The father of the congregational chanting, Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when appeared on the earth, on Phalguni Purnima, 18 February 1486, in Sridhama Mayapur, Navadvīpa, Bengal, it was the time of lunar eclipse. As per Vedic custom, on eclipses, people go to Ganges river and bathe themselves in the sacred water while loudly chanting the holy names of the Lord. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, it was evening, and also lunar eclipse time. Therefore automatically, at the time of His appearance everyone was chanting “Haribol! Haribol!”, while standing in the midst of Ganges.
It means that, right from the time of His appearance, Lord Chaitanya started serving His purpose of spreading the holy names of Kṛṣṇa in every corner and every nook of the world.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was exactly same in appearance as of Kṛṣṇa from Goloka, except for the complexion He exhibited was golden. He was having long arms and lustrous body like molten gold ( tapta kancana). The measurement of His chest and the measurement of His forearms were the same (nyagrodha-parimaṇḍala).
Out of His causeless mercy, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the house of Sri Jagannātha Miśra and Srimati Śacidevi, daughter of Nilambara Cakravarti. His childhood name was kept as Visvambhara and been lovingly called as “Nimai” by the villagers. He appeared as the 10th and youngest son of Srimati Śacidevi.
Sri Krishna is known as the “all-knowing” or “sarvagya”, but still He fails to understand the love of His most exalted devotee, Srimati Radharani. Her love is so exalted that Krishna crowns His head with Srimati Radharani's lotus feet. Therefore, in order to understand the love His devotees, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descended around 500 years back, taking the mood of Srimati Radharani and the body of Sri Krishna. And so, He is also called as the combined form of Radharani and Krishna.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed for 48 years, out of which He showed His pastimes at Navadvīpa for 24 years. He first married Laksmipriya devi but she died at an early age when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was away from home. Later, on mother’s request, He married Visnupriya devi, who became the second wife of Lord Chaitanya.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was madly in love with Kṛṣṇa and His holy names since He appeared. He took sanyas at the age of 24 and made His headquarters at Puri on the request of His mother. For the first six years, He travelled all over the India and preached the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
His early life was recorded by Murari Gupta and latter part of the life had been recorded by Swarupa Damodar Goswami, who became the Lord's constant companion at Puri. Lord Chaitanya is known as “Nimai” because He took His birth beneath a neem tree in His courtyard. This name was given to the Lord by His mother.
When Lord was 16 years old, He started His own catuspathi ( village school ), in which He would simply explain about Kṛṣṇa, even in His grammar. Keshav-Kashmiri was one of the renowned sanskrit scholar of that time and almost nobody could defeat him. He in seconds, could frame thousands of shlokas in the glories of Ganges river. Lord Caitanya immediately pointed out his mistake he made while framing shlokas (bhavani-bhartuh) and defeated him.
Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakura, are the two chief whips of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtan Party. The headquarters of Sankirtana Movement was at the house of Srivasa Thakura and Sri Advaita Prabhu, two of His chief householder disciples.
Actually, Sri Advaita Prabhu is the one who prayed for the incarnation of the Lord seeing the deterious condition of Kali-yuga. He offered tulsi leaves to his saligrama sila and invoked the Lord with the tears in his eyes.
One day, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and the sankirtana party was chanting the holy names of Lord and dancing and preaching, they saw a crowd. Nityananda Prabhu immediately inquired about the situation and it came to know that two brothers - Jagai and Madhai , have created the disturbance. Although being born in a brahmana family, they both became engaged in intoxication, meat-eating, gambling , women-hunting, etc. They were considered as the most fallen souls of the earth at that time. So, Nityananda Prabhu was the one who made strong determination of liberating Jagai and Madhai and make them chant the holy names of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.
90% of today's population resembles Jagai and Madhai, who were top-class debauchees, instead of high birth. So anyone who wants the relief from sinful reactions, at once should approach Lord Gauranga and Lord Nityananda and not repeat any past mis-deads after initiation.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “I say that devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead is the highest goal of human life.”
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya has composed 100 shlokas in the glorification of the Lord and out of those 100, below 2 are most important:
It explains Lord's mission in gist —
1) Let me surrender unto the Personality of Godhead who has appeared now as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He is the ocean of all mercy and had come down to teach us material detachment , learning and devotional service to Himself.
2) Since pure devotional service of the Lord has been lost in the oblivion of time, the Lord has appeared to renovate the principles, and therefore I offer my obeisances unto His lotus feet.
Lord met Rupa Gosvami at Prayag along with his younger brother Anupama. For two months, He instructed Sanatana Goswami. Lord defeated the renowned mayawad sanyasi of Varansi, Prabhodhanand Saraswati and made him, His follower. He made His headquarters at Akrur Ghat as long as, He remained in Vṛndāvana.
Later, Lord went back to Prayag and on the bank of the Dasasvamedha Ghat, He instructed Rupa Gosvami for 10 days continually in the science of devotional service of the Lord. Rupa Gosvami was the younger brother of Sanatana Gosvami.
Lord Chaitanya Mahāprabhu instructed His disciples to write books on the Science of Kṛṣṇa, a task which those who follow Him have continued to carry out down to the present day. The elaborations and expositions on the philosophy taught by Lord Chaitanya are in fact most voluminous, exacting and consistent due to the system of disciplic succession. Although Lord Chaitanya was widely renowned as a scholar in His youth, He left only eight verses, called Śikṣāṣṭaka. These eight verses clearly reveal His mission and precepts. These supremely valuable prayers are translated herein. (TLC)
THE GLORIES OF ŚRĪ KṚṢṆA SAṄKĪRTANA: THE FIRST VERSE OF ŚIKṢĀṢṬAKA
1.
Glory to the Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This saṅkīrtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.
THE POWER OF THE HOLY NAME AND THE MOOD OF DEVOTION: VERSES 2-4 OF ŚIKṢĀṢṬAKA
2.
O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Kṛṣṇa and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.
3.
One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.
4.
O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want Your causeless devotional service birth after birth.
HUMBLE PRAYERS AND LONGING FOR KṚṢṆA: VERSES 5-7 OF ŚIKṢĀṢṬAKA
5.
O son of Mahārāja Nanda [Kṛṣṇa], I am Your eternal servitor, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet.
6.
O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing constantly when I chant Your holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation of Your name?
7.
O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.
UNCONDITIONAL DEVOTION TO KṚṢṆA: VERSE 8 OF ŚIKṢĀṢṬAKA
8.
I know no one but Kṛṣṇa as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly by His embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord unconditionally.