XVI Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

Therefore Lord Krishna demanded that one should surrender unto Him through
the above-mentioned six phases of the surrendering process; but the less intelligent
class of men and so-called scholars of the world misunderstood these demands of the
Lord, and thus misguided the general mass of people to reject them. In the Bhagavad
Gita, at the end of the Ninth Chapter, the Lord directly orders one to always think
of Him, become His devotee, worship Him only, offer obeisances unto Him only—
and by doing so one is sure to come to Him in His Transcendental Abode. But
so-called scholarly demons misguide the mass of people, directing them not to
surrender like that to the Personality of Godhead, but rather to the impersonal,
non-manifested, eternal, unborn Truth. The Mayavadi, impersonalist, philosophers
do not accept that the last word in the matter of understanding the Absolute Truth
is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one desires to understand the Sun as he is,
one faces first of all the sunshine, and then the Sun globe, and at last if one is able to
enter into that globe, there is the possibility of seeing face-to-face the predominating
Deity of the Sun. The Mayavadi philosophers, due to a poor fund of knowledge,
cannot go beyond the Brahman effulgence which is like the sunshine. The Upanishads
confirm that one has to penetrate the dazzling effulgence of Brahman, and then one
can see the real Face of the Personality of Godhead.

Lord Chaitanya therefore teaches us directly that one has to worship Lord
Krishna, Who appeared as the foster Child of the King of Braja. He also recommends
that the place known as Vrindaban is as good as Lord Krishna because, Lord Krishna
being the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between
His Name, Quality, Form, Pastimes, Entourage, and Paraphernalia.

Lord Chaitanya also recommended that the mode of worshipping the Lord in
the highest perfectional stage is the method of worship conceived by the Damsels of
Braja. The Damsels of Braja, the Gopis, simply loved Krishna without any motive
for material or spiritual gain. He also recommended that Srimad Bhagwatam is the
spotless narration of transcendental knowledge and that the highest gain in the
human form of life is to develop unalloyed love of Krishna, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead.

Lord Chaitanya’s teachings are exactly the same as those given by Lord Kapila,
the original propounder of the Samkhya Yoga, or the Samkhya system of philosophy.
This authorized system of Yoga is practiced on the principle of meditation on the
Transcendental Form of the Lord. There is no meditating on something Void or
impersonal involved. When one is practiced to meditate upon the Transcendental
Form of Lord Vishnu, even without the sitting posture in a particular place and
atmosphere, the stage is called perfect Samadhi. This perfect Samadhi of Samkhya Yoga
is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita at the end of the Sixth Chapter, where the Lord
says that of all the yogis, one who constantly thinks of the Lord within the core of
his heart with love and devotion is the greatest.

Lord Chaitanya instructed this Samkhya Yoga, or system of philosophy—called
