Five Glories of Chaitanya Charitamrita CC Adi Lila 12 52 56 – Chaitanya Charan

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

So, in this Adi Leela of the Chetan Charita Amrit, there is a lot of first conceptual elaboration, the first 7-8 chapters. And thereafter, there is a, now, right now, there seems to be a lot of what we call a genealogical or historical information. For example, here, Advaita Acharya and his descendants are being described.

So, there are, there are specifics over here, but I would like to approach this from a big picture perspective. And recently, I wrote a book about Shri Prabhupada on his Markide Bhagavad Dharma prayers. So, I have been discussing with different devotees about Shri Prabhupada's strategies and choices in what he did and why he did.

I will talk a little bit about it in today evening's class about what was the significance of Shri Prabhupada's success in London and UK. But one of the things, one of the big choices that Shri Prabhupada made was to comment on the Chetan Charita Amrit as contrasted with the Chaitanya Bhagavad or Chaitanya Mangal, which were actually much more popular in the Gaudiya tradition as it was present at that time in Bengal. So, this is a very significant decision.

And based on whatever I have been able to study, I will talk about five glories of Chetan Charita Amrita as a large book and as a big picture perspective. And through that, we will see how we can make better sense of Shri Prabhupada's choice. Shri Prabhupada said that to study scripture from different perspectives.

So, perspectives means when we approach a book or we approach any subject. So, we could look at it from one side. We could look at it from another side.

So, like that, there are different perspectives that we can have. So, depending on how much time we have, each perspective, I will take three or five perspectives to discuss the glory of Chetan Charita Amrit. I will use an acronym, Charita.

Charita also means character. And if you consider CC itself as a book, we will try to see how many perspectives we can cover today. Now, I will start with historical perspective.

If you consider, the first point is that when we look at the content of the book. Now, we say, obviously, content is the most important part of the book. But with respect to content, you know, there is something very distinctive in the content of the book.

That is that if we consider Chaitanya Bhagwat or Chaitanya Mangal, you know, these are biographies and their focus is more on Leela. And because the focus is more on Leela, there are many beautiful descriptions of the pastimes. But there is not much focus on the philosophy, on the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Now, of course, that doesn't mean teachings are not there. But the teachings are more of assertions than expositions. That, OK, this is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught.

But it is not a systematic elaboration. Now, Chaitanya Charita Amrut, if we consider, in contrast, though while it is at one level also a biography, but it is much more a book of theology than a biography. So, it's more of a book of theology in the format of a biography.

What do I mean by this? Let's try to understand the structure of the book. How many parts are there in the book? Three parts. So, conveniently there is Adi, Madhya and Anta.

So, now, this particular classification is quite standard. Other biographies also have this. Chaitanya Bhagwat has it.

But the classification that is done is different in Chaitanya Charita Amrut. In Chaitanya Bhagwat, which part is called Adi, which part is called Madhya, which part is called Antya, that is different. So, now, one of the things is, if you look at Adi Leela, the Madhya Leela is, the number of chapters is longest, there are 25 chapters.

In Anta Leela, there are 20 chapters. In Adi Leela, how many chapters are there in your notes? 19 chapters. Now, if you go back to the chapters over here, you will see something very interesting over here.

So, 17 chapters are there over here. Out of it, actually, the Leela starts from chapter 13, the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And there are basically 4 chapters over here, 13 to 17, 5 chapters, which actually give the past tense.

So, basically, if you consider that there are total of 62 chapters over here. Now, among these chapters, what exactly happens is, let's focus on the Adi Leela. So, overall the Madhya Leela is, Adi Leela, Anta Leela, lot of, there are past tenses.

But there is a particular format that is used. All the chapters are not necessarily of the same length. Some chapters are super long.

If you look at Ramanand Rai's chapter, super long. So, in one sense, when an author is writing a book or somebody is directing a movie, then what happens is that sometimes there might be a lot of shooting that is done, but then you decide what to retain and what to edit out. So, which character is given how much screen time or which particular scene, how much is described.

So, that is an editorial choice and that reveals what is considered more important by the editor or the author. So, generally, any book that is written, at least before AI came over and started writing books. So, any author who would write a book, probably, every seriously written book, the 200 page book, generally 400-500 pages are written.

And then more than half of the book is edited out. But when it is edited out, it is not that it is lost. That is invisibly present.

The content is concentrated. So, my point is, what is elaborated and what is abbreviated, that is quite significant. So, in the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit, in terms of content, many times it is the Leela, if you consider the Leela and its philosophy.

So, quite often, the Leela is abbreviated and the philosophy is elaborated. So, for example, if you consider, and this is a historical reason for this, Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit was written later, Chaitanya Bhabha's other books were written before. So, Krishnadas K.V. Das Goswami says that many places that, I don't want to repeat what has been given by my predecessor authors.

He is very respectful and reverential towards them. At the same time, he has a particular message to give. And this format of having teachings combined with the philosophy, with the past times.

And the distinctiveness of this is that he elaborates on the philosophy. And he goes deep into the discussions. If you go to Chaitanya Bhagwat, the discussion between Sarovam Bhattacharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is described very briefly over there.

They met and Sarovam Bhattacharya was transformed. It's not that elaborate. The past times are shortened because his focus is that the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu need to be emphasized.

And Prabhupada, when he also did some internal decisions, we know that Prabhupada had certain emphasis. So, Prabhupada started his life's magnum opus Bhagavatam when he was in India. But then just as Krishnadas K.V. Das Goswami was racing against time, actually Prabhupada was also racing against time.

And therefore, Prabhupada first translated the tenth canto of the Bhagavatam in his summary study as Krishna book. He was not sure whether he would complete all the twelve cantos of the Bhagavatam. And then after he had made that available, again he paused his Bhagavatam work to work on the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit.

So, he considered the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit to be such an important book. And just as he wanted to make sure the tenth canto is given, he also wanted to make sure that the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit is given, Chaitanya Leela is given. But again, going further, if we see, Prabhupada, he wanted to give, because the tenth canto, that is the Bhagavatam itself.

He wanted to give the full Bhagavatam. But that full Bhagavatam, in case he would not be able to give, he gave us Krishna book. So, brief, you could say, the highlights.

Now, similarly, Prabhupada wanted to give us the full Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit. And he did succeed in giving that. But before that, he gave us the TLC, teaching of Raj Chaitanya.

