78 Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

Lord incarnates to preach chanting of the Holy Name of Krishna. The Lord
appears in this age in yellowish color, and He teaches people love of God
by chanting the Name of Krishna. The process of teaching is done Personally
by Krishna, and He exhibits His love of Godhead by chanting, singing, and
dancing with thousands of people following Him. This particular incarnation
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is foretold in the Srimad Bhagwatam,
Eleventh Canto, Fifth Chapter; in which it is stated that the Lord incarnates
in the Age of Kali as a devotee, always chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

But, it is stated there, His complexion is not like the Krishna of the Dvapara
Yuga. He is always engaged in preaching love of Godhead through the Sam-
kirtan movement, and those who are intelligent adopt this process of self-
realization. It is also stated in the Srimad Bhagwatam, Twelfth Canto, Third
Chapter, that the self-realization which could be achieved in the Satya mil-
lennium by meditation, in the Treta millennium by the performance of different
sacrifices, and in the Dvapara millennium by worshipping the Lord Krishna,
could be achieved in the Age of Kali simply by chanting these Holy Names:
Hare Krishna. In the Vishnu Purana also the same thing is confirmed: that for
this age there is no use of meditation or the performance of sacrifices or temple
worship. Simply by chanting the Holy Name of Krishna—Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare|Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,
Hare Hare—one can achieve perfect self-realization.

When Lord Chaitanya was describing the incarnation in this Age of Kali,
Sanatan Goswami, who had been a government minister and was perfectly
capable of drawing a conclusion, indirectly asked Lord Chaitanya, “How can
one understand the advent of an incarnation?” He could understand that
Lord Chaitanya was the incarnation of Krishna, corroborating the description
of the incarnation of the Kali millennium; and he also could understand that,
in the future, there would be many imitation incarnations following the
incarnation of Lord Chaitanya, because Lord Chaitanya played as an ordinary
Brahmin boy, though His devotees accepted Him as an incarnation. Sanatan
knew there would be many pretenders, and so he inquired from Lord Chai-
tanya: “How can one understand the symptoms of an incarnation?”

The Lord replied to the inquiry of Sanatan Goswami: “As one can under-
stand different incarnation of different millenniums with reference to the
context of the Vedic literature, similarly, one can understand who is actually
the incarnation of Godhead in this Age of Kali.”

Specially stressed is the reference to authoritative Scriptures: one should
