PLATE SIX
Five hundred years ago Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared in His most merciful incarnation—Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. During His manifest existence on earth, Lord Caitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philosophically, by encountering, defeating, and converting the greatest philosophers of His day; religiously, by organizing the largest, most widespread theistic movement in India's history; socially, by His strong challenges against the religious inequities of the caste system; and politically, by His organization of a massive civil disobedience movement in Bengal, India, four hundred fifty years before Gandhi. Lord Caitanya's chief "weapon" in His effort to convert the Indian masses to the path of  kṛṣṇa-bhakti  (devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa) was  saṅkīrtana , the congregational chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Here, before thousands of His followers, we see Lord Caitanya performing  saṅkīrtana  with His closest associates, including Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu (clad in blue), who is an incarnation of Lord Balarāma. Lord Caitanya Himself summed up the glories of Hare Kṛṣṇa  saṅkīrtana  in the first of His  Eight Instructions on the Holy Name : "Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. The chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education and expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables everyone to taste full nectar at every step." ( pp.  133–45)