BANGALORE: Western scholars say He was a great Bengali saint, but biographers of His time authoritatively established His identity as God. As we begin to celebrate the five-hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of the appearance of Sri Krishna Chaitanya (on March 19, 2011), many people who have never heard the name of Chaitanya (and perhaps even some who have never heard the name Krishna) will ask, “Who is Krishna Chaitanya, and what is His significance?” If we turn to academic sources for an answer, we will find considerable historical data. A New History of India, by Stanley Wolpert, states, “In Bengal the most popular of all bhakti Hindu preachers was the teacher Chaitanya.” In A History of Indian Philosophy, the respected Surendranath Dasgupta writes, “The religious life of Chaitanya unfolds unique psychological symptoms of devotion which are perhaps unparalleled in history.” And the Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to Lord Chaitanya’s “profound and continuing effect on the religious sentiments of his Bengali countrymen.” The Britannica also states that Lord Chaitanya propagated “the community celebration [sankirtana] of Krishna as the most powerful means of bringing about the proper bhakti attitude.” From the historical records about Lord Chaitanya, we certainly see a picture of a God-conscious saint who appeared in India during the sixteenth century. But we have to seek further—into the devotional Vedic literature—to understand the full, spiritual significance of Lord Chaitanya and the bhakti movement that He inaugurated.
We should consult the biographies of Lord Chaitanya, especially the Chaitanya-bhagavata, by Vrindavana dasa Thakura, and the Chaitanya-charitamrita, by Krishnadasa Kaviraja. Both of these works were compiled in the sixteenth century and are filled with first-hand accounts of Lord Chaitanya’s acts and teachings. They also give us an accurate picture of the social and religious setting in which Lord Chaitanya lived. The Chaitanya-charitamrita is especially valuable, because the author quotes extensively from the Sanskrit Vedic scriptures to authoritatively and logically establish the divinity of Lord Chaitanya. One of the opening verses of Chaitanya-charitamrita boldly asserts that Lord Chaitanya is none other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna Himself:
What the Upanishads describe as the impersonal Brahman is but the effulgence of His body, and the Lord known as the Super soul (Paramatma) is but His localized plenary portion. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna Himself, full with six opulence's [wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge, and renunciation]. He is the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to Him. The author of Chaitanya-charitamrita does not expect us to accept this statement without proof; therefore, he carefully argues on the basis of guru, sastra, and sadhu to support his assertion about Lord Chaitanya. (According to Vedic knowledge. Spiritual truth is revealed through three harmonious sources: the scriptures [sastra], the disciplic succession of previous saints and teachers [sadhu], and one's own spiritual master [guru].
When these three authorized sources agree, then the information is conclusive.) Lord Chaitanya is Lord Krishna As a follower of Lord Chaitanya; I accept the statement of Chaitanya-charitamrita that Lord Chaitanya is Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I, along with many thousands of other Westerners, have come to accept this conclusion from the great spiritual master of the Krishna consciousness movement in the modern age, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has done more than anyone else to spread the teachings of Lord Chaitanya all over the world. It is, therefore, by Srila Prabhupada's grace that I attempt to demonstrate that Lord Chaitanya’s teachings are a nonsectarian, spiritual science and can be accepted by serious thinkers regardless of nationality, race, or religion.
