PLATE SIX

Five hundred years ago Lord Krsna appeared in His most merciful in-
carnation—Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. During His manifest existence on
earth, Lord Caitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philo-
sophically, by encountering, defeating, and converting the greatest phi-
losophers 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
krsna-bhakti (devotional service to Lord Krsna) was sankirtana, the con-
gregational chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. Here, before thousands
of His followers, we see Lord Caitanya performing sankirtana with His
closest associates, including Sri Nityananda Prabhu (clad in blue), who is
an incarnation of Lord Balarama. Lord Caitanya Himself summed up the
glories of Hare Krsna sankirtana 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 Krsna, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the mis-
eries of the blazing fire of material existence. The chanting of the Hare
Krsna 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 ex-
pands 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)