And now, when something is extracted from a book, something is given beforehand, then that indicates that it is especially important. And what does the teaching of, what the book teaching of Raj Chaitanya contains? It is basically the philosophical conversations. The philosophical conversations, these are what even Prabhupada considered to be so important within the book.

Now, there are many philosophical conversations. And let's try to get a sense of those conversations to understand their significance. So, broadly speaking, there are five main conversations.

Five conversations are there. And they all have, they have three distinct formats. So, it's like, one is for outsiders.

Then second is for insiders. And third is for successors. So, for outsiders, there are two conversations.

There is a conversation with Sarvam Bhattacharya, there is a conversation with Prakashanand Saraswati. These are where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is speaking to people who are not Vaishnavas. In fact, the major competing school of thought at that time was Advaita Vedanta.

And Mahaprabhu spoke to prominent exponents of those, that school of thought. And he inspired and transformed them. And both of them were spectacular successors for Mahaprabhu.

It's generally, say, when a sports match happens, cricket match is there, every country has the home advantage. So, Mahaprabhu went to Puri, Sarvam Bhattacharya was his home advantage. And there itself Mahaprabhu transformed Sarvabhauma.

And Mahaprabhu went to Varanasi. Prabhupada called Varanasi as the Vrindavan of the Mayavadis. That is their headquarters.

And there he talked with Prakashanand Saraswati and then Prakashanand Saraswati came to know what is actually Prakasha, what is Ananda and what is Saraswati. He was illuminated. Then there were conversations inside us, that was with Ramanand Rai.

That Ramanand Rai is already an elevated soul. And there they discussed the teachings of the Vedic tradition going to the highest levels of Radha Bhakti. And then with respect to successors, there are the conversations with Rupa Goswami and with Sanatana Goswami.

And each of these conversations is significantly elaborated. Some of these, the chapter itself, there is only one chapter describing it. But the chapter is very long.

But sometimes there are multiple chapters describing it. So, the instructions, if you go back to Chaitanya Tamruta over here, there is an interesting format. I will come back to the format once again.

That is, the discussion with Prakashanand Saraswati comes, Lord Chaitanya in five features. There the discussion comes once. And then after that, if you go to the Madhya Leela, in the Madhya Leela, most of the serious philosophical discussions happen.

So, we have liberation of Sarvabhattacharya. That is one big discussion. That is, with the outsider.

Then the same, the outsider will have, how all the 61 expressions, sorry, how all the results of Varanasi became Vaishnavas. That is the second philosophical discussion with the outsider. That is Prakashanand Saraswati.

That is the 25th chapter. So, 6th chapter and 25th chapter. And then, if we consider over here, that Mahaprabhu went on South India tour, he went on North India tour.

So, during his South India tour, in chapter 8, there is a discussion between Ramanandaraya, that is chapter 8, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. That is, very esoteric discussion about elevated levels of bhakti. And then, during his North India tour, he had discussions with, the 19th chapter is the instructions to Rupa Goswami, and 20th chapter to 24th chapter.

The 5 chapters are actually instructions to Sanatana Goswami. So, these are the key discussions. So, Chaitanya Charita Amrit is distinctive in the sense that, while the pastimes are given, and the book's overall format resembles more of a biography, than a book of theology, but the content is much more theological.

It is, the emphasis is much more on the theological aspect. Teachings of Lord Chaitanya are emphasized. And, so this is with respect to the content.

Now, if we go further, I go back to the acronym, Chaitanya, we have the approach. By approach, what I mean is, that if you see, the approach leads to a certain level of authoritativeness for the book. And among historical movements, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's movement is actually quite unusual.

In the sense that, there seem to have been absolutely no succession planning. In some ways, Mahaprabhu's departure was quite unexpected. Normally, succession requires three things, at the very least.

I mean, even then there are debates. One is, there is a clearly written will. Second is, there is some, so will can have the teachings, can have the message teachings, whatever you want to say.

Then, there have to be some appointed followers. These are going to be the successors. And then, there have to be, there is ideally some kind of organization to carry out the will, to carry things forward.

So, now, Mahaprabhu did not do any of these things. He did not write much. Some poetic was attributed to him.

Shikshashtakamila was celebrated. But beyond that, he did not write much. And then, Mahaprabhu did not appoint anyone particularly as a successor.

And then also, that Mahaprabhu never started an organization. That Gaudiya Vishnuism was actually very very decentralized at its time. Because, so, it is from a historical perspective, a miracle that Gaudiya Vishnuism survived.

And without all these three things, with all these three things also, it is difficult to survive many times. But how did it survive? This is where the Chaitanya Chaitantamrut played a pivotal role. So, in one sense, the succession of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings and movement happened through this one book.

Let's try to understand how it happened. See, after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu departed, I always get it outstandingly right. You guess what is this? Yes, this is the map of India.

So, we have, this is the map of India. So, here we have Bengal. Here we have Odisha.

And here we have Vrindavan. So, Mahaprabhu's, after Mahaprabhu departed, his successors were at these three places, primarily. Mahaprabhu was born and he grew up in Bengal.

Then he travelled to Vrindavan, that was the heart, that is the place of Krishna Bhakti. And then he stayed for a majority part of his renounced life in Puri. So, basically, we can say that for 24 years, he was here.

For 18 years, he was here. And for the remaining 6 years, he was travelling. Now, in those 6 years also, he was based in Puri, but travelling from there.

So, now, after Mahaprabhu departed, multiple things happened. See, after Mahaprabhu departed, Pratap Rudra was so afflicted, so devastated, that he just had no heart to rule. He just left everything and he went to Vrindavan and in separation from Vrindavan, he departed from the world.

And then the Nawab from the Bengal attacked and devastated Puri, basically. So, the legacy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Odisha, at least immediately after him, collapsed. Then, in Bengal itself, in Mayapur, when I say collapsed, it was not that he was exterminated, certainly not.

It was that there was no significant succession after that. There was a patronage of Pratap Rudra which was lost. And devotees continued their own practice.

But there was nothing much systematic to carry on the legacy systematically. Now, in Bengal, Mahaprabhu had performed his childhood pastimes. And he was a part of the, his activities had become a part of the cultural lore of that place.

And many of Mahaprabhu's followers wrote books. These books were primarily about his pastimes. They focused more on his childhood pastimes and his pastimes which he performed over there.

But these were beautiful and they were, they were a part of the cultural lore at that time. At the same time, these books were mostly about his pastimes. I showed the teachings.

