Introduction 29

The Lord explained the word mukti to be equivalent to the word Visnu,
or the Personality of Godhead. To attain mukti or liberation from the
bondage of material existence is to attain to the service of the Lord.

The Lord then proceeded towards South India for some time and
converted everyone He met on the way to become devotees of Lord Sri
Krsna. Such devotees also converted many others to the cult of devotional
service or to the Bhagavata-dharma of the Lord, and thus He reached the
bank of the Godavari, where He met Srila Ramananda Raya, the Gover-
nor of Madras on behalf of Maharaja Prataparudra, the King of Orissa.
His talks with Ramananda Raya are very important for higher realization
of transcendental knowledge, and the conversation itself forms a small
booklet. We shall, however, give herewith a summary of the conversation.

Sri Ramananda Raya was a self-realized soul, although outwardly he
belonged to a caste lower than the brahmana in social status. He was not
in the renounced order of life, and besides that he was a high government
servant in the State. Still Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him as a
liberated soul on the strength of the high order of his realization of
transcendental knowledge. Similarly, the Lord accepted Srila Haridasa
Thakur, a veteran devotee of the Lord coming from a Mohammedan family.
And there are many other great devotees of the Lord who came from
different communities, sects and castes. The Lord’s only criterion was the
standard of devotional service of the particular person. He was not con-
cerned with the outward dress of a man; He was concerned only with the
inner soul and its activities. Therefore the whole missionary activities of
the Lord are to be understood to be on the spiritual plane, and as such the
cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu or the cult of Bhdgavata-dharma has
nothing to do with mundane affairs, sociology, politics, economic develop-
ment or any such sphere of life. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the purely transcen-
dental urge of the soul.

When He met Sri Ramdnanda Raya on the bank of the Godavari, the
varndsrama-dharma followed by the Hindus was mentioned by the Lord.
Srila Ramananda Raya said that by following the principles of varndsrama-
dharma, the system of four castes and four orders of human life, everyone
could realize transcendence. In the opinion of the Lord, the system of
varndasrama-dharma is superficial only, and it has very little to do with the
highest realization of spiritual values. The highest perfection of life is to
get detached from the material attachment and proportionately realize the
transcendental loving service of the Lord. The Personality of Godhead
recognizes a living being who is progressing in that line. Devotional service
is, therefore, the culmination of the culture of all knowledge. When Si
Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared for the deliverance
