At the end of the Dvapara-yuga of the twenty-eighth divya-yuga, Lord Krsna appears on earth with the full paraphernalia of His eternal Vraja-dhama.

Now is the term of Vaivasvata Manu, during which Lord Caitanya appears.. First Lord Krsna appears at the close of the Dvapara-yuga of the twenty-eighth divya-yuga, and then Lord Caitanya appears in the Kali-yuga of the same divya-yuga. Lord Krsna and Lord Caitanya appear once in each day of Brahma, or once in fourteen manv-antaras, each of seventy-one divya-yugas in duration.
From the beginning of Brahma's day of 4,320,000,000 years, six Manus appear and disappear before Lord Krsna appears. Thus 1,975,320,000 years of the day of Brahma elapse before the appearance of Lord Krsna. This is an astronomical calculation according to solar years.

Servitude [dasya], friendship [sakhya], parental affection [vatsalya] and conjugal love [srngara] are the four transcendental mellows [rasas]. By the devotees who cherish these four mellows, Lord Krsna is subdued.

Dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and srngara are the transcendental modes of loving service to the Lord. Santa-rasa, or the neutral stage, is not mentioned in this verse because although in santa-rasa one considers the Absolute Truth the sublime great, one does not go beyond that conception. Santa-rasa is a very grand idea for materialistic philosophers, but such idealistic appreciation is only the beginning; it is the lowest among the relationships in the spiritual world. Santa-rasa is not given much importance because as soon as there is a slight understanding between the knower and the known, active loving transcendental reciprocations and exchanges begin. Dasya-rasa is the basic relationship between Krsna and His devotees; therefore this verse considers dasya the first stage of transcendental devotional service.

Absorbed in such transcendental love, Lord Sri Krsna enjoys in Vraja with His devoted servants, friends, parents and conjugal lovers.

The descent of Sri Krsna, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is very purposeful. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that one who knows the truth about Sri Krsna's descent and His various activities is at once liberated and does not have to fall again to this existence of birth and death after he leaves his present material body. In other words, one who factually understands Krsna makes his life perfect. Imperfect life is realized in material existence, in five different relationships we share with everyone within the material world: neutrality, servitorship, friendship, filial love, and amorous love between husband and wife or lover and beloved. These five enjoyable relationships within the material world are perverted reflections of relationships with the Absolute Personality of Godhead in the transcendental nature. That Absolute Personality, Sri Krsna, descends to revive the five eternally existing relationships. Thus He manifests His transcendental pastimes in Vraja so that people may be attracted into that sphere of activities and leave aside their imitation relationships with the mundane. Then, after fully exhibiting all such activities, the Lord disappears.

Lord Krsna enjoys His transcendental pastimes as long as He wishes, and then He disappears. After disappearing, however, He thinks thus:

"For a long time I have not bestowed unalloyed loving service to Me upon the inhabitants of the world. Without such loving attachment, the existence of the material world is useless.

The Lord seldom awards pure transcendental love, but without such pure love of God, freed from fruitive activities and empiric speculation, one cannot attain perfection in life.

"Everywhere in the world people worship Me according to scriptural injunctions. But simply by following such regulative principles one cannot attain the loving sentiments of the devotees in Vrajabhumi.

"Knowing My opulences, the whole world looks upon Me with awe and veneration. But devotion made feeble by such reverence does not attract Me.

After His appearance, Lord Krsna thought that He had not distributed the transcendental personal dealings with His devotees in dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya. One may understand the science of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from the Vedic literature and thus become a devotee of the Lord and worship Him within the regulative principles described in the scriptures, but one will not know in this way how Krsna is served by the residents of Vrajabhumi. One cannot understand the dealings of the Lord in Vrndavana simply by executing the ritualistic regulative principles mentioned in the scriptures. By following scriptural injunctions one may enhance his appreciation for the glories of the Lord, but there is no chance for one to enter into personal dealings with Him. Giving too much attention to understanding the exalted glories of the Lord reduces the chance of one's entering into personal loving affairs with the Lord. To teach the principles of such loving dealings, the Lord decided to appear as Lord Caitanya.

"By performing such regulated devotional service in awe and veneration, one may go to Vaikuntha and attain the four kinds of liberation.