Now, all the major conversations happened outside of Mayapur. The Baddha Leela means, the Sadaladi Leela, Mahaprabhu leaves Mayapur. So, when he is outside, in Mayapur, there was not, in Mayapur and Bengal in general, there was not so much systematic knowledge of the teachings of Mahaprabhu.

And actually that led to some confusion. Now, his teachings were emphasized or carried forward by the Goswamis. And the Goswamis were in Vrindavan.

And the Goswamis wrote books. Now, the Goswamis, interestingly, so what happened is, in Bengal, the books were about Gaur Leela. Now, in the Vrindavan, the books that were written, Mahaprabhu had visited Vrindavan, but Vrindavan is a place of Krishna Bhakti.

It is not a place of Gauriya Bhakti. Mahaprabhu came for two months and there was an enormous sensation that got created. But just once he came over there and he left.

So, the Goswamis had to establish the credentials of Gauriya Vaishnavas. And because it was primarily a place of Krishna, so the Goswamis focused on Krishna over there. And they focused on Krishna Leela and they wrote books like Gopal Champu and then they focused on Tattva.

Because the Krishna Tattva, Gaur Tattva, but the focus was on Tattva. And these books were in Sanskrit. Of course, the books in Bengal were in Bengali.

So, Krishna, so now what happened is, if we go from a historical perspective, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is one generation. The six Goswamis are the next generation. Now, Krishna, Krishna Kaviraj Goswami is approximately the next generation.

You can say the Goswamis are also two generations. Rupesh Arthanath is slightly older. Raghunatha Goswami is slightly younger.

So, now Krishna Kaviraj Goswami was a person who was born in Bengal. And he grew up here in Gauriya. And then Nityantara came in a vision to him and told him, go to Vrindavan.

So, these two distinct legacies that were there, the Leela based legacy in Mayapur, in Bengal and the Tattva based legacy in Vrindavan. Krishna Kaviraj Goswami combined the two. So, that is the single greatest significance of his book.

That he knew all those pastimes and he deeply internalized those pastimes. But then he went and studied under the Goswamis. And studied under the Goswamis, he understood the teachings of the Goswamis or teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through the Goswamis.

He heard about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes in Puri from Raghunatha Goswami. So, there are multiple sources that he took. But the key synthesis that he, was that, it was he wrote this book in Vrindavan.

But now the primary legacy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in, at that time in Bengal. That's why it's called as Gauriya Vishnu. So, when he was in Bengal, what happened was that there was things were starting getting a lot, little bit fragmented.

So, when he wrote the book, he wrote, this is practically the only book written in Vrindavan, but not written in Sanskrit. It's written in Vrindavan, but it's written for the Bengalis, primarily. Because that's where the legacy was.

That's where the target audience was. And what this book did was, by bringing the authority of both the pastimes, which people, which Bengalis were familiar with, and the teachings, which they were not familiar with, this book gave the broad parameters about what are the actual teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Because soon after Mahaprabhu departed, Sahajiyaism started coming up.

And people started claiming that Mahaprabhu's teachings, whatever they were doing were Mahaprabhu's teachings. So, these boundaries to protect the teachings, to preserve the teachings, to protect the teachings, all that was done by Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And, many of you may know the story of how the three illustrious disciples, the first travellers of the Kirtan party, Srinivasa Acharya, Narasimha Das Thakur, who was the third person? Shaman.

So, when they travelled, they took the books of the Goswamis. So, the most impactful in subsequent generations, in the formation, the preservation of body, vision and all that, was the Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, without this book, what were the actual teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, would not have been known so well.

So, in Kheturi Gram, when the festival was held, at that time, this book was given. And the Gauri Vaishnavas started reading that book. So, prior to this, what were Mahaprabhu's teachings? There were different books being written.

But then this book became the significant and substantially impactful book. So, that legacy was sealed by this book. So, while there are other books and they are all important, but this became the most important book.

So, that format, that, I said, the combination of philosophy and pastimes, or rather, giving philosophy through the medium of pastimes. So, generally, when any kind of education is to be given, there is essentially, all education is a combination of what is familiar and what is unfamiliar. So, whenever we are being, whenever we hear a class, you know, if everything is familiar only, then it starts becoming boring.

If everything is unfamiliar, it starts becoming overwhelming. This is too much to process. What is all going on over here? So, probably, you might be finding this class to be overwhelming right now.

The thing is that Krishna, Kriya and Goswami, so, the ideal is where there is a combination of both. The familiar gives a sense of stability or we can say continuity. Yeah, okay, what I have learnt, I am continuing that.

But the unfamiliar gives a sense of curiosity. So, generally, any education that is there, for it to be effective, it cannot be too discontinuous. If we hear a class where many of the things we have learnt are all being challenged and countered, we start getting confused.

What is this, what is the philosophy all about? Did I not know anything at all? There is what we know, that continuity has to be maintained, but then, oh, there is something more. I didn't know about this. So, basically, what happened was, the biography format with the Leela in it, that created the sense of continuity.

That's what the Bengali Vaishnavas had been hearing and they had heard before. And the tattva, the philosophy, that was what? Now, the tattva, Krishna, Kriya and Goswami could have given the tattva, this is what Mahaprabhu teaches. No, he gave it also through conversations.

Now, each of these characters, Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Ramanand Rai, all of them were prominent characters in Gaudiya Vaishnava imagination. Not imagination in the negative sense, in the history of Gaudiya Vaishnava, by that time. They were the stuff of legends, we could say.

And when their conversations were depicted in this way, the teachings were given, the teachings became much much more, not just acceptable, but authoritative. So, in this way, Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit played a very important role in solidifying the legacy. Now, after that, let's look at the third part.

Now, the very thing, I will talk about the reach of Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit. See, it's paradoxical that in this material world, there is nothing that is a pure blessing. Everything that is a blessing in one way is a limitation or a curse in another way.

That is, if somebody is a very good singer, that's a blessing you can say. But some people who are very good singers, you know, if they are told to sing very simple tunes, they will get bored. And they start singing very complicated tunes, then that kirtan is no longer a participatory kirtan, it's more of a performatory kirtan.

It's of the, wow, what is going on over here. So, every blessing, somebody is very intellectual, analytical, that's a blessing. They can go deep into subjects.

But that can become a curse because other people get tired of going that deep. So, everything that we are good at, you know, we are very competent in one field, but then others, if we fall back. So, what happened is, what was the very strength of the Chaitanya Amrit also created challenges.

