Krishna consciousness is the universal science of loving God, authorized by disciplic succession and destined for every town and village.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture by Hansadutta in Śrīla Prabhupāda's Presence — January 30, 1971, Allahabad 710130L2-ALLAHABAD [23:36 Minutes] Lecture_710130L2-ALLAHABAD Hansadutta: [indistinct] śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam [Śrī Prema-bhakti-candrikā] vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare This International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, is a movement completely authorised by the Vedic principle. International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Prabhupāda. Who is the present day ācārya in the Brahmā Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, or the chain of the disciplic succession which is coming down from Brahmā the first and foremost living entity, Brahmājī.
Who received the Vedic knowledge directly from Kṛṣṇa and Brahmājī in turn imparted the knowledge to Nārada, Nārada to Vyāsa and in this way this disciplic succession is coming right up to the present day. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu who is the incarnation of Godhead in the Kali-yuga, according to the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is stated in the eleventh Canto, inaugurated this saṅkīrtana movement 500 years ago right here in India, in Bengal. At that time Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement was revolutionary. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a very learned scholar even at the age of 16 and He accepted the sannyāsa order of life at the age of 24.
But unlike other sannyāsīs Caitanya Mahāprabhu took to chanting and dancing the holy names of God, hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare And therefore He was sometimes criticised for doing this. He was asked why instead of studying Vedānta and being very sober and grave He was always seen chanting and dancing with musical instruments. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied very humbly that, “My spiritual master he found Me a fool and he told Me not to touch Vedānta, he told Me not to play with Vedānta, but he told Me to simply chant this Hare Krishna mantra and it will make You all perfect.” So Caitanya Mahāprabhu is no fool because He is Kṛṣṇa himself, according to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So He presented himself as one of us, as a fool, because in this age everyone is foolish. In the age of Kali everyone is a fool, so He presented himself simply for the matter of teaching.
Just like the teacher writes A, B, C, on the blackboard but the teacher is not learning ABC. The teacher is giving examples. Similarly Caitanya Mahāprabhu He taught by example how to worship Kṛṣṇa in this age and His teachings, the main teaching of Caitanya Mahāprabhu is simply by chanting and dancing, taking prasādam and hearing from scriptures like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we can achieve the perfection of human life which is to love God, love of God, Kṛṣṇa bhakti. So in the spirit of Caitanya Mahāprabhu His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta came to the western world under the order of his Guru Mahārāja to distribute whatever he had learned from his Guru Mahārāja to the English-speaking world and he, Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda he came in 1965 with a few rupees, 40 rupees and some karatālas and a set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which he had managed to, somehow or other, translate and print in India. So he came—he used to sit in New York’s Lower East Side in a place called Thompkins Square Park and there he would chant alone, unassisted. None of his countrymen came with him, he came completely alone. Of course not alone he came with Caitanya Mahāprabhu because Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s teachings and Caitanya Mahāprabhu are one and the same—and his Guru Mahārāja’s instructions. And there he sat, he chanted, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, melodiously.
And some boys and girls they would come and they would sit down with him, just out of curiosity’s sake. Different reasons, we had never seen before such a man sitting there so humbly and chanting some strange sound. So we sat, we listened, and Prabhupāda he used to speak to us about Bhagavad-gītā and he would tell us about Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He requested us to give up our habits of meat eating, intoxication, having girlfriends, and we tried these things and we found real satisfaction, real pleasure. And more and more we became convinced about the necessity of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in the world.
So we lent our services in whatever capacity we had. Some of us would take notes, some of us we had tape recorders, we would record his lectures. Others would type them, others they managed to get a small mimeograph machine and then they started this Back to Godhead magazine was started by these young boys and girls, printing up lectures that Prabhupāda would deliver. And we would go out on the street and try to distribute them to other people. We would try to inform them about what Prabhupāda was teaching us.