The Appearance Day of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu

Today we celebrate the appearance day of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We honor His appearance with a full day fast (until moon rise), followed by a special vegetarian feast. Also to honor the Lord’s appearance day, we have selected these two verses from the Sri Caitanya-caritmrta.

“O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.

“We offer our respectful obeisances unto that merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead who has converted all three worlds, which were maddened by ignorance, and saved them from their diseased condition by making them mad with the nectar from the treasure-house of love of God. Let us take full shelter of that Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, whose activities are wonderful.”

Full text and Bengali

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta 1975 Edition
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Madhya-lila,Chapter 19, Text 53 & 54

namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

namaḥ—obeisances; mahā-vadānyāya—who is most munificent and charitably disposed; kṛṣṇa-prema—love of Kṛṣṇa; pradāya—who can give; te—unto You; kṛṣṇāya—the original Personality of Godhead; kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne—under the name Kṛṣṇa Caitanya; gaura-tviṣe—whose complexion is the golden complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī; namaḥ—obeisances.

TRANSLATION

“O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.

yo ‘jñāna-mattaṁ bhuvanaṁ dayālur
ullāghayann apy akarot pramattam
sva-prema-sampat-sudhayādbhutehaṁ
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanyam amuṁ prapadye

yaḥ—that Personality of Godhead who; ajñāna-mattam—maddened by ignorance or foolishly passing time in karma, jñāna, yoga and Māyāvāda philosophy; bhuvanam—the entire three worlds; dayāluḥ—so merciful; ullāghayan—subduing such processes as karma, jñāna and yoga; api—despite; akarot—made; pra-mattam—maddened; sva-prema-sampat-sudhayā—by the nectar of His personal devotional service, which is an invaluable treasure of bliss; adbhuta-īham—whose activities are wonderful; śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanyam—unto Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu; amum—that; prapadye—I surrender.

TRANSLATION

“We offer our respectful obeisances unto that merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead who has converted all three worlds, which were maddened by ignorance, and saved them from their diseased condition by making them mad with the nectar from the treasure-house of love of God. Let us take full shelter of that Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, whose activities are wonderful.”

PURPORT

This verse is found in the Govinda-līlāmṛta (1.2).