Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, the younger brother of Sanātana Gosvāmī, went to Prayāga, the modern city of Allahabad, with his younger brother Vallabha. When the two brothers heard that Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was staying there, they both became very much pleased and went to see the Lord. At that time the Lord was on His way to visit the temple of Bindu Mādhava. On the way to the temple the Lord was chanting and dancing, and thousands of people were following Him. Some were crying and some were laughing, some were dancing and some were singing, and some were falling on the ground, offering obeisances to the Lord. And all of them were roaring the holy name: "Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!" It is said that in spite of being at the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Yamunā, Prayāga was never flooded until the appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, at which time the city was overflooded by love of Kṛṣṇa.
The two brothers, Rūpa Gosvāmī and Vallabha, stayed aloof in an uncrowded place and witnessed the great crowd and wonderful scene. When the Lord danced, He raised His arms and shouted, "Haribol! Haribol!" The people all about Him were astonished to see His activities. Indeed, the wonderful scene is difficult to describe.
After visiting the temple, the Lord accepted prasādam (food offered to the Deity) at the house of a Deccanist (southern) brāhmaṇa with whom He was acquainted. While sitting alone at the brāhmaṇa's home, the Lord was visited by Rūpa Gosvāmī and Vallabha. From a distance the two brothers fell down on the ground to offer obeisances, and they chanted many Sanskrit verses from the scriptures. When the Lord saw Rūpa Gosvāmī offering obeisances before Him, He became very much pleased and said, "My dear Rūpa, please get up." The Lord then informed Rūpa Gosvāmī of the causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa upon him, for Kṛṣṇa had just delivered him from the materialistic way of life, which is based simply on pounds-shillings-pence.
The Lord accepted the two brothers as His devotees, and He cited a verse from the scriptures stating that the Lord will not accept a brāhmaṇa who has studied the four Vedas if he is not a devotee but He will accept someone from a very low family if he is a pure devotee. Then the Lord embraced the two brothers, and out of His causeless mercy He touched their heads with His lotus feet. Blessed in this way, the brothers offered prayers to the Lord in their own words. The prayers indicated that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu was Kṛṣṇa Himself, that He had assumed a fair-complexioned form (gaurāṅga), and that He was the most munificent incarnation of Kṛṣṇa because He was distributing love of Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī also recited a verse later found in the book Govinda-līlāmṛta (1.2):
- yo ’jñāna-mattaṁ bhuvanaṁ dayālur
- ullāghayann apy akarot pramattam
- sva-prema-sampat-sudhayādbhutehaṁ
- śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanyam amuṁ prapadye
"Let me surrender unto the lotus feet of Sri Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is the greatest, most merciful Personality of Godhead. He delivers those who are merged in ignorance and offers them the highest gift, love of Kṛṣṇa, and thus makes them mad after Kṛṣṇa consciousness."
After this incident, Vallabha Bhaṭṭa invited the Lord to go to the other side of the Ganges, and the Lord went. On this trip Rūpa Gosvāmī accompanied the Lord, and, indeed, wherever the Lord went Rūpa Gosvāmī would follow Him and stay with Him. Because the Lord felt inconvenienced in crowded places, He asked Rūpa Gosvāmī to accompany Him to a place on the banks of the Ganges known as Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭa. For ten days He instructed Rūpa Gosvāmī about the truth of Kṛṣṇa, the principles of devotional service, and the transcendental mellows (relationships with Kṛṣṇa). All of this was described in full detail so that in the future Rūpa Gosvāmī could distribute the science of Kṛṣṇa in his book Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī described this incident in the first verse of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, in which he speaks of the causeless mercy of the Lord upon him.
The Supreme Lord is cognizant and all-powerful, and by His causeless mercy He empowers a living entity to receive His mercy. People in general, being under the spell of conditioned life, are averse to rendering devotional service and practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are unaware of the teachings of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which reveal one's eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the process by which one can return to the spiritual world, and the ultimate goal of life, which is to return home, back to Godhead. Because these things are unknown to the conditioned soul, Lord Caitanya, out of His causeless mercy, instructed Rūpa Gosvāmī in the principles of devotional service. Later, Rūpa Gosvāmī distributed this science to the people in general.
