Discovering Lord Chaitanya.

Our first encounter with Lord Chaitanya and His sankirtana movement is a very special time for devotees. Most of us grew up never having heard of either of Them, yet suddenly this becomes the most important thing in our lives - an understanding and an experience which we can never turn our backs on. There are two pieces of writing on this subject which you might like to read, on the way to Gaura-purnima. Here's the first:

Yadunandana das, a Vaishnava monk from Spain, Principle of Bhaktivedanta College , relates his first encounters with Lord Chaitanya's sankirtana movement.

When I first came in contact with the Hare Krishna movement, the personality of Sri Chaitanya intrigued and attracted me. Having being trained as a Catholic in my childhood, I had great appreciation and feeling for Jesus, although I was not practicing his teachings very much. To hear and read about Sri Chaitanya evoked in my heart some of those feelings I had experienced during my confirmation, but in an increased way. I liked that Sri Chaitanya had shown the path to spiritual perfection by giving up everything to serve the Lord and that he widely disseminated the chanting of the holy name.

In those beginning days, I used to read and re-read Srila Prabhupada’s introduction to Srimad-Bhagavatam, in which he wrote a summary of the life of Sri Chaitanya. In the description, I learned that Sri Chaitanya had been a great scholar almost from his childhood and had astounded and humbled great intellectual and spiritual champions of his time such as Kesava Kasmiri, Prakasananda Sarasvati, and Sarvabhauma-Bhattacharya. These influential, renowned philosophers and teachers became followers of Sri Chaitanya or, at least, accepted the Vaisnava teachings after meeting him. It was amazing to read, that in spite of being such a prodigious scholar, Sri Chaitanya had written only eight verses. The translations of these verses appeared at the end of Srila Prabhupada’s summary; I used to enjoy their poetry and deep spiritual feeling. They express the greatness of God and how tiny we are in comparison to Him and yet, how a very intense, sweet—sometimes bittersweet—relationship develops between the Lord and His devotee. I felt moved by those sublime expressions. I saw it, and still see it, as an ideal to be achieved: deep, loving attachment to God and open and honest communication with Him.

Later on, when I became a novice in a Hare Krishna temple in Spain , I would recite those same verses every morning, both in Sanskrit and Spanish, as part of the morning spiritual programme. Now, after 27 years, I still derive great inspiration from them. These eight verses of instruction, embody the teachings and mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They reveal the process of pure love of Godhead, bhakti, and the congregational chanting of the holy name of Krsna (sankirtana) as the best method for spiritual perfection in this difficult age. In the first verse, Sri Chaitanya expresses the purpose of his advent on earth. He says: “Let there be all victory to the Sri-Krishna-sankirtana”. Sri Chaitanya is described by Srila Prabhupada as the great apostle of love of God and the father of congregational chanting. Every day Sri Chaitanya would go into the streets with his devotee companions and perform public congregational chanting of the holy name, inspiring other people to join in. He requested His followers to do the same for the benefit of others.

The first time I heard congregational chanting, was in a small room my friends and I had rented in the cultural centre of my hometown. We had a youth group for research about yoga and the paranormal. That day, when I came into the room, two or three of my friends were there, euphorically singing, accompanied by hand cymbals and a little metal box, which they used as a drum. They had not taken any drugs nor drunk any alcohol. They were simply singing with their hearts and voices, bodies moving from side to side, following the rhythm of the chanting and the instruments, their faces beaming. When I entered the room I felt my whole being caught up in an intense, spiritual happiness. This was not ordinary singing or music. It was full of tangible, spiritual power.

Some weeks later, I went to the temple in Barcelona for the first time. I was already chanting the Hare Krishna mantra on my beads, reciting sixteen rounds of 108 mantras every day and my friends and I used to meet regularly and have our kirtanas (chanting sessions), sometimes in one of our yoga rooms, which we had transformed into a temple, and other times in a nearby forest or park. Still, when I took part in my first kirtana in the temple, with all the temple devotees gathered and their enthusiastic and graceful dancing, the experience was even stronger. I felt immersed in an ocean of bliss. This may sound like an exaggerated expression, but I have no better words to describe it. After that kirtana I decided: “I want to come here and live with these people”. Since it was my first time in the temple, I had not made any friends. Yet, the experience was so powerful that it increased my desire to follow Sri Caitanya’s teachings and mission.

During the week, I could hardly wait for the weekend, to go to the temple, which was thirty kilometres from my hometown, to join the devotees and sing and dance with them, and to experience the happiness of that chanting. For me, this was a living proof that made me identify with the character of Sri Chaitanya and fanned in my heart a growing vocation to follow him, a vocation that has profoundly marked my life and that I pray will continue until my last breath.

Shortly afterwards, I participated regularly in the Sunday chanting processions in the streets of Barcelona. I was not dressed like the other devotees and I was less experienced than them, but this did not make any difference to me. I was going out to bring the experiences I was having so that others could have the same opportunity. Somehow the sankirtana of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his devotees had touched me so deeply that I became part of his mission and was actively spreading it. The happiness I experienced, and still experience, surpasses beyond any comparison, the ordinary happiness of the mind and senses. Therefore, as Sri Chaitanya says in this verse: "param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam, let there be victory to the Holy name of Krsna which expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life!"

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