Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on March 16, 2014.

In this lecture, Swami Bhaskarananda places Sri Chaitanya within a broader Vedantic view of creation, explaining how the one Reality appears as the changing world through maya, while divinity remains the underlying substratum. Using familiar analogies—such as the movie screen behind projected images and the dream world created by the mind—he emphasizes that names and forms are transient, while divinity alone is enduring. He then describes how, when religion declines and spiritual understanding becomes distorted by narrowness and division, divinity becomes more manifest through saints and, at times, through divine incarnations who renew spiritual life by their example and teaching.

Swami Bhaskarananda recounts Sri Chaitanya’s life in outline: his birth in 1485 in Navadvip, his early brilliance as a scholar of logic, the changes in his life after initiation, and his renunciation and later years centered in Puri, where he passed away in 1533. He highlights Chaitanya’s inclusiveness—his refusal to recognize caste distinctions and his ability to transform people across social and religious boundaries—and summarizes his central message through the well-known verse on humility, patience, and honoring others while continually remembering the Divine through the holy name. The talk also clarifies that Sri Chaitanya’s monastic identity and lineage place him within the Dasanami tradition, and concludes by affirming his teaching of the one Spirit appearing in diverse forms, encouraging respect for all as children of God.