INTRODUCTION

Delivered as five morning lectures on the Chaitanya Charitamrita; the authori-
tative biography of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, written by Krishna Das Kaviraj;
before the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, New York City, April
10-14, 1967.

Chaitanya means the living force. You and I can move, but a table cannot
because it has no living force. Not only movement, but resistance is also a
sign of living force. Chaitanya means activities, Amrita means immortal, and
Charitra means character. There is no activity without living force. The
material condition has living force but is not Amrita, immortal. Chaitanya
Charitamrita, then, means the Character of the Living Force in Immortality.

But how is this displayed? It is not displayed by you or I—none of us are
immortal in these bodies. We have living force and activities, and we are
immortal by nature and constitution. But the material condition into which
we have been put doesn’t allow these qualities to be displayed. It is stated
in the Katha Upanishad that eternality and living force are characteristic of

I
