Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta is the main work on the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna who appeared in India five hundred years ago. Lord Chaitanya introduced the chanting of the holy names of God as the prescribed method of God-realization for our time. He began what is today called the Hare Krishna movement, since the movement's founder, Srila Prabhupada, comes in the Chaitanya line of spiritual masters. Lord Chaitanya transformed the face of India in four respects: philosophically, by encountering, defeating and converting the greatest philosophers and thinkers of His day; religiously, by organizing the largest, most widespread theistic movement in India's history; socially, by His strong challenges to the religious inequities of the caste system; politically, by His organization of a massive civil disobedience movement in Bengal, more than four centuries before Gandhi. This English translation with commentary, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, reveals his consummate Bengali and Sanskrit scholarship, his intimate familiarity with the precepts of Sri Chaitanya, and his pure devotion to God.

A Summary Study of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Taking the role of His own devotee, Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya about five centuries ago in Bengal, India, and began a great social and spiritual revolution that has profoundly affected the lives of millions worldwide. His conversations with the great scholars, kings, and mystics of the day form the basis of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

The quality of our consciousness can go up or down based on how we see the world and act in it. When we act like the eternal spiritual beings that we are – small parts of a supreme whole – makes us happy. But if we focus our attempts at happiness on the temporary body and mind – on matter – and make those our life's priority, our consciousness will shrink and we’ll be miserable. Spiritual elevation – raising our consciousness to higher levels – happens quickly when we revive our God consciousness. In this compact book, Srila Prabhupada recommends seeing the world as it is – a temporary place full of anxiety – and then taking the road to higher consciousness by rediscovering our relationship with the Supreme Person, Krishna. Anyone can become elevated; the journey begins with a single step up.