As you navigate through the Altar, use these arrows to pause and offer your heart’s prayers to the Deities.
Srila Prabhupada
Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu is practically teaching us with His five associates: Advaita, Nityānanda, Gadādhara and śrīvāsādi gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Therefore if we want to approach the Absolute Truth, it is our duty to offer our respect to these five features of the Lord.
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Therefore, in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we first of all worship the Pañca-tattva: śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara—then we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. Then it will be successful. Without going through the Pañca-tattva, with the mercy, nobody can understand Kṛṣṇa. It will remain a myth. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says:
manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
(BG 7.3)
You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa without the mercy of these Pañca-tattva. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, although He came personally, He taught the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and asked people, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). But because we are mūḍhas, we misunderstood Kṛṣṇa. We could not take the last instruction of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa again came as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to teach us how to approach Kṛṣṇa. If we read the life of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His acceptance of sannyāsa order, His preaching all over India, His chanting and dancing, His living at Jagannath Purī, His activities, His meeting with the devotees, His Guṇḍicā-mārjana, His Ratha-yātrā kīrtana—if we study all these activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, immediately you understand Kṛṣṇa.
(740303 – Lecture CC Adi 07.03 – Mayapur)
Quote of the Day
In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity, the members of the Pañca-tattva distributed love of Godhead. Although the members of the Pañca-tattva plundered the storehouse of love of Godhead and ate and distributed its contents, there was no scarcity, for this wonderful storehouse is so complete that as the love is distributed, the supply increases hundreds of times.
(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.23 – 7.24)