Awkward Pose Yoga
SECRET IDENTITY OF THE GOLDEN AVATARA
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared on earth in the year 1486, at Navadwipa, in Nadia District, West Bengal, India. The Vedas reveal that He was a direct incarnation of Lord Krishna and known as the ‘Golden Avatara’, because of His golden colored complexion. The Mundaka Upanisad says. “Yada pasya pasyate rukmavarnam – The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, appears in a form which is the color of molten gold.” (MU.3.1.3) His mission on Earth was to revive Vedic culture and introduce the religion for the age of Kali-yuga, which is the sankirtana-yajna, the congregational chanting of God’s holy names’.
The Vedas also refer to Him as being the ‘channa-avatara’, or ‘hidden-avatara’, because although directly Lord Krishna Himself, He appeared as an ordinary human being, thus concealing His true identity from the envious demons of the Kali-yuga. In the Vishnu-sahasra-nama-stotra, recorded in the Mahabharata it says. “In His early pastimes He appears as a householder with a golden complexion. His limbs are beautiful, and His body, smeared with the pulp of sandalwood, seems like molten gold.
In His later pastimes He accepts the sannyasa order, and He is equipoised and peaceful. He is the highest abode of peace and devotion, for He silences the impersonalist nondevotees.” (Mhb.127.92.75) Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu specifically propounded the chanting of the ‘Hare Krishna Maha-mantra’, also known as the ‘Great chant of deliverance’, as the most sublime process of purification in the modern age of Kali-yuga. Lord Chaitanya declared that the Shrimad Bhagavatam was the truly ‘spotless Purana’ and sufficient by itself to award pure love of God to all those who took shelter of it. In fact, Lord Chaitanya recommended that one need only read the Bhagavatam and chant the holy names of Krishna to achieve complete spiritual success and nothing else was required.
Awkward Pose Yoga Photo Gallery
The scriptures say that Mahaprabhu was in fact a combined incarnation of both Radha and Krishna, which means that although He was the direct avatara of Krishna, His mood and spiritual emotions were that of Radharani. The Chaitanya-bhagavata says. “Sri krishna chaitanya radha Krishna nahe anya Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is non-other than the combined form of Shri Shri Radha and Krishna.” The scriptures reveal that Lord Krishna desired to experience Radha’s own unique spiritual emotions of ecstatic love known as maha-bhava; therefore He appeared on Earth in order to relish the unique emotions of Radharani. The Chaitanya-charitamrta says. “The loving affairs of Shri Radha and Krishna are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Radha and Krishna are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Shri Krishna Chaitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Shrimati Radharani although He is Krishna Himself.” (Cc.Adi.1.5) This verse reveals the identity and particular mood of Lord Chaitanya, and although Krishna Himself, He appeared with the same golden complexion of Shrimati Radharani.
After accepting the renounced sannyasa order in 1510, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at Jagannatha Puri, in Orissa, where He engaged in sankirtana on a daily basis along with His followers. However, Mahaprabhu’s ardent desire was to visit Vrindavana-dhama and reveal for the benefit of the world, the lost pastime places of where Lord Krishna had enacted His Vraja-lila that had been lost for almost five thousand years. In the year 1515, Lord Chaitanya arrived on pilgrimage in Vrindavana and went on parikrama around the twelve sacred forests of Vraja connected with Lord Krishna’s Earthly pastimes. However, one of the important reasons for Lord Chaitanya’s pilgrimage to Vrindavana was to see the sacred Imli-tala, the sacred tamarind tree where Radharani experienced her most ecstatic emotions of divine love in separation from Krishna. This mood of separation is known as maha-bhava, which is an aspect of divine love in separation, which is called vipralambha.
This same vipralambha was experienced by Radharani during the rasa-lila, due to seeing Krishna loitering with other gopis, being overcome with mana or lovers pique, Radharani suddenly disappeared from the rasa-dance and went alone to sit beneath the Imli-tala on the bank of the Yamuna River, feeling forlorn and longing to be embraced in Krishna’s arms. She came to this tamarind tree and while sitting there in meditation on Krishna, she began to experience the overwhelming pangs of transcendental separation while remembering her divine pastimes of ecstatic love that she had experienced with Krishna. While sitting beneath the Imli tree, she began chanting Krishna’s names, over and over again. As she began remembering these divine pastimes with Krishna, tears began to flow incessantly from her lotus eyes and she entered into a very deep trance of ecstatic separation, this mood is called Radha-maha-bhava and is only experienced by Radharani. She was so absorbed in thoughts of Krishna, that Her golden colored complexion began to slowly turn a bluish-black color known as shyama, the same color as Krishna’s own bodily complexion. The overwhelming ecstasies experienced by Radharani are the pinnacle of all transcendental bhava or spiritual emotions.
The sacred Imli-tala, Radharani’s favorite sitting place, also became Lord Chaitanya’s favorite sitting places in Vrindavana, and during Lord Chaitanya’s visit to Vrindavana, He would sit beneath the sacred tamarind tree every day and chant nama-japa on His beads, while meditating on the loving pastimes of Radha and Krishna. It is mentioned that one day, while Lord Chaitanya was sitting at this same spot beneath the tamarind tree, He became so absorbed in thoughts of Krishna, He was so completely overcome by the mood of vipralambha, and the feelings of separation from Krishna, that He entered into the ecstatic trance referred to as Radha-maha-bhava, and His own golden complexion turned a same bluish-black color as Krishna’s own complexion called shyama, just as Radharani had also experienced the same transformation. Thus Lord Chaitanya could fulfill His deepest desire of experiencing the separation from Krishna that was only ever experienced by Shrimati Radharani.
During the one month that Lord Chaitanya spent at Imli-tala, His own mood of separation from Krishna dramatically increased and by the time He returned to Jagannath Puri, He was totally absorbed both day and night in the same uncontrollable emotions of separation from Krishna, known as Radha-maha-bhava. Ordinary mortals cannot experience the ecstasy of Radha-maha-bhava, thus revealing Mahaprabhu’s true identity as the direct incarnation of Lord Krishna, who appeared with the mood and loving sentiments of Shrimati Radharani.