In the prologue to the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.2), Rūpa Gosvāmī describes Lord Caitanya as follows:
- hṛdi yasya preraṇayā pravartito ’haṁ varāka-rūpo ’pi
- tasya hareḥ pada-kamalaṁ vande caitanya-devasya
"I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of Lord Caitanyadeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, because He has inspired me with the desire in my heart to write something about devotional service. For this reason I am writing this book on the science of devotion, known as the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu."
Beginning His ten days of continual instruction to Rūpa Gosvāmī, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "My dear Rūpa, the science of devotional service is just like a great ocean, and so it is not possible to show you its entire length and breadth. But I shall try to explain the nature of that ocean by taking just one drop out of it. In this way you can taste it and understand what that ocean of devotional service actually is."
The Lord then explained that within this brahmāṇḍa, or universe, there are innumerable living entities who, according to their own fruitive activities, are transmigrating from one species of life to another and from one planet to another. In this way their encagement in material existence has continued since time immemorial. In actuality, these living entities are atomic parts and parcels of the Supreme Spirit. It is said in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad Śrīmad-Bhāgavatamthat the length and breadth of the individual soul is 1/10,000th part of the tip of a hair. The atomic magnitude of the living entity is confirmed in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.16.11). And in the Tenth Canto (10.87.30) Sanandana-kumāra, while performing a great sacrifice, quotes the following statement by the personified Vedas: "O Supreme Truth! If the living entities were not infinitesimal sparks of the Supreme Spirit, each minute spark would be all-pervading and could not be controlled by a superior power. But if the living entity is accepted as a minute part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, one can automatically understand how he is controlled by the supreme power. The latter is his actual constitutional position, and if he remains in this position he can attain full freedom. If one mistakenly considers his constitutional position equal to that of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he becomes contaminated by the doctrine of nonduality and his efforts in transcendental life are rendered ineffective."
Lord Caitanya continued His teachings by pointing out that there are two kinds of living entities, the eternally liberated and the eternally conditioned. The eternally conditioned living entities can be divided into two types, the moving and the nonmoving. Those that remain in one place—trees, for example—are classified as sthāvara, or nonmoving entities, and those that move—such as birds and beasts—are called jaṅgama, or moving entities. The moving entities are further divided into three categories: those that fly in the sky, those that swim in the water, and those that walk on land. Out of the many millions and trillions of living entities on land, human beings are very few. Out of that small number of human beings, most are totally ignorant of the spiritual science, are unclean in their habits, and have no faith in the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In short, most human beings live like animals. Therefore these can be deducted from the number of human beings that constitute civilized human society.
We can hardly find any human beings who believe in the Vedic scriptures and the existence of God, or even in proper behavior. Those who do believe in these things, and in advancing in spiritual life, are known as Āryans. Out of those who believe in the scriptures and the advancement of human civilization, there are two classes—the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who are righteous generally execute fruitive activities to derive some good result for sense gratification. Out of many such persons who engage in righteous activities for sense gratification, only a few come to know about the Absolute Truth. These are called jñānīs, empiric philosophers in search of the Absolute Truth. Out of many hundreds and thousands of such empiric philosophers, only a handful actually attain liberation. When one is liberated, he theoretically understands that the living entity is not composed of material elements but is spirit soul, distinct from matter. Simply by understanding this doctrine, even theoretically, one qualifies as a mukta, or liberated soul. But the actual mukta is he who understands his constitutional position as part and parcel of the Lord and as His eternal servant. Such liberated souls engage with faith and devotion in the service of the Lord, and they are called kṛṣṇa-bhaktas, or Kṛṣṇa conscious persons.
Kṛṣṇa-bhaktas are free from all material desires. Although those who are theoretically liberated by knowing that the living entity is not material may be classified among liberated souls, they still have desires. Their main desire is to become one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such persons are very much attached to performing Vedic rituals and righteous activities in order to enjoy material prosperity. Even when some of them transcend material enjoyment, they still try to enjoy in the spiritual world by merging into the existence of the Supreme Lord. Some of them also desire to attain mystic powers through the execution of yoga. As long as any of these desires are within a person's heart, he cannot understand the nature of pure devotional service, and on account of constantly being agitated by such desires, he is not peaceful. Indeed, as long as there is any desire for material perfection at all, one cannot be at peace. Since the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa do not desire anything material, they are the only peaceful persons within this material world.