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Introduction

(Originally delivered as five morning lectures on Caitanya-caritamrta—the
authoritative biography of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu by Krsnadasa Kaviraja
Gosvami—before the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, New York
City, April 10-14, 1967)

The word caitanya means living force. As living entities, we can move, but a table
cannot because it does not possess living force. Movement and activity may be con-
sidered to be signs or symptoms of the living force. Indeed, it may be said that there
can be no activity without the living force. Although the living force is present in
the material condition, it is not amrta, immortal. The words caitanya-caritamrta,
then, may be translated as ‘“‘the character of the living force in immortality.”

But how is this living force displayed immortally? It is not displayed by man or
any other creature in this material universe, for none of us are immortal in these
bodies. We possess the living force, we perform activities, and we are immortal by
our nature and constitution, but the material condition into which we have been
put does not allow our immortality to be displayed. It is stated in the Katha
Upanisad that eternality and the living force belong both to ourselves and God.
Although this is true in that both God and ourselves are immortal, there is a
difference. As living entities, we perform many activities, but we have a tendency to
fall down into material nature. God has no such tendency. Being all-powerful, He
never comes under the control of material nature. Indeed, material nature is but one
display of His inconceivable energies.

On the ground we may see only clouds in the sky, but if we fly above the clouds
we can see the sun shining. From the sky, skyscrapers and cities seem very tiny;
similarly, from God's position this entire material creation is insignificant. The
tendency of the conditioned living entity is to come down from the heights where
everything can be seen in perspective. God, however, does not have this tendency.
The Supreme Lord is not subject to fall down into illusion (maya) any more than
the sun is subject to fall beneath the clouds. Because the Supreme Lord is not subject
to illusion, He is unconditioned; because we, as finite living entities, are prone to
fall into illusion, we are called conditioned. |mpersonalist philosophers (Mayavadis)
maintain that both the living entity and God Himself are under the control of maya
when they come into this material world. This may be true of the living entity, but
it is not true of God, for in all instances the material energy is working under His
direction. Those who consider the Supreme Lord to be subject to material con-
ditioning are called fools by Krsna Himself in Bhagavad-gita:

avajananti mam midha
manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto
mama bhita-mahesvaram
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