"These liberations are sarsti [achieving opulences equal to those of the Lord], sarupya [having a form the same as the Lord's], samipya [living as a personal associate of the Lord] and salokya [living on a Vaikuntha planet]. Devotees never accept sayujya, however, since that is oneness with Brahman.

Those engaged in devotional service according to the ritualistic principles mentioned in the scriptures attain these different kinds of liberation. But although such devotees can attain sarsti, sarupya, samipya and salokya, they are not concerned with these liberations, for such devotees are satisfied only in rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord.. The fifth kind of liberation, sayujya, is never accepted even by devotees who perform only ritualistic worship. To attain sayujya, or merging into the Brahman effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the aspiration of the impersonalists. A devotee never cares for sayujya liberation.

"I shall personally inaugurate the religion of the age--nama-sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of loving devotional service.

"I shall accept the role of a devotee, and I shall teach devotional service by practicing it Myself.

When one associates with a pure devotee, he becomes so elevated that he does not aspire even for sarsti, sarupya, samipya or salokya, because he feels that such liberation is a kind of sense gratification. Pure devotees do not ask anything from the Lord for their personal benefit. Even if offered personal benefits, pure devotees do not accept them, because their only desire is to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by transcendental loving service. No one but the Lord Himself can teach this highest form of devotional service. Therefore, when the Lord took the place of the incarnation of Kali-yuga to spread the glories of chanting Hare Krsna--the system of worship recommended in this age--He also distributed the process of devotional service performed on the platform of transcendental spontaneous love. To teach the highest principles of spiritual life, the Lord Himself appeared as a devotee in the form of Lord Caitanya.

"Unless one practices devotional service himself, he cannot teach it to others. This conclusion is indeed confirmed throughout the Gita and Bhagavatam.

" 'Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

paritranaya--for the deliverance; sadhunam--of the devotees; vinasaya--for the destruction; ca--and; duskrtam--of the miscreants; dharma--religious principles; samsthapana-arthaya--for the purpose of establishing; sambhavami--I appear; yuge yuge--in every age.

" 'To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.'

Texts 22 and 23 were spoken by Lord Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7-8).. Texts 24 and 25, which follow, are also from the Bhagavad-gita (3.24, 21).

" 'If I did not show the proper principles of religion, all these worlds would fall into ruin. I would be a cause of unwanted population and would spoil all these living beings.'

" 'Whatever actions a great man performs, common people follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.'

"My plenary portions can establish the principles of religion for each age. No one but Me, however, can bestow the kind of loving service performed by the residents of Vraja.

" 'There may be many all-auspicious incarnations of the Personality of Godhead, but who other than Lord Sri Krsna can bestow love of God upon the surrendered souls?'

This quotation from Bilvamangala Thakura is found in the Laghu-bhagavatamrta (1.5.37).

"Therefore in the company of My devotees I shall appear on earth and perform various colorful pastimes."

Thinking thus, the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna Himself, descended at Nadia early in the Age of Kali.

The prathama-sandhya is the beginning of the age. According to astronomical calculation, the age is divided into twelve parts. The first of these twelve divisions is known as the prathama-sandhya. The prathama-sandhya and sesa-sandhya, the last division of the preceding age, form the junction of the two ages. According to the Surya-siddhanta, the prathama-sandhya of Kali-yuga lasts 36,000 solar years. Lord Caitanya appeared in the prathama-sandhya after 4,586 solar years of Kali-yuga had passed.

Thus the lionlike Lord Caitanya has appeared in Navadvipa. He has the shoulders of a lion, the powers of a lion, and the loud voice of a lion.

May that lion be seated in the core of the heart of every living being.. Thus with His resounding roar may He drive away one's elephantine vices..

In His early pastimes He is known as Visvambhara because He floods the world with the nectar of devotion and thus saves the living beings.

The verbal root "dubhrn" [which is the root of the word "visvambhara"] indicates nourishing and maintaining. He [Lord Caitanya] nourishes and maintains the three worlds by distributing love of God.

In His later pastimes He is known as Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya. He blesses the whole world by teaching about the name and fame of Lord Sri Krsna.

