Adi-lilaChapter 4: The Confidential Reasons for the Appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi 4.15-16

prema-rasa-niryasa karite asvadana

raga-marga bhakti loke karite pracarana

rasika-sekhara krishna parama-karuna

ei dui hetu haite icchara udgama

SYNONYMS

prema-rasa -- of the mellow of love of God; niryasa -- the essence; karite -- to do; asvadana -- tasting; raga-marga -- the path of spontaneous attraction; bhakti -- devotional service; loke -- in the world; karite -- to do; pracarana -- propagation; rasika-sekhara -- the supremely jubilant; krishna -- Lord Krishna; parama-karuna -- the most merciful; ei -- these; dui -- two; hetu -- reasons; haite -- from; icchara -- of desire; udgama -- the birth.

TRANSLATION

The Lord's desire to appear was born from two reasons: the Lord wanted to taste the sweet essence of the mellows of love of God, and He wanted to propagate devotional service in the world on the platform of spontaneous attraction. Thus He is known as supremely jubilant and as the most merciful of all.

PURPORT

During the period of Lord Krishna's appearance, the killing of asuras or nonbelievers such as Kamsa and Jarasandha was done by Vishnu, who was within the person of Sri Krishna. Such apparent killing by Lord Sri Krishna took place as a matter of course and was an incidental activity for Him. But the real purpose of Lord Krishna's appearance was to stage a dramatic performance of His transcendental pastimes at Vrajabhumi, thus exhibiting the highest limit of transcendental mellow in the exchanges of reciprocal love between the living entity and the Supreme Lord. These reciprocal exchanges of mellows are called raga-bhakti, or devotional service to the Lord in transcendental rapture. Lord Sri Krishna wants to make known to all the conditioned souls that He is more attracted by raga-bhakti than vidhi-bhakti, or devotional service under scheduled regulations. It is said in the Vedas (Taittiriya Up. 2.7), raso vai sah: the Absolute Truth is the reservoir for all kinds of reciprocal exchanges of loving sentiments. He is also causelessly merciful, and He wants to bestow upon us this privilege of raga-bhakti. Thus He appeared by His own internal energy. He was not forced to appear by any extraneous force.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness