We also find later on, after Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there was a deficit, and the teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu were not readily available. Even the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta—which was the ultimate of all teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the synthesis of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—was not readily available.

So much so that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, the great ācārya, was looking for the Caitanya-caritāmṛta and could not find a single copy anywhere. The teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu had been not just obscured, but also perverted in many different ways. So, we can't take for granted that the product is available. But now it is, and that's due to the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Nityānanda, and the devotees who have carried on the tradition.

This morning, on an early walk hoping to see the sunrise, it was a beautiful, painted sky, I was thinking of a lyric—or perhaps just an idiom—from modern American society: "Be true to your school." Is it a lyric from a song? Sounds like the Beach Boys or something.

I was thinking about what a "school" is. A school is a consolidation of knowledge meant to uplift us; that's really the idea. Humans have an urge for that. They want to be in a place where they can take advantage of all the best knowledge the world has to offer. Nowadays, it has become a little more vocationally oriented, but previously, classical education had to do with bringing all the best books, teachings, and teachers together in one place. That's what universities were for: to get well-grounded in knowledge and gain a wider context and view of the world.

Then, as one has a grounding in knowledge, one can also discern what is "the best." That's the idea of Vedānta. There's knowledge, and then there's the end of knowledge. Of course, if one just studies endlessly, it never comes to a conclusion. There are ways in which people say, "When are you going to graduate?" or "When are you going to finish?" You get a doctorate, then a post-doc—and then what do you have? What do you do after that?

We're not meant simply to study endlessly and come to no conclusion. Even Socrates and Plato talked about coming to an ultimate conclusion. It's not that we just break everything down and are fascinated by the process; there should be a development of character (that's more Aristotle). We should also discern the purpose of life and what we should be aiming for as human beings—something to aim for.

So all of that comes to bear in the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But what's most unusual and fantastic about Caitanya Mahāprabhu, whom we're celebrating today and tomorrow, is that...0:04:19

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