Lord Caitanya remained a householder only until His twenty-fourth year had passed. Then He entered the renounced order and remained manifest in this material world until His forty-eighth year. Therefore sesa-lila, or the final portion of His activities, lasted twenty-four years.
Some so-called Vaisnavas say that the renounced order of life is not accepted in the Vaisnava sampradaya, or disciplic succession, from Lord Caitanya. This is not a very intelligent proposition. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took the sannyasa order from Sripada Kesava Bharati, who belonged to the Sankara sect, which approves of only ten names for sannyasis. Long before the advent of Sripada Sankaracarya, however, the sannyasa order existed in the Vaisnava line of Visnusvami. In the Visnusvami Vaisnava sampradaya, there are ten different kinds of sannyasa names and 108 different names for sannyasis who accept the tri-danda, the triple staff of sannyasa. This is approved by the Vedic rules. Therefore Vaisnava sannyasa was existent even before the appearance of Sankaracarya, although those who know nothing about Vaisnava sannyasa unnecessarily declare that there is no sannyasa in the Vaisnava sampradaya.
During the time of Lord Caitanya, the influence of Sankaracarya in society was very strong. People thought that one could accept sannyasa only in the disciplic succession of Sankaracarya. Lord Caitanya could have performed His missionary activities as a householder, but He found householder life an obstruction to His mission. Therefore He decided to accept the renounced order, sannyasa. Since His acceptance of sannyasa was also designed to attract public attention, Lord Caitanya, not wishing to disturb the social convention, took the renounced order of life from a sannyasi in the disciplic succession of Sankaracarya, although sannyasa was also sanctioned in the Vaisnava sampradaya.
In the Sankara-sampradaya there are ten different names awarded to sannyasis: (1) Tirtha, (2) Asrama, (3) Vana, (4) Aranya, (5) Giri, (6) Parvata, (7) Sagara, (8) Sarasvati, (9) Bharati and (10) Puri. Before one enters sannyasa, he has one of the various names for a brahmacari, the assistant to a sannyasi. Sannyasis with the titles Tirtha and Asrama generally stay at Dvaraka, and their brahmacari name is Svarupa. Those known by the names Vana and Aranya stay at Purusottama, or Jagannatha Puri, and their brahmacari name is Prakasa. Those with the names Giri, Parvata and Sagara generally stay at Badarikasrama, and their brahmacari name is Ananda. Those with the titles Sarasvati, Bharati and Puri usually live at Srngeri in South India, and their brahmacari name is Caitanya.
Sripada Sankaracarya established four monasteries in India, in the four directions north, south, east and west, and he entrusted them to four sannyasis who were his disciples. Now there are hundreds of branch monasteries under these four principal monasteries, and although there is an official symmetry among them, there are many differences in their dealings. The four different sects of these monasteries are known as Anandavara, Bhogavara, Kitavara and Bhumivara, and in course of time they have developed different ideas and different slogans.
According to the regulation of the disciplic succession, one who wishes to enter the renounced order in Sankara's sect must first be trained as a brahmacari under a bona fide sannyasi, The brahmacari's name is ascertained according to the group to which the sannyasi belongs. Lord Caitanya accepted sannyasa from Kesava Bharati. When He first approached Kesava Bharati, He was accepted as a brahmacari with the name Sri Krsna Caitanya Brahmacari. After He took sannyasa, He preferred to keep the name Krsna Caitanya.
The great authorities in the disciplic succession had not offered to explain why Lord Caitanya refused to take the name Bharati after He took sannyasa from a Bharati, until Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja volunteered the explanation that because a sannyasi in the Sankara-sampradaya thinks that he has become the Supreme, Lord Caitanya, wanting to avoid such a misconception, kept the name Sri Krsna Caitanya, placing Himself as an eternal servitor. A brahmacari is supposed to serve the spiritual master; therefore He did not negate that relationship of servitude to His spiritual master. Accepting such a position is favorable for the relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master.
The authentic biographies also mention that Lord Caitanya accepted the danda (rod) and begging pot, symbolic of the sannyasa order, at the time He took sannyasa.

Knowing Him [Lord Caitanya] to be the incarnation for Kali-yuga, Garga Muni, during the naming ceremony of Krsna, predicted His appearance.

"This boy [Krsna] has three other colors--white, red and yellow--as He appears in different ages. Now He has appeared in a transcendental blackish color."

Now, in the Dvapara-yuga, the Lord had descended in a blackish hue. This is the essence of the statements in the Puranas and other Vedic literatures with reference to the context.

