Brilliant Book On the Jewel of the Age
An appreciation of a profound biography of Lord Caitanya.
by Tattvavit Dāsa
Although Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in West Bengal way back in 1486, His name and fame stayed confined to parts of India for five centuries. But by 1986—the quincentennial of His advent—suddenly He had been discovered as a new hero, the jewel of this age, in dozens of countries with no Vedic culture like India’s. This marvel took place thanks to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who translated and published an impressive biography of Lord Caitanya—Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta—and inspired its distribution around the world. Over the past thirty years, Śrīla Prabhupāda's book trust published this biography in English and seventeen other languages for the first time, giving millions access to a book everyone in the world should read.
Caitanya-caritāmṛta literally means “the character of the living force in immortality,” and readers of the book learn about the immortal Lord Caitanya. When I first read about Lord Caitanya, I learned He was mirific—a miracle worker. The only miracle workers I knew of were Biblical personalities. As an innocent American boy, I had prayed beside stained-glass windows with radiant images of supernatural acts—and had awakened my inner life. Ten years later the news of Lord Caitanya’s equally potent acts impressed upon me His divinity. God, I learned, embarks on miraculous adventures whenever He descends.
Besides providing books about Lord Caitanya to millions like me, Śrīla Prabhupāda founded the Hare Kṛṣṅa movement and traveled worldwide from 1965 through 1977, teaching thousands of new followers of Lord Caitanya. People naturally wonder what would make a non-Hindu join an apparently Bengali religion like the Hare Kṛṣṅa movement. Even Indians, to whom Lord Caitanya is less well known than Lord Kṛṣṅa, wonder what would make someone follow Him or study His life and teachings. One explanation is that devotees of Lord Caitanya learn the highest transcendental truths from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which gives an integrated understanding of Lord Caitanya and Lord Kṛṣṅa.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta reveals, with reference to Vedic texts, that Lord Caitanya is the incarnation of God for this age. Internally He is Kṛṣṅa (antaḥ-kṛṣṅa), the effulgent bluish Supreme Personality of Godhead. Externally He has the glowing golden complexion (bahir gaura) of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṅī, Lord Kṛṣṅa's eternal consort. Concealing Himself as Śrī Caitanya, Kṛṣṅa tastes Rādhārāṅī’s mood as the most rapt devotee of Kṛṣṅa. Lord Caitanya comes to teach everyone to chant Śrī Kṛṣṅa's holy names and to dance in moods of devotion.
Devotees of Lord Caitanya naturally study His favorite scripture, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, often quoted in the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. In de-scribing the loving pastimes of Kṛṣṅa, the Bhāgavatam helps us realize the eternal pleasures enjoyed by Kṛṣṅa and His devotees. The unique truths of the Bhāgavatam shine with authentic value, like fine jewelry, and Lord Caitanya freely distributed these gems, hoping everyone would accept them. Therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda translated and published the jewellike Bhāgavatam and quoted it in all his books—some of which are published in eighty languages. Why shouldn’t everyone in the world read them?
Soon after Lord Caitanya left this world in 1534, Śrīla Kṛṣṅadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī wrote the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, in Bengali couplets. Śrīla Prabhupāda sensitively translated the couplets into prose. To encourage close study of the original, he provided trans-literations and synonyms for every word. He wrote extensive commentaries, making the highest and most difficult spiritual concepts accessible to everyone. So people find it spiritually enlivening to read Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Śrīla Prabhupāda's latest English edition comes to nine big volumes, averaging 730 pages each, fully describing Lord Caitanya’s mercy, emotions, and opulences.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta contains the nectar for which everyone is always anxious. There is no solace for the soul in the mirage of material happiness; everyone must find the supreme spiritual shelter. That oasis is in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
Recently, Tattvavit Dāsa edited the Interactive “Bhāgavad-gītā As It Is” CD and the first memoir about Prabhupāda written by one of his female disciples: Śrīla Prabhupāda Is Coming! by Mahāmāyā Devī Dāsī.