That is, initially this book, it formed the foundation for the legacy of Gaurav Vishnu. But still, because it is such a philosophical book, it started getting relegated to the background. So much so, that when Bhaktivinod Thakur was there, Bhaktivinod Thakur was born in Bengal.

Of course, he was born in the Shakpa family, where they were worshipping the goddess more. But still, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was well-known. But for him, even when he became interested in the teaching of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he could not find the Chaitanya Amrit.

In fact, there were many Gauravas with whom he talked and that was the time when the Britishers were ruling India and the Victorian morality was there. They considered, at that time, see, Bengal was the embodiment of everything that was wrong with Hinduism. In Bengal, there was worship of Krishna and worship of Kali.

And they said, the worship of Kali is so brutal. What kind of god would wear a necklace of skulls over his head? So, Kali was horribly brutal and Krishna was terribly immoral. Krishna's last leela, he would be dancing with other men's wives.

And they said, dad, a religion that has such gods needs to be removed from the face of the earth for the earth to survive. And that will be done through the light of the gospel. So, that was their idea.

So, Bhaktivinoda Dutta grew up in this cultural ethos. He was a part of the cultural elite who were called the Badraloka, who were well-educated in the British education system. And he himself had, he had a cultural respect for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a saint.

But he himself had questions about, now why would such a saintly person as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu worship an immoral character like Krishna? And when he asked these questions to the Gauri Vaishnavas at that time, many of them didn't have any answers. Finally, he was told, you will find answers in Chaitanya Charita Amrit. And that Chaitanya Charita Amrit, he had to struggle to find it.

Nowadays, you can just Google and find out any book, PDF copy or upload it or whatever. At that time, he had to struggle. And he was not an uninfluential person.

He was a reputed magistrate. He became quite an influential person in the government. And he was travelling also.

He had contacts all over. But still, it took him a year and a half to find the book. And then he found the book.

So, that means, if you consider that we have Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we have the Goswamis and then we have Srinivasa Acharya, Shyamahan Pandit and that generation, Narasimha Das Thakur. Then we go down and then we have Vishwanath Chakra Thakur, we have the Devdya Bolshan. And then by the time we come to Bhakti Vinod Thakur, this is not more than a hundred years, less than a hundred years.

By that time, what had happened? The Chaitanya Charita Amrit had disappeared. It had become like a rare book. So, the reach, the same book which had been so important, so impactful, its reach decreased drastically.

And because it was quite philosophical, people are just into, oh, I want to hear nice stories. And the stories are there. This book is so philosophical.

Even what happened in the Bhagavatam, when we read the 10th Canto, we read the Leela and the prayers come, we often skip the prayers. This is too philosophical. So, that's what happened.

That book was just not so interesting. But its significance was very much there. So, that reach, that book which actually convinced Bhakti Vinod Thakur.

Of course, we can say Bhakti Vinod Thakur was the eternal associate. And he always knew about Mahabharata. That is true.

But in his manifest Leela, how he came to Krishna Consciousness, in that Chaitanya Charita Amrit played a very significant role. Actually, Prabhupada, when he wanted to share Mahaprabhu's teachings, he also wanted to give the philosophy of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Not just the stories of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

And that's how Prabhupada also focused on the Chaitanya Charita Amrit. That is the book that he primarily commented on. Now, I quickly go to the last two points.

The reach was, it went down. Prabhupada, by his focus on Chaitanya Charita Amrit, has made it such an impactful book. And it's wonderful that here in UK, you have regular classes on Chaitanya Charita Amrit.

Most of the places, we have Bhagavatam classes. But Chaitanya Charita Amrit is a big treasure. And diving into that treasure, officially through our regular classes, is very special.

Otherwise, for most devotees, studying it becomes quite a formidable task. You go to Bhakti Shastri, Bhakti Vaibhav and then Bhakti Sarov. And at the end of it, you feel, how will I read this book? So, at least some glimpses we are getting.

That's a very precious thing. Now, the I, how much time do we have? Or I can stop. How many questions? How much time do we have and how many questions do we have? Till 9? OK.

Are there any questions at this point? I'll speak for the 10-15 minutes and we can have questions. So, now, with respect to the book itself. Now, what happens is that there is the internal, or you could say, internality of the book.

Not eternality, internality. What do you mean by internality? That actually the way Shri Prabhupada presented the book. We could talk about Prabhupada's teachings also, or Prabhupada's legacy that he gave.

But we can talk about the content of the book also. See, the Gita gives the identity of God. The Gita establishes that Krishna is the sadhya and Bhakti is the sadhya.

Now, the Bhagavatam gives the activity of God. It tells the pastimes of God. Major part of the Bhagavatam is the 10th Canto.

The 10th Canto is almost one third of the entire Bhagavatam. In the number of verses and certainly in the number of chapters. 335 chapters are there and 90 are 10th Canto.

So, the Bhagavatam gives the activities of other manifestations of the Lord also, but Krishna primarily. Chaitanya Charitamrta gives us the mentality, the thoughts of God. That what is Krishna thinking? It gives us a glimpse into the inner world.

And in that sense, Prabhupada would often call this like the post-graduate study. Now, Prabhupada used the word differently at different times. But the idea is, the Gita is the foundation and the Chaitanya Charitamrta takes us much deeper.

If we look at it from the perspective of God, another way we could look at this progression is that, Prabhupada commented on the Gita, Prabhupada commented on the Bhagavatam and Prabhupada commented on the Chaitanya Charitamrta. So, in one sense, through the Gita, Prabhupada gave us the Vedic teachings. The Vedic teachings are basically about how human life is meant for something higher than material gratification.

Now, Bhagavatam is what Prabhupada drew from the Vaishnava canon. And Chaitanya Charitamrta is what he drew from the Gaudiya Vaishnava canon. So, in this way, canon refers here to the books that are considered sacred.

So, it's like, you can have concentric circles with an increasing focus. So, it's like, you have the broad Vedic teachings are there. Now, what should have Prabhupada wanted to teach that was based on the Vedas.

And in the broad Vedic tradition, the Bhagavad Gita is among the most widely respected books. That we could go into a separate discussion that Bhaktisahastra Thakur did not comment ever on the Bhagavad Gita. And Prabhupada made the Bhagavad Gita the basis of his teachings, the foundational basis.

There are many reasons for that. Historically, the Bhagavad Gita had become very significant in India by that time. But in the past also it was significant, although not that significant.

