History of Vrindavana

Introduction   The Lord Descends   Discovery of Vrindavana by Lord Chaitanya
Srila Prabhupada     The Sacred River Yamuna    Vrindavana Parikrama    
The Six Goswamis    Who is Lord Chaitanya?    Who are Radha and Krishna?

Who Is Lord Chaitanya?

Lord Chaitanya appeared in Mayapura, West Bengal, India, in 1486. He is Krishna Himself appearing in the role of His own devotee. He descended to this material world for two purposes:
1) to spread love of God through the chanting of the holy names of God and to thus deliver people from their material bondage and suffering, and
2) to taste the nectar of pure love of God, Krishna, as it was tasted by His topmost devotee and personified internal pleasure potency, Srimati Radharani. 

In His early life Lord Chaitanya hid His identity as God and played the part of a scholar with enormous knowledge and talent. However, when the time was right He showed His intimate devotees that He was indeed the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This revelation has been recorded in His biographies, the foremost of which is Sri Chaitanya Caritamrita, available from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

At age twenty-four Lord Chaitanya accepted the renounced order of life, sannyasa, and left His home in Mayapura to travel throughout India to spread love of God. He would uplift everyone He came in contact with—whether an atheist, criminal, or pious person—to the platform of love of Krishna. Lord Chaitanya did not consider whether the recipients of love of God were worthy or not; He indiscriminately bestowed what no incarnation of God had ever given before, pure love for Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 

After traveling and preaching for six years, Lord Chaitanya returned to Jagannatha Puri, where he resided for the remaining eighteen years of His manifestation on earth, intensely tasting the mellows of pure love for Krishna. He visited Vrndavana, Benares, Allahabad, and Bengal during this time as well. Although Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself, He accepted the mood and golden complexion of Srimati Radharani, His consort and greatest worshiper. In other words, although He is God Himself, He was always absorbed in the mood of His topmost devotee, and thus He relished the highest love of Krishna together with His confidential associates. 

Lord Chaitanya taught His followers, primarily the six Goswamis of Vrndavana, the complete science of bhakti-yoga, love of God, and they compiled voluminous books for our enlightenment. (The most important of these, The Nectar of Devotion, is available from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.) He established the yuga-dharma, the religion of the age, in the form of 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. Because of this sankirtana movement of Lord Chaitanya’s, which continues to this day in the form of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, people across the globe can learn how to perfect their lives and attain the highest position of love of God. 

To find out more about Lord Chaitanya and His message of love of God, please read Srila Prabhupada's Teachings of Lord Chaitanya or Sri Chaitanya-Caritamrita, both available from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.