This year, the Gaura Purnima falls on the 3rd of March. Who is Caitanya Mahaprabhu? Rupa Gosvami composed a very nice verse when he first met Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
namo maha vadanyaya
krsna-prema pradayate
krsnaya krsna caitanya namne
gaura tvise namah
This verse summarizes the mission of Lord Caitanya in a nutshell. Lord Caitanya is the self-same Lord Krishna, the foster child of Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja. vrajendra nandana yei, saci-suta hoilo sei. Lord Krishna demands in the Bhagavad Gita: sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. He first of all demands unconditional surrender before He awards devotional service to anyone. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu awards the highest perfection of life, love of God, to a society devoid of God-consciousness. krsna-prema pradayate.
This is the reason why He is called the most munificient of all incarnations. maha vadanyaya. To attain the highest stage of love of God, one must take to the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. There is no other way in this Age of Kali.
The appearance day of Lord Caitanya is a very good opportunity to render some devotional service to His Lordship. On the top of it, it falls on a saturday. What more can you ask for? We also need a few hands on the friday to prepare festival. On the saturday, the program will be conducted in English and on Sunday, in Bengali.
Bring along all your friends and relatives. Everyone is invited!