But in the broad Vedic tradition, see, Prabhupada, what he did was that he had multiple purposes. Prabhupada wanted to establish his movement within the Vedic tradition as authentic. But he also wanted that it was a global movement.

So, it should be established outside the Vedic tradition also. Traditionally, in the Gaudiya tradition, to establish our Vedic credentials, the way was to write a commentary on the Vedanta Sutra. That's what Baldev Dayabhushan had to do.

He wrote a commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, that was the Govindabhashi. But by the time of Bhaktisahastra Thakur, Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Shri Shri Shri Prabhupada, that Vedanta Sutra, it was important, but it was not that important. The Gita had become much more important.

So, Gita was a book, the commentary would establish Prabhupada's movement in the Vedic tradition, but also represent the Vedic tradition for the rest of the world. Because outside India also, Gita was very significant. So, the Gita was the Vedic tradition's book.

The Bhagavatam, the Bhagavatam is an important book, but it is not necessarily accepted by people who are not Vaishnavas. It is not accepted so much by people who are not, who are not personalists. So, Prabhupada established his legacy, he founded his legacy in terms of the, in the Vaishnava tradition, the Bhagavatam was the key book.

Now, of course, the Bhagavatam is an important book for us Gauriya Vaishnavas also. At the same time, the Bhagavatam is not a book written by a Gauriya Vaishnava. It predates Gauriya Vaishnavas.

It came long before Mahaprabhu. So, what are Mahaprabhu's teachings? So, that is Chaitanya Chaitanya. So, in that sense, it takes us more and more inside, closer and closer to, see, in any tradition, there is a part of it which is universal.

And there is a part which is confidential. That, so, Prabhupada when he talked about the universality of Krishna consciousness, he would say that, you know, Jesus had so much love for God that he gave up his life and anybody who has so much love for God is our Guru. That is Prabhupada talking about the universality of Krishna consciousness.

That is important. Every tradition has a universal aspect but also has a confidential aspect. Confidential is, what is specific to our tradition? What is distinctive? And that is the mood of love in separation, viraha bhakti.

Now, that is explained by Shri Prabhupada in an accessible way to us in his commentaries on the Anta Leela. Now, the Anta Leela is, at least, the last 10 chapters of Anta Leela, 11 to 20, they are, there are very little events happening over there. Mahaprabhu is not travelling, Mahaprabhu is not meeting people.

The last 10 chapters are largely the internal ecstasies of Mahaprabhu. And there, there we get a glimpse of the ecstatic life of a devotee who is completely absorbed in Krishna. And Prabhupada has given us commentaries on that also and given us a pathway to access that.

And that brings me to the last point that if you go to tea, is that it is tasteful. That, just like the Bhagavatam, Bhagavatam has said, yadrasamrutuktasya na nitrasadati puchet, that once you get a taste for this, you will not, you will lose all taste for everything else. Chaitanya Amrit is actually a very sweet book.

Relatively speaking, if somebody wants to learn Indian languages, Bengali is much easier to learn than Sanskrit. Reading Bengali is also really easier. Reciting the verses is also easier.

And once one gets into that, there is a sublime level of sweetness of it. And that taste for Mahaprabhu's pastimes, for Mahaprabhu's teachings, that taste is, what the Bhagavata talks about, param drishtvani varpati, that higher taste what we get. Now, what Sri Prabhupada did, I will conclude with this point that, the Prabhupada gave this Bhagavatam commentary and he started writing this Bhagavatam commentary in India when he was still an unknown spiritual teacher.

And in the Bhagavatam commentary, in his introduction, he gives elaborately an introduction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And he says, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the ideal Bhagavatam. That he is a person who embodies the teachings of the Bhagavatam.

That's a very interesting strategic choice. That in the introduction of the Bhagavatam, like in India, you could say Bhagavatam is a widely known book. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was known, but not so known.

And Prabhupada spent a good amount of time introducing Chaitanya Mahaprabhu over there. The idea is that, that Prabhupada, what he is doing is, that sweetness of Krishna Leela, of Krishna Bhakti, that is embodied the most in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does, the word Gaudiya, it has two meanings.

The word Gaudiya, at one level, there is a geographical meaning. That it refers to Gauradesh, the place where Ganga flows. And Mahaprabhu's teachings are related over there.

Now, Gaudiya Vaishnavism, sometimes people call it Chaitanya Vaishnavism because it is not only in Gaudiya now. It has travelled all over the world. But there is another meaning, that is, it is not geographical, you can say it is gastronomical.

Gastronomical means what? That actually it refers to Guda's jaggery. So, now, what happens is that jaggery is found everywhere, but if you go to Bengal, the Bengali jaggery is extremely sweet. Has anyone tasted Bengali jaggery? It is like a natural chocolate, you can say.

It is extremely tasty. So, like that, the idea is Gaudiya Vaishnavism was there all over India. Ramacharya had Vaishnavism, Madhavacharya had Vaishnavism and they did enormous service.

But the special sweetness of the mood of Radharani's love for Krishna, in separation from Krishna, that special taste, now we may not necessarily focus on those pastimes alone, but that taste permeates all of Gaurahinda. And that taste is revealed through the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit. But not just as a sentiment, it is revealed as a philosophical conclusion.

So, the idea is that in Bhakti, when we are trying to practice Bhakti, Bhakti is often seen as emotion. But when it is seen only as emotion, what happens is, if Bhakti is seen only as emotion, it simply leads to commotion. It leads to this Utpata Yaya Kalpate, that if it is only emotion, that doesn't work.

But Bhakti also has a lot of reason in it. There is philosophical basis to it. So, what happened is, when Bhakti was seen only as emotional, so, if you focus only on the emotion, it becomes Sahajyayik.

And people claim to have taste, but the problem is that, that Sahajyayism means that it doesn't work properly. I will explain what happens is. The other is, if there is only reason, if there is only logic, only philosophy, that leads to Advaitama.

That leads to impersonalism. So, what we need is a combination of both. That we need the head and the heart in such a way that there is emotion, there is philosophy and there is Leela.

And both of these together, our head is convinced and our heart is attracted. So, broadly speaking, you know, we can have that somebody can be materially detached or somebody can be materially attached. And similarly, somebody can be spiritually detached or somebody can be spiritually attached.

So, you put it this way now, if somebody is materially attached and spiritually detached, these are the materials. This is where majority of the world is today. Now, if somebody is materially detached and spiritually attached, that is where we have, this is where Bhakti is.

