Books (by Author)

The Vedic literature has prophesised about this present age of quarrel and hypocrisy or the Kali-yuga. The Kali-yuga means the fourth age. There are four different kinds of ages in the vedic timeline: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Ova para-yuga, and Kali-yuga. Just like there are six seasons, or four seasons in a year, similarly, in one day of Brahma there are one hundred cycles of four yugas. Four yugas means forty-three hundred thousands of years. It is a very long period. That is the duration of four yugas. When one thousand yugas pass, then one day of Brahma-twelve hours are finished. It is a big calculation. Anyway, there are four yugas-Satya-yuga, Dvapara-yuga, Treta-yuga, and Kali-yuga.
In Satya-yuga, the religious principles are followed strictly, cent percent. That is called Satya-yuga. And in Treta-yuga, twenty-five percent reduced. That means seventy-five percent religious principles and twenty-five percent irreligious. And in the Dvapara-yuga, fifty-fifty: fifty percent religious and fifty percent irreligious. And the Kali-yuga, seventy-five percent irreligious and twenty-five percent religious, gradually reducing to nil-no more religion. Then finished. Then there will be devastation. Again Satya-yuga will begin. This is the way of change of Satya-yuga-Satya, Trete, Dvapara, Kali. The duration of Satya-yuga is about eighteen hundred thousand of years. Eighteen hundred thousands of years. Similarly, Treta-yuga, about twelve hundred thousands of years. Similarly, Dvapara-yuga, eight hundred thousands of years. And Kali-yuga four hundred thousands of years. This is the beginning of Kali-yuga. Out of about four hundred thousands of years, we have passed only 5,000 years. Kali-yuga has begun just after the Battle of Kuruksetra. So we have passed

Krishna devotees are sometimes characterized as sentimentalists—at least by those who think that anyone who’d go out dancing and chanting in public couldn’t possibly have a sophisticated philosophy. However, in Teachings of Lord Chaitanya we find that at the heart of Krishna-bhakti is a depth of philosophical and theological understanding far beyond most critics’ power of conception.

Teachings of Lord Chaitanya (subtitled, “A Treatise on Factual Spiritual Life”) was first published in 1968. It is a summary study of the Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, a multi-volume collection describing the life and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who popularized harinama-sankirtana, congregational chanting of God’s names, throughout India during the fifteenth century. His movement bewildered the religious establishment, who considered His followers “emotionalists.” Mahaprabhu reminded them that sankirtana is recommended in the Vedas—the most comprehensive and time-honored spiritual writings on earth—as the primary process of God-realization for the modern era.

Teachings of Lord Chaitanya summarizes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s conversations with influential scholars—the logician Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and the Mayavadi sannyasi Prakashananda Sarasvati—as well as His closest followers, government leaders like Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, and Ramananda Raya. The subject of their talks is Krishna-bhakti, devotional service to Krishna, the Supreme Person.

In Teachings of Lord Chaitanya readers will find some of the most elaborate and ecstatic revelations of the science of God found in any spiritual tradition. Srila Prabhupada often referred to it as “post-graduate” theological study—with the Bhagavad-gita as the undergraduate text, and the Srimad-Bhagavatam as the graduate-level course material.