"In the Dvapara-yuga the Personality of Godhead appears in a blackish hue. He is dressed in yellow, He holds His own weapons, and He is decorated with the Kaustubha jewel and marks of Srivatsa. This is how His symptoms are described."

This is a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.27), spoken by Saint Karabhajana, one of the nine royal mystics who explained to King Nimi the different features of the Lord in different ages.

The religious practice for the Age of Kali is to broadcast the glories of the holy name. Only for this purpose has the Lord, in a yellow color, descended as Lord Caitanya.

In this Age of Kali the practical system of religion for everyone is the chanting of the name of Godhead. This was introduced in this age by Lord Caitanya. Bhakti-yoga actually begins with the chanting of the holy name, as confirmed by Madhvacarya in his commentary on the Mundaka Upanisad.. He quotes this verse from the Narayana-samhita:

"In the Dvapara-yuga people should worship Lord Visnu only by the regulative principles of the Narada-pancaratra and other such authorized books. In the Age of Kali, however, people should simply chant the holy names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." The Hare Krsna mantra is specifically mentioned in many Upanisads, such as the Kali-santarana Upanisad, where it is said:

The luster of His expansive body resembles molten gold. The deep sound of His voice conquers the thundering of newly assembled clouds.

One who measures four cubits in height and in breadth by his own hand is celebrated as a great personality.

Such a person is called nyagrodha-parimandala. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who personifies all good qualities, has the body of a nyagrodha-parimandala.

No one other than the Supreme Lord Himself, who has engaged the conditioned souls by His own illusory energy, can possess these bodily features.. These features certainly indicate an incarnation of Visnu and no one else.

His arms are long enough to reach His knees, His eyes are just like lotus flowers, His nose is like a sesame flower, and His face is as beautiful as the moon.

He is peaceful, self-controlled and fully devoted to the transcendental service of Lord Sri Krsna. He is affectionate toward His devotees, He is gentle, and He is equally disposed toward all living beings.

He is decorated with sandalwood bangles and armlets and anointed with the pulp of sandalwood. He especially wears these decorations to dance in sri-krsna-sankirtana.

Recording all these qualities of Lord Caitanya, the sage Vaisampayana included His name in the Visnu-sahasra-nama.

The pastimes of Lord Caitanya have two divisions--the early pastimes [adi-lila] and the later pastimes [sesa-lila]. He has four names in each of these two lilas.

"In His early pastimes He appears as a householder with a golden complexion. His limbs are beautiful, and His body, smeared with the pulp of sandalwood, seems like molten gold. In His later pastimes He accepts the sannyasa order, and He is equipoised and peaceful. He is the highest abode of peace and devotion, for He silences the impersonalist nondevotees."

This is a verse from the Mahabharata (Dana-dharma, Visnu-sahasra-nama-stotra). In his commentary on the Visnu-sahasra-nama called the Namartha-sudha, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, commenting upon this verse, asserts that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead according to the evidence of the Upanisads. He explains that suvarna-varnah means a golden complexion. He also quotes the Vedic injunction yada pasyah pasyate rukma-varnam kartaram isam purusam brahma-yonim (Mundaka Upanisad 3.1.3). Rukma-varnam kartaram isam refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as having a complexion the color of molten gold. Purusam means the Supreme Lord, and brahma-yonim indicates that He is also the Supreme Brahman. This evidence, too, proves that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna. Another meaning of the description of the Lord as having a golden hue is that Lord Caitanya's personality is as fascinating as gold is attractive. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana has explained that the word varanga means "exquisitely beautiful."
Lord Caitanya accepted sannyasa, leaving aside His householder life, to preach His mission. He has equanimity in different senses. First, He describes the confidential truth of the Personality of Godhead, and second, He satisfies everyone by knowledge and attachment to Krsna. He is peaceful because He renounces all topics not related to the service of Krsna. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana has explained that the word nistha indicates His being rigidly fixed in chanting the holy name of Sri Krsna. Lord Caitanya subdued all disturbing opponents of devotional service, especially the monists, who are actually averse to the personal feature of the Supreme Lord.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is repeatedly and clearly said that the essence of religion in the Age of Kali is the chanting of the holy name of Krsna.