This is where Bhakti is actually. This is where devotees are meant to be. Now, this problem with Sahajiyaism is, Sahajiyas are, they claim to be spiritually attached but they are also materially attached.

That means, what happens is, they may talk about exalted emotions of Krishna Bhakti, but they also engage in sensuality. And this has been a constant danger. Now, of course, somebody is materially detached and somebody is spiritually also detached.

And that means, you know, they don't care about the spiritual world, they don't care about the material world also. Those are basically like Shunyavadi, they are Nihilists. They just complete pessimistic essence.

So, what Chaitanya Chakravarti ensures is that we are situated here. That the taste, there has to be material detachment and spiritual attachment. Not that we become detached from both or attached to both.

So, those dangers we are protected from by Chaitanya Chakravarti. From the taste that rises from philosophical conviction, philosophical clarity and conviction, that is the gift of the Chaitanya Charita Amrit. Actually, Prabhupada has given this glorious book to us as his legacy.

So, I will summarize quickly what I discussed. So, we talked about five glories of Chaitanya Charita Amrit today. So, I used the acronym Charita.

So, what was C? Content. So, in this, I talked about Uma. This is in, there were biographies and there were, there was philosophy.

So, what this book did is, that it's philosophy plus biography. So, we discussed how the five conversations, those are the most important parts. So, there, and Prabhupada presented them as TLC.

So, Prabhupada himself considered this to be the important part. The second was the approach that leads to the authoritativeness. The approach, the approach that made it authoritativeness.

So, why was it authoritative? Because what happened was, that there was, there was Bengal, the legacy was there in Bengal, there was a legacy in Vrindavan. But what happened was, there was, this was centered on Krishna, this was centered, so, in Sanskrit, and this was centered on Tattva. In Bengal, it was centered on Gaurav, it was Leela, it was in Bengali.

So, that, what we discussed how in Gaudiya Vaishnava traditions, there was, succession could have been a big crisis. What had happened was, there was no, there were no appointed successors, there were no clear documents, and there was no organization. So, how did the, how did it actually survive? That was largely by the book.

So, Chaitanya Mahajan, Chaitanya Amrit, what it did was, he came from Bengal, Krishna Ashtaraj Goswami, and he brought, he came from Bengal, he went to Vrindavan, and then he wrote Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit. And he wrote it, although in Vrindavan, he wrote it in Bengali, so that the primary target audience would be able to get it. And that's how that book became, it sealed the legacy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings.

When you talk about the reach, we discussed how the reach went. In Vrindavan, it was nothing, it went very high, then it went very low, and then Prabhupada has taken it way high. So, Vrindavan was one among many books that was written.

But when the book came to Bengal, it became the authoritative book. But by the time of Bhaktivinoda Thakur's Bengal, it had been lost, it had been revived. And then Shri Prabhupada has now made it global, made it such an important book.

And I was the internality. There is so much internal significance. We talk about it in three different ways.

One is that in terms of the book, the Gita gives the identity of Krishna, the Bhagavatam gives us the activity of Krishna, or activity of God in general. Chaitanya Chaitanya Amritam gives us the mentality, the inner thoughts of God. Similarly, we have to discuss the Prabhupada's Vedic tradition, the Vaishnava tradition and the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

So, with respect to the Vedic tradition, Prabhupada gave us the Gita. With respect to the Vaishnava tradition, to establish the authenticity, he gave us the Bhagavatam. And with respect to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, what he gave was the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amritam.

So, in this way, Shri Prabhupada himself sealed his legacy. And then finally we talk about it is tasteful. That taste is, it gives, Leela itself has great sweetness.

But that Leela sweetness is given through the foundation of, foundation of Tattva. So, we discuss how we need to avoid the extremes of being. We need to be attached or detached.

We need to be materially detached and spiritually attached. So, that is what Gaudiya Vaishnavism as we will see is. Otherwise, if we are not, we are spiritually attached and materially attached also, we become Sahajiyas.

If we are detached from both, we become Mayavadis. If we are neither, we have become Nihilists. So, what we want is that we want to be in such a way that we are actually growing spiritually.

So, this is the significance of this great classic book that Shri Prabhupada, Krishna Sivarajosan is authored, Bhaktivinoda Thakur recovered and Shri Prabhupada commented and spread across the whole world. Thank you very much. Krishna Sivaraj Goswami Ki Jai.

Shri Prabhupada Ki Jai. Shri Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit Ki Jai. Thank you Prabhu.

Amazing, amazing classic. Great to hear from you in person and talk to you too. My question is this.

We have so many devotees coming into a temple and depending on which time of the year the tourists come to London here in Soho or Dean Street, when books distribution is happening, they may get Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrita as the first book you said post-documenting. So, my question is, if someone who comes to the temple, in general, asks three different types of people, if they ask who is Chaitanya, what should be our answer? One is an Indian who knows Krishna, other one is a Bengali who thinks that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a reformer, other person is a foreigner. I mean not foreigner, sorry.

But for Indians, foreigner. English, British person comes here. What should we say to each of the three of them? Yes.

So, when we are, we are dealing with Lord Chaitanya, when we are talking, introducing Lord Chaitanya, how do we introduce him? So, Prabhupada talks about preaching with realization. And he describes, what does it mean? That there is a message of scripture and there is the interest of the audience. So, to speak with realization means that we should be able to present the message of scripture in a way that is interesting to the audience.

Now, interesting is one word. Interesting in a different way. It addresses some needs.

It addresses some concerns. So, the specific might vary. So, when Prabhupada came to America, people in the counterculture were interested in spirituality very much.

But Prabhupada used music as a primary means. They are interested in spirituality. Prabhupada talked about how you can go higher than trucks through the holy lands.

So, we always have to make it, when we say make it relevant means, we have to find this intersection point. So, that is realization. So, in one sense, as an effective teacher, we need to be aware of scripture and we need to be aware of the interest of the audience also.

So, with this perspective, if we consider about, we want to talk about Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, how do we introduce him? So, with Gauri Vaishnavas, we say, he is both Krishna and Krishna's devotee. Topmost devotee. That is, Krishna manifesting as Krishna's devotee.

I think we can straight introduce him that way. Those who are already Gauri Vaishnavas, already Bengalis, they know about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. That's not a big deal.

Now, Bhaktivinoda Thakur himself, he wrote a book about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the introduction to that book. He talks about how, he is very inclusive in his approach. He says, as far as the Bengali Vaishnavas are concerned, they accept Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as divine, as Krishna himself.

