tntroduction 13
having to take help from his wife. Because we have no experience with spiritual
energy, we think that Brahma’s birth from the navel of Visnu is simply a fictional
story. We are not aware that spiritual energy is so powerful that it can do anything
and everything. Material energy is dependent on certain laws, but spiritual energy is
fully independent.

Brahma is born from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Visnu, who is but a partial
manifestation of the Maha-Visnu. Countless universes reside like seeds within the
skin pores of the Maha-Visnu, and when He exhales, they all are manifest. In the
material world we have no experience of such a thing, but we do experience a
perverted reflection in the phenomenon of perspiration. We cannot imagine,
however, the duration of one breath of the Maha-Visnu, for within one breath all of
the universes are created and annihilated. Lord Brahma only lives for the duration
of one breath, and according to our time scale 4,320,000,000 years constitute only
twelve hours of Brahma, and Brahmi lives one hundred of his years. Yet the whole
life of Brahma is contained within one breath of the Maha-Visnu. Thus it is not
possible for us to imagine the breathing power of the Supreme Lord. That Maha-
Visnu is but a partial manifestation of Krsna.

Thus Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami discusses Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as Sri
Krsna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Lord Nityananda as
Balarama, the first expansion of Krsna. Advaitacarya, another principal disciple of
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s, is accepted as an expansion of the Maha-Visnu. Thus
Advaitacarya is also the Lord, or, more precisely, an expansion of the Lord. The
word advaita means nondual, and his name is such because he is nondifferent from
the Supreme Lord. He is also called Gcarya, teacher, because he disseminated Krsna
consciousness. In this way he is just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Although Caitanya
is Sri Krsna Himself, He appears as a devotee to teach people in general how to love
Krsna. Similarly, Advaitacarya appeared just to distribute the knowledge of Krsna
consciousness. Thus he is also the Lord incarnated as a devotee. Krsna is manifested
in five different expansions, and He and all of His associates appear as devotees of
the Supreme Lord in the form of Sri Krsna Caitanya, Nityananda, Advaitacarya,
Gadadhara, Srivasa and others. In all cases, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the source of
energy for all His devotees. Since this is the case, if we take shelter of Caitanya
Mahaprabhu for the successful execution of Krsna consciousness, we are sure to
make progress. One devotional song by Narottama dasa Thakura states: ‘My dear
Lord Caitanya, please have mercy upon me. There is no one who is as merciful as
You. My plea is most urgent because Your mission is to deliver fallen souls, and no
one is more fallen than I. | beg priority.”

The author of Caitanya-caritamrta, Ktsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, was an inhabitant
of Vrndavana and a great devotee. He had been living with his family in Katwa, a
small town in the district of Burdwan in Bengal. His family also worshiped Radha-
Krsna, and once when there was some misunderstanding amongst his family about
devotional service, Krsnadasa Kaviraja was advised by Nityananda Prabhu in a dream
to leave home and go to Vrndavana. Although he was very old, he started out that
very night and went to live in Vrndavana. While he was there, he met some of the
