Srila Prabhupada

I think by the beginning of December, 1936, I wrote one letter to Guru Mahārāja. I knew he was little kind upon me, so I wrote that "Guru Mahārāja, you have got many disciples. I am also one of them. But they are doing direct service to you. There some of them are brahmacārīs, some of them sannyāsīs, but I am a householder. I cannot . . ." Of course, I was giving sometimes some monetary help, but I could not give any direct service, so I asked him that, "If there is any particular service I can do for you?"
So that letter was replied in 13th December, dated 13th December, from Purī. And he passed away on the 31st December. Just a fortnight before. So the reply was the same as he wanted me to do this preaching work in 1922, when I first met him that, "You try to preach whatever you have learned from me, the English-knowing people in English. That will do good to you and to the people to whom you shall preach. That is my instruction." So I took up that . . . and then he passed away in 1936, 31st December.
(690207 - Lecture Festival Appearance Day, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati - Los Angeles)

So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a great scholar. There is no doubt of it. But in spite of His becoming a great scholar, He is presenting Himself as a great fool. He says: “My Guru Mahārāja saw Me a great . . .” Even one is very great scholar, he has to abide by the decision of his spiritual master. Even one is very great scholar, and if his spiritual master says that “You are a great fool,” he should accept it. This is called full surrender. For example, I’ll give you a practical . . . my Guru Mahārāja was very great scholar, and his Guru Mahārāja, from literary point of view, he could not even sign his name, Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura asked Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura to accept Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja as his . . . as his spiritual master, that “You go and take your initiation from Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja.” So he thought that “I am a great scholar, and I am son of a magistrate, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and great Vaiṣṇava. He’ll be very much pleased to accept me.” Of course, he was very much pleased. But in the beginning he refused. He refused. Because . . . of course, that is only show—he was not proud—just to teach us. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī explained that, “I was little proud. So I was thrice refused by Guru Mahārāja,” although he was the only disciple.
So the scholarship is not a qualification of becoming devotee. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s teaching. Scholarship may help, but it is not necessary. Real necessary is that one should be humble and meek and follow the instruction of the spiritual master. This is real qualification.
(740313 – Lecture CC Adi 07.91-2 – Vrndavana)

Because Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, does not give anything else. Simply directly gives you Kṛṣṇa and His love. And to award this greatest benediction to the human society, He took sannyāsa at the age of twenty-four years only, in this land of Māyāpur, Navadvīpa. It is very glorified place. It is not ordinary place. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, gauḍa maṇḍala bhūmi, yeba jane cintāmaṇi tara hoy vrajabhūme vāsa. Anyone who understands gauḍa maṇḍala bhūmi in Bengal—this Navadvīpa, Navadvīpa-candra, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu—if anyone understands the spiritual value of this land, he lives in Vrajabhūmi, in Vṛndāvana. There is no difference between Vṛndāvana and this Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi. That is the verdict of the śāstra. 
(740302 - Lecture CC Adi 07.02 - Mayapur)