Introduction
“HARE KṚṢŅA” has become a household phrase in cities, towns and villages throughout the world, fulfilling a prophecy made almost five hundred years ago by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. From Los Angeles to London, from Bombay to Buenos Aires, from Pittsburgh and Melbourne to Paris and even Moscow, people of all ages, colors, creeds and faiths are feeling the bliss of the dynamic  yoga  system called “Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement began in full force some five hundred years ago, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa (God), flooded the subcontinent of India with the chanting of the  mantra  Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. To reveal the secret of what real love is, Kṛṣṇa came to earth five hundred years ago in the guise of His own devotee—as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. With His chief associates—Nityānanda, Advaita, Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa—He taught how to develop love of Godhead simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and dancing in ecstasy.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta , which was written by the great saint Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī shortly after Lord Caitanya’s disappearance, vividly describes Lord Caitanya’s blissful pastimes and probes deeply into His profound spiritual philosophy.
The translations and purports, the explanations of the verses, are the work of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, author of  Bhagavad-gītā As It Is; The Nectar of Devotion; Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead  (first published in 1970 with the kind help of Mr. George Harrison); and numerous other books about  yoga  and self-realization.
Although this is the third volume of  Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta , one need not have read Volume Two to understand and appreciate this book. Śrīla Prabhupāda remarks that such a spiritual work is like sugar, for wherever you begin tasting it you will surely enjoy its sweetness.
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