And for them, the many miracles that Mahaprabhu performed are proof of his divinity. But he himself takes the purvapaksha and he says that, actually, miracles can be performed even by demons. Like Ravana changed his form when he abducted Sita.

So, miracles themselves are no proof of divinity. He says that, but the most important, so, we leave it to our esteemed readers to decide what they consider, to resolve for themselves the question of Mahaprabhu's identity. He says, but what is important is that he has given us a special gift.

The gift of the process by which everyone can be flooded with unparalleled love of God. So, we request all our readers to open their hearts and lives to experience that. I am paraphrasing, but this is essentially what he says.

So, the point is, while the identity of Mahaprabhu is important, but his legacy is his teachings. And in India right now, there are many other Vaishnava traditions also, who sometimes quote the Shikshashtakam, who quote the teachings of Mahaprabhu at times. But they see him as a great saint.

So, for Indians, I think that we can focus more on his teachings. That without getting too focused on the identities. In Indian tradition, in many ways, worship of the Guru is also part of the tradition.

So, even if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is on the altar, we don't have to make that, as they say, the fort that we, the hill that we die on. In Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's God, you have to accept Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's God. If you don't accept God, you are doomed.

Not like that. You know, see, we could say that in our tradition we consider him to be God, but most importantly, he is the most important teacher of Bhakti. In medieval times and our tradition of Bhakti is based on his teachings.

And later on, we can talk about his divinity as required. Now, in many ways, for non-Indians, it is relatively less of a confusion or more of a confusion depending on how you come up with it. So, it's that, in some ways, those who come from within the Indian tradition, they have this idea that there are so many Devatas and Krishna is one among them.

But for those who come from outside the Indian tradition, we just present Krishna as God. And then God has many different forms. Ekam, Satvi, Prabhu, Daulati.

So, Krishna is God, but Krishna himself manifests as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, we could say that there are multiple manifestations of divinity and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is one of them. Hare Krishna Prabhu.

I believe that, like in India, like Wisconsin, really one main city, like Mumbai, New Delhi, 20 temples in New Delhi. So, my question is, 70% of people live in a village. We've got more than half a million villages in India.

So, I'd like to ask how we're doing in the villages area, in the remote area, how you're spreading it around. And I'd like to ask you a similar question. You've made amazing sadhus in Mumbai, New Delhi, unbelievable.

But are we really spreading in the villages? How do we spread in villages? Well, there is, it's called tribal care, where we are going to tribal areas, and we are sharing and preserving the culture there and sharing Krishna consciousness over there. See, historically speaking, our movement is not very old. We are about 50-60 years old, at least 60 years now.

So, we have spread widely and we have to spread, you could say, thickly now. Widely is where we have centres all over the world, we have centres in all the major cities. Spreading thickly, I think, say, in Bengal, because it was original culture also, to some extent, we are quite widely spreading in the villages.

In other parts of the world, we have focused more on the cities, and that's where we have spread more and more. And some places, say, for example, we have the Govardhaniko village from there, village preaching is happening, and there are hundreds of places where programs happen, devotees going from there. And there are the travelling, the padhyatra parties, which are also going through villages.

So, now, what we need is that we don't have that many dedicated preachers. Because if you had to, one is we visit a village and get some inspiration, come back. Somebody goes and stays over there.

And then builds a legacy over there. That's what something has to happen gradually. One of the challenges is that people in villages are relatively pious, but many of them have their own previous conceptions of gurus or spirituality or whatever.

And our approach is quite philosophical and rational. And if people are not that well-educated or philosophical or rational, then to turn from whatever they have been practicing before, if that is significantly different towards Krishna Bhakti, is not easy for them. I think it's going to happen incrementally.

Prabhupada's approach was focus on the big cities and build a legacy, impactful legacy over there. And from there, it will radiate outwards. So, we as a movement have not yet come to that stage where we have enough resources to go deep into the villages of India.

Through farm communities, we have been trying, but farm communities are themselves a whole different universe. And they bring their own challenges. And maintaining those communities becomes itself a significant, it's an important task.

It becomes a significant demanding task and outreach to that how much it happens. That's something I think we are still in the movement or in this phase we are exploring it. Thank you for such an amazing class, Prabhu.

So, my question is about the succession that you mentioned, the three points. And why didn't Chaitanya Mahaprabhu leave the succession? If he had left them, do you think we would get all these owls, boughs and all these sahajiyas? See, why Mahaprabhu not give us succession plan? Well, I think, with respect to history, it's very difficult to ask the question why. In the sense that things happen in a particular way.

And see, Mahaprabhu, in many ways, we could also say, why did he not write any books? He was very scholarly, he could have written books. So, Mahaprabhu manifested in a particular way. One way to understand it is that Mahaprabhu wanted his, the mood of a devotee is to glorify the devotees.

Mahaprabhu wanted to give the glory to his followers. So, the primary books from his tradition come in the form of, basically, Swami's books. So, now, is that, would it that the deviations would not have come? I am not sure about that.

Because, see, sakaleneha mahacharyobhanasya parantah. That with the power of time, things do deteriorate. So, it might have been possible that some amount of deviation could have been less.

But overall, no matter how foolproof we make things, there is what science calls a law of entropy, things do degenerate. So, some kind of distortions, deviations would anyway have come. So, ultimately, we can't really know why Mahaprabhu did what he did, unless he himself has said or talked about it or some acharyas have talked about it.

But overall, Mahaprabhu's mood seems to have been more of spontaneous devotion rather than systematic creation of infrastructure for devotion. So, that he left it to his successors. And he was strategic in that sense.

He told Rupesana Goswami to go to Vrindavan and build a legacy over there. And they were already, they already had administrative experience. They were competent people in terms of organizing things.

And Vrindavan did not have a significant rejuvenation of the holy places over there and they wrote a lot of books. So, broadly I would say that Mahaprabhu wanted to give the credit to his disciples, to his devotees. And then he left the legacy, he left significant amount of work for his followers.

Hi Krishna, Chaitanya Charitamruta. Thank you for such an eloquent class in how you detail the context of the Chaitanya Charitamruta. I was just meditating on this, how this kind of applies to how we understand Srila Prabhupada.

In terms of, there's the relationship we have to his teachings, in the sense of like the Vani that he gave. And then there's also the relation that we have to his Leelas, meditating on the sacrifice that he gave. And kind of the emotional attachment that gives a weight to his teachings.

I was just wondering if you could kind of comment on these two points. So, the question is how do we relate that the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and his pastimes or his activities as we know through his various biographies. I think that's one of the key questions that we still have to resolve.

