All the great masters that have ever come to this world came as teachers, teachers of the Absolute Truth. They didn’t come to teach us material things, they came to teach us about life, starting with who we are, spirit soul, and then telling us what we should do as a spirit soul. That we have these bodies – how we should use these bodies, these minds – how we should use our minds, our intelligence – how we should use our intelligence, our energy that we have – where to direct it, where to place it. They came as teachers.
So God Himself came many times. 5000 years ago He came on this planet in His original form as Lord Sri Krishna. He told us about Himself and what we should do: we should become involved in a relationship with Him. “This is who I am, this is what I look like, this is My abode where I live, these are My associates.” In other words, He brought up the highest place in the spiritual world to the material world to show us.
Just like if a group of people came from Hawaii to Siberia. They probably wouldn’t do that, “I’m going to Siberia in winter. No, thank you!” (laughs) But let’s say they came, and they came to show you what it’s like in Hawaii. So they came and they put on a complete representation. With their grass skirts and hula dance and music (it used to be like that, but now it is for the tourists.) (laughs)
You would say, “Oh wow, now I know what Hawaii is like. Palm trees, coconuts, pineapple, ocean, surfing, nice weather… Oh, now I know a little bit about Hawaii!” And because these people are Hawaiian people, they speak the way they do, “Aloha!” etc.
– Oh yeah, now I kind of understand what it is like over there.
– Come to Hawaii!
– Wow, sounds good. I’d like to go!
So Krishna came 5000 years ago to show us how it is in His world, Vrindavan. “This is what we do there. I am there, eternally there. This is who My friends are.” Anyway, He put on this complete presentation, if you will, to let us know about that. And He said, “You can come there, actually this is your real home.”
So, this was what He did 5000 years ago. And out of all of this, which was so beautiful, so attractive, He gave the final message, “Love Me. I am Krishna, love Me. I already love you. If you want, you can love Me, and you will be completely happy.” So that was 5000 years ago.
Then 2000 years ago, Lord Jesus Christ came. He was not God, He was not Krishna. But He was the representative of Krishna, the great devotee master. And He gave the same message basically, “You should love Krishna,” that’s what he said. And so he was trying to encourage people, “Ok, this is what you should do if you want to be happy. And you can go there.” He talked about his Father, his Father’s world.
And 500 years ago Krishna appeared again. Not as Krishna this time, in His original form, but He appeared as Krishna’s devotee. One who is actually in love with Krishna. One who is actually on the highest level of spiritual love for Krishna.
And He says, “This is what you should do with your life. And this is what you can do to make it possible. Just do what I do.” And He always chanted God’s names. He was always chanting. Not only was He chanting like He was just showing us, but He was immersed in this mood of love for Krishna and He showed how attractive it is. It absorbed Him completely in a loving relationship with Krishna. He was always chanting the Holy Names. And He was always encouraging everybody to do it, too, “This is what you should do!”
And because of who it was, the Supreme Lord himself, everybody He met was so charged with this potency, this love for Krishna, and they all started chanting Krishna’s names, everybody started chanting. Those who were atheists, and they were all kinds of different people who ‘don’t do this’, materialists in every way, atheists, those who didn’t believe God’s a person – every level of covered consciousness… When they met Lord Chaitanya, Lord Gauranga, all of that was removed, that darkness was taken away and they all started chanting, and dancing, and feeling this loving relationship with Krishna. They became completely jubilant.