(Kadamba Kanana Swami)
The Caitanya Caritamrta is the very essence of everything! The Caitanya Caritamrta is the one book that provides us with our identity.
Sometimes when we are looking at the Pandavas and all of the other heroes of the Mahabharata – they are impressive. Arjuna can fight with ten thousand men, and that’s quite the number. Just think about it – ten thousand is a big number! He can singly defeat ten thousand men. Is there any Arjunas here?
We are lucky if we can defeat one, right? I always say that there are two types of people in this world – those who are strong and those who are fast! You know what I mean! With Bhima, do you realise that he is stronger then Asterix and Obelix?
Do you realize that even Spiderman is nothing compared to Bhima, who is stronger then ten thousand elephants. I saw Spiderman having a lot of trouble stopping a train, but if you have strength of ten thousand elephants then you just knock the train off the railway track! That is if you want to.
So, my point is that although the heroes of the Mahabharata and the heroes of the Bhagavatam are very amazing, with wonderful personalities. In some ways they are further away from us, but when we look at Caitanya Caritamrta, we find that we are dealing with devotees who are like us. Many are grhasthas by maintaining their families, and yet they are chanting Hare Krsna!
In the Caitanya Caritamrta, we are following the process of chanting Hare Krsna, and by following the four regulative principles. Therefore, more than anywhere else in the Caitanya Caritamrta, we find our identity as practitioners. After all we are following the process of sadhana bhakti – this is also outlined in the teachings from Rupa and Sanatana, which are very essential chapters in the Caitanya Caritamtra. In these teachings we find how the process of sadhana bhakti is outlined – or devotional service is practised. The Caitanya Caritamrta in particular addresses pure devotional service, where one is naturally attracted to Krsna.