That, you know, Sri Prabhupada did quite a few adaptations and innovations in his preaching. So now, what is more important? There are only two schools of thought in our moment right now. And that Prabhupada's teachings are what are timeless.

And his actions are contextual, they are timely. So, whatever adjustments, adaptations he did, they are for that time. But what he wanted as a timeless thing was his teachings.

Now, the other school of thought is that Prabhupada is an Acharya. And Acharya means one who teaches through Acharya. So, his example is what is most important.

And there he showed the spirit of how we need to be dynamic, how we need to be resourceful and how we need to do what is required to be effective in outreach. And then, his teachings have to be seen in the light of his life, of his examples, of his actions. So, I would say that is something which will take some time to resolve.

But overall, it seems that for us, we, ena keena prakaranin mana krishna viveshi. That however we are inspired, we should take that inspiration and move forward. Now, if we focus only on his pastimes, it is very easy to become a personality cult.

We become too centred on Prabhupada. Now, we want to be centred on Krishna. And we see Prabhupada as a founder Acharya.

So, he has a preeminent position. But we don't know. It is not that Prabhupada started the society for Prabhupada consciousness.

It is for Krishna consciousness. So, we don't want, Prabhupada did not want to start a personality cult. So, only focusing on his pastimes without focusing on his teachings will not work.

But at the same time, if we focus only on his teachings, see, Prabhupada did something extraordinary. That he transplanted a culture from India to the Western world. There have been other spiritual teachers who went before him from the western tradition, from the Aghori tradition, wherever.

They disseminated the teachings. But they didn't really transplant the culture. So, okay, Aghori, the Vedanta, you learn this and you decide how you want to apply it in your life.

But Prabhupada gave tangible application. That is unprecedented. And then that brings with it so many challenges as the tradition continues on.

So, definitely, if we look at Prabhupada's teachings without considering how he lived those teachings, it can lead to a lot of misunderstanding of Prabhupada. So, some statements, Prabhupada's statements about, say, for example, women. You know, and their role and some statements like that.

If you don't see those statements in the light of how he actually dealt with his female disciples and how he engaged and even empowered them, then there can be significant level of misunderstanding. So, I think both have to come together. And we cannot fixate only on one.

So, if you fixate only on the past tense, you can become sentimental. If you focus only on the teachings, we end up becoming fanatical. So, we need to have balance of both.

I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit more on that part where you talked about the approach for insiders and the approach for outsiders in the CC, the conversation. How would you say nowadays there are many books coming out which are with the tone for outsiders? Do you think that would be more relevant in outreach for people that we have mixed books like that or, you know, can you elaborate a bit more on that? So, what certain books, do we need different tones for insiders and outsiders? Well, definitely, we need that. So, now we have the marathon and it is too rich to top us books and it is vital that it is a key part of our tradition's legacy.

And there is a spiritual potency to books or spiritual potency to the message that transcends all material considerations. And how somebody may seem completely unlikely that they might take up a particular, they might even want to understand something. You may think this doesn't seem likely at all.

And still it can happen. So, in one sense, when we are sharing bhakti, when we are sharing Krishna consciousness, there are two aspects. There is the transcendental consciousness and there is practical consciousness.

So, transcendental consciousness means that we understand that Krishna can work in miraculous ways. And because Krishna can work in miraculous ways, you know, I cannot limit Krishna to my conceptions of how things will be understood. So, we have to keep space for Krishna to act in miraculous ways.

At the same time, you know, as a part of our service to Krishna, we have been given some intelligence. And we need to use our intelligence. So, for example, right now we are having this class.

You know, we can say, oh, the Bengali or Chetan Chetan is very pure. The Sanskrit or Bhagavatam is very pure. Let's have the whole class in Bengali or Sanskrit only.

And let's have 80, 70, 80, 90% just verses being quoted. And no need to have discussion. And just the hearing of the verses will purify.

And Prabhupada did say that. When his disciples were in India, he would do classes in Hindi. Even if they would not understand Prabhupada, they can hear it.

So, that is there. But do we want to make that as a policy or a sole policy? No. See, we should leave space for Krishna to do his miraculous actions.

But that does not mean that we don't use our intelligence. Because our intelligence is also given to us by Krishna. And we are meant to use our intelligence in serving Krishna.

Like Arjuna did his whole part when he wanted to kill Jaigrath. He fought tirelessly, fought like never before. That's how he came extremely close to Jaigrath.

And then when he couldn't take Jaigrath, Krishna did the remaining thing. So, when we do all that we can, Krishna will do what we can't. If we don't do anything and say, Krishna, you do everything.

That is not dependence on Krishna. That is irresponsibility in the name of dependence. So, for us, when we are studying Prabhupada's books, and we are critically devoted to read Prabhupada's books, it is important that we need to understand that there is a divine potency over there that comes from Prabhupada's very close relationship with Krishna and Prabhupada's special position as a preeminent acharya.

At the same time, we also need to recognize that certain sections in Prabhupada's books may be problematic. May be the language may be very difficult for people to understand. People come from different times.

Prabhupada himself also told his disciples to write books. He told his followers to write books. And Bhaktsavadam Maharaj wrote that to scientific foundation of Krishna, scientific base of Krishna Vasistha.

Prabhupada would proudly display that book to others. Prabhupada wanted Back to God magazine. He didn't want Back to God magazine to be only his own articles, his own writings.

He wanted devotees to write. Prabhupada didn't say that, you know, in all the Bhagavatam classes, just play my Bhagavatam classes everyday. Obviously, any other devotee who is giving a class is not going to be as pure as your Prabhupada.

So, purity is the force. But is purity the only force? If purity were the only force, then Prabhupada was just as pure when he was in India and tried to spread Krishna Bhakti for 30-40 years. Why was there no impact over there? So, purity is the force and we should not ever devalue purity.

But that does not mean that other factors won't play also. So, if we can use strategy, if we can use our intelligence, if we can present in a way that is culturally appealing and sensitive, then that is a part of our living tradition. And we should be doing that.

But now other books should be displacing Prabhupada's books. The books can be either to help new people come to our message. It can also be to illuminate particular aspects of our legacy, which Prabhupada pointed out, but he may not have elaborated that much on it.

There can be many areas, just as we have classes on many topics, there are also books on many topics. But while reading the books, we have to educate ourselves and others about how the different books need to be approached and analysed. Thank you.