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Dinabandhu dasa
Lord Chaitanya, 1997, oil on canvas, 50 x 69 cm

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Sri Caitanya-caritamrita,
Adi-lila
(enlarge)
(By His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu pioneered a great social and spiritual movement in India over five hundred years ago, which today continues to spread its profound influence worldwide. While man in the West was exploring outward in the physical universe, in India Sri Krishna Chaitanya was exploring inward, exhibiting unparalleled spiritual potency, and discovering the truths of consciousness and transcendental reality. As a young boy he overwhelmed and astounded scholars, establishing his own school at the age of sixteen.

Within his lifetime, Sri Chaitanya transformed India in four respects: philosophically, by defeating the greatest philosophers of his day; socially, by opposing the blindly rigid caste system; politically, by organizing India's first civil disobedience movement against repression by the Mohammedan government; and spiritually, by freely distributing nonsectarian love of God. Sri Caitanya-caritamrita presents Sri Chaitanya as the Golden Avatar, the incarnation of Krishna in this age in the form of his devotee.

Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami wrote Sri Caitanya-caritamrita in classical Bengali and Sanskrit. He was a great saint and a confidential disciple and student of Ragunatha Dasa Gosvami, a renowned ascetic saint who was one of the intimate followers of Sri Krishna Chaitanya. This English translation and commentary, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, reveals his consummate Bengali and Sanskrit scholarship, his intimate familiarity with the precepts of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, and his pure devotion to the Lord.

It would not be inaccurate to say that Sri Caitanya-caritamrita is one of the most important works of historical and philosophical literature ever written. It is the principal work on the life and teachings of Sri Krishna Chaitanya. The ease and clarity with which Srila Prabhupada expounds upon Sri Chaitanya's precepts enables even a reader totally unfamiliar with the Indian religious tradition to understand and appreciate this profound and monumental work.

With translations and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Hardbound, nine volumes, 7,300 pages, 16.5 x 24 cm


Click here to read the Caitanya-caritamrita online.

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