Just like Arjuna was fighting, kṣatriya. His business was to fight. Why he was fighting the Battle of Kurukṣetra? To become master of the kingdom. But he remained eternally servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is success. Don't be satisfied simply I become master of your material position. At the same time, you try to become the servant of the Supreme; then you are successful. Relative. Our mastership is relative. Under certain condition we become master, but Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is master without any condition. Namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa prema pradāya te (CC Madhya 19.53). Because He's master, He can distribute kṛṣṇa prema very easily. Otherwise, kṛṣṇa prema . . . not only kṛṣṇa prema; one cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa.
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yayati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
Out of many millions of persons, one may try to make his life successful, and out of many such person who has become successful, to understand the constitutional position of his life, one may understand—one may understand; there is no surety—Kṛṣṇa. So to understand Kṛṣṇa is very, very difficult job.
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
- (BG 18.54)
To understand Kṛṣṇa and to understand the service of Kṛṣṇa is very exalted post. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. One has to become brahma-bhūtaḥ, completely liberated. Then he can understand how to render service to Kṛṣṇa, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. So, so difficult subject matter is given very easily by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī offered his first prayer to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu:
- namo mahā-vadānyāya
- kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
- kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
- (CC Madhya 19.53)
Such a difficult subject matter: Kṛṣṇa. "You are not only giving Kṛṣṇa, but You are giving kṛṣṇa-prema, love of Kṛṣṇa." You can meet somebody, some exalted person, you can see, but to become an intimate relationship with such exalted person in love, that is not very easy thing. I can meet the president or some exalted person, but to become in love with him in intimacy, that is not easy job. But Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu distributed this Kṛṣṇa love immediately, anyone. That is Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu's, I mean to say, contribution to the human society. If you simply become under the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then love of Kṛṣṇa is very easily achieved.
Therefore it is said: tāṅhāra caraṇāśrita, sei baḍa dhanya. He's glorified because he receives . . . to become under the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu means you have got Kṛṣṇa. You have already got. That is the verdict of the śāstra and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Because Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, does not give anything else. Simply directly gives you Kṛṣṇa and His love. And to award this greatest benediction to the human society, He took sannyāsa at the age of twenty-four years only, in this land of Māyāpur, Navadvīpa. It is very glorified place. It is not ordinary place. Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, gauḍa maṇḍala bhūmi, yeba jane cintāmaṇi tara hoy vrajabhūme vāsa. Anyone who understands gauḍa maṇḍala bhūmi in Bengal—this Navadvīpa, Navadvīpa-candra, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu—if anyone understands the spiritual value of this land, he lives in Vrajabhūmi, in Vṛndāvana. There is no difference between Vṛndāvana and this Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi. That is the verdict of the śāstra. Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi yena jane cintāmaṇi tara hoy vrajabhūme vāsa (Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura).
So read Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's Prārthanā, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's Prārthanā. They are very, very valuable for advancement of spiritual understanding, especially Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's Prārthanā. So, by reading them, by understanding them, we can understand Kṛṣṇa very easily. Otherwise, it is very, very difficult to understand Kṛṣṇa. Big, big scholars, big, big sannyāsīs, they cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. They understand Kṛṣṇa that Kṛṣṇa is like us—a very great man, politician, historical person—or sometimes thinks of Kṛṣṇa as a debauch because He was in association with the gopīs or He married sixteen thousand wives.
So we shall be misled to understand Kṛṣṇa if we try to do so by our own knowledge. We have to accept Kṛṣṇa through Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.