Lord Chaitanya, The Original Personality of Godhead 159
should give up all other engagements and should engage in the devotional
service of the Lord. But after His disappearance, persons with less intelligence
misunderstood Him. They became contaminated with the Mayavadi phi-
losophy, which produced so many mental speculators that people became
misled about the actual position of the Absolute Truth and the living entity.
Lord Chaitanya, therefore, although the Supreme Lord Krishna Himself,
again appeared to teach the fallen souls of this material world how to approach
Lord Krishna. The philosophy of Bhagavad Gita is that one should give up
everything and be done with this world of material attachment. A pure
devotee of Lord Krishna and one who follows the philosophy of Lord Chait-
anya are the same. Chaitanya’s philosophy is: one should give up everything
and worship God, Krishna. The difference is that Krishna, as the Supreme
Lord, the personality of Godhead, spoke the same words indicating Himself,
and the Mayavadi philosophers misunderstood Him. Therefore, Lord Chai-
tanya indicated the same thing: one should not declare himself to be as good
as Krishna, but should worship Krishna as the Supreme Lord.

It is a great mistake if we accept Lord Chaitanya as one of the conditioned
souls; He is to be understood as the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality
of Godhead, Sri Krishna Himself, In the Chaitanya Charitamrita, therefore,
it is said of Lord Chaitanya: “Krishna is now present in His five diverse mani-
festations,” as is being explained here. Unless one is in uncontaminated good-
ness, it is very difficult to understand Lord Chaitanya as the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead Himself. Therefore, to understand Lord Chaitanya one
has to follow the direct disciples of Lord Chaitanya, the six Goswamis, and
especially the path chalked out by Srila Jiva Goswami.

The most astonishing factor is that Lord Chaitanya, although the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Krishna, never exhibited Himself as Krishna. Rather,
whenever He was detected by intelligent devotees as Lord Krishna, and ad-
dressed as Lord Krishna, He denied it, and sometimes He closed His ears,
protesting that one should not be addressed as the Supreme Lord. This was
His indirect teaching to the Mayavadi philosophers: that one should never
pose oneself as the Supreme Lord falsely, and thereby misdirect the followers.
The followers also should not be foolish enough to accept anyone and everyone
as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without testing with the Scriptures
and by activities. One should not, however, mistake Lord Chaitanya with
His five diverse manifestations as ordinary human beings. He is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Krishna Himself. The beauty of Lord Chaitanya is
that, although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, He Him-
