One of the predictions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance can be found in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, sometimes called the Bhagavata Purana. In the fifth chapter of the eleventh canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, the great sage Narada Muni tells Vasudeva the identity of the principal avatar worshiped in each of the four ages (yugas) in the Vedic yuga cycle (Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga). Having described the avatars for the first three yugas, Narada Muni then described the avatar for the fourth. Because Narada Muni was speaking at the end of the third yuga, his statements about the fourth avatar, the one for the Kali Yuga, were therefore predictive. According to the Shrimad Bhagavatam itself, the text itself was composed five thousand years ago. And even modern scholars, who attribute a younger age to the work, say it is at least one thousand years old. Either way, the descriptions of the fourth avatar predate the appearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Narada Muni said: “In Kali-yuga also people worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead by following various regulations of the revealed scriptures. Now kindly hear of this from me. In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krishna” (Shrimad Bhagavatam 11.5.31–32). When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was present, he traveled widely all over India, chanting the names of Krishna in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Millions of people joined him in this congregational chanting.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that this chanting would spread to every town and village in the world, and within recent times, this prediction has come true. In 1965, my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a guru in the line of succession coming from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, came by sea from India to New York, and began to introduce the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra worldwide, in fulfillment of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction. And now the chanting can be seen and heard in the streets of cities and villages everywhere.
The birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was preceded by announcing dreams. His father Jagannatha Mishra told his wife Sachi Devi, “In a dream I saw the effulgent abode of the Lord enter my heart. From my heart it entered your heart. I therefore understand that a great personality will soon take birth” (Chaitanya Charitamrita, adi-lila 13.84–85). The birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu coincided with a lunar eclipse. According to custom, during a lunar eclipse Vaishnava Hindus take baths in sacred rivers like the Ganges while loudly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Thus at the moment of Lord Chaitanya’s birth, in Navadvipa, West Bengal, on the banks of the Ganges, the atmosphere was filled with the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, giving a prophetic glimpse of his future mission. The horoscope of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu confirmed that he was a great godlike personality who would deliver humankind from the miseries of existence in the material world. His feet, hands, and body also displayed an auspicious combination of features and marks indicating he was an incarnation of the Personality of Godhead.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent his first twenty-four years in Navadvipa, performing many miracles. Then he became a sannyasi, a member of the renounced spiritual order of life. Sannyasis take a lifelong vow of celibacy, and travel widely to give their spiritual teachings. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first went to the home of one of his chief associates, Advaita Prabhu. There he showed Advaita Prabhu his universal form, thus confirming his status as an incarnation of the Personality of Godhead (Chaitanya Charitamrita, madhya-lila 17.10). The universal form is an awe inspiring display whereby all of the planets and celestial bodies become present in the form of the incarnation, which becomes simultaneously present in all of them.
Afterwards, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu journeyed to the sacred city of Jagannatha Puri, in the state of Orissa. Upon arriving, he entered the famous temple of Jagannatha, a form of Vishnu, and, displaying signs of spiritual ecstasies, fainted when he saw the altar deity. The temple guards were used to seeing pilgrims imitate ecstatic symptoms, in hopes of passing themselves off as incarnations of God. Thinking that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was another such imposter, they came forward to expel him from the temple. But they were stopped by Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, one of the leading teachers of Jagannatha Puri. He sensed that sannyasi lying on the floor might not be the usual kind of fake.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada comments in his introduction to his Shrimad Bhagavatam translation and commentary: “Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who was the chief appointed pandit in the court of the King of Orissa, Maharaja Prataparudra . . . could understand that such a transcendental trance was only rarely exhibited. . . . The Lord was at once carried to the home of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who at that time had sufficient power of authority due to his being the sabha-pandita, or the state dean of faculty in Sanskrit literatures. The learned pandita wanted to scrutinizingly test the transcendental feats of Lord Caitanya because often unscrupulous devotees imitate physical feats in order to flaunt transcendental achievements just to attract innocent people and take advantage of them. A learned scholar like the Bhattacarya can detect such imposters, and when he finds them out he at once rejects them. In the case of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Bhattacarya tested all the symptoms in the light of the shastras [Sanskrit literatures]. He tested as a scientist, not as a foolish sentimentalist. He observed the movement of the stomach, the beating of the heart and the breathing of the nostrils. He also felt the pulse of the Lord and saw that all His bodily activities were in complete suspension. . . . Thus he came to know that the Lord’s unconscious trance was genuine, and he began to treat Him in the prescribed fashion.”
After staying briefly in Jagannatha Puri, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embarked on a six-year journey throughout southern India. In one village he met a brahmana named Vasudeva, who suffered from a severe case of leprosy. He embraced Vasudeva, and immediately the leprosy disappeared (Chaitanya Charitamrita, madhya-lila 7.141).
Upon returning to Jagannatha Puri, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took part in the famous annual Rathayatra festival. In this festival, the temple deities are mounted on huge wooden chariots with towering colorful canopies, and are taken on a procession through the city. Millions of pilgrims attend the festival and thousands assist in pulling the giant chariots with long ropes. The imposing nature of the scene has come down to us in the term “juggernaut,” which has come to mean an unstoppable force. Juggernaut is a corruption of jagannatha (“lord of the universe”). During one festival, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu divided his followers into seven groups. Each group, equipped with hand cymbals and drums, loudly danced and chanted. Looking at the scene, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and the King of Orissa could see that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had expanded himself into seven forms, and was chanting and dancing in each of the seven groups simultaneously (Chaitanya Charitamrita, madhya-lila 13.52).
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then visited the sacred town of Vrindavan, the site of Krishna’s appearance in this world five thousand years ago. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is an incarnation of Krishna, who is recognized in the Shrimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all incarnations. In Vrindavan, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu learned of some reports of a new appearance of Krishna, who was repeating some of his original pastimes. Crowds of people came to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saying, “Krishna has again manifested Himself on the waters of Kaliya Lake. He dances on the hoods of the serpent Kaliya, and the jewels on those hoods are blazing. Everyone has seen Lord Krishna Himself. There is no doubt about it” (Chaitanya Charitamrita, madhya-lila 18.94–95). For three days, people repeated this to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. On the third day, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s personal assistant said that he wanted to go and see Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sharply replied: “You are a learned scholar, but you have become a fool, being influenced by the statements of other fools. . . . Foolish people who are mistaken are simply causing agitation and making a tumult. Do not become mad. Simply sit down here, and tomorrow night you will go see Krishna.” The next morning, some respectable, intelligent, experienced gentlemen came to see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and he asked them about the events at the Kaliya Lake. They replied, “At night in Kaliya Lake a fisherman lights a torch in his boat and catches many fish. From a distance, people mistakenly think that they are seeing Krishna dancing on the body of the Kaliya serpent. These fools think that the boat is the Kaliya serpent and the torchlight the jewels on his hoods. People also mistake the fisherman for Krishna.” The gentlemen then said, “Actually Lord Krishna has returned to Vrindavana. That is the truth, and it is also true that people have seen Him. But where they are seeing Krishna is their mistake.” The gentlemen were indirectly indicating that they knew Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was actually an avatar. The special feature of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was that he for the most part concealed his identity as an incarnation of Godhead, so that he could instead teach about how to understand and worship God. For this reason he is sometimes called the channa, or hidden, avatar.