Prabhupada 0719 - Taking Sannyasa - Keep it Very Perfectly
Excerpt from Sannyasa Initiation of Viraha Prakasa Swami -- Mayapur, February 5, 1976
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was resident of this place where you are taking sannyāsa. So what was the purpose of His taking sannyāsa? He was very respectable brāhmaṇa, Nimāi Paṇḍita. This tract of land, Navadvīpa, is the place of highly educated brāhmaṇas from time immemorial. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu belonged to a very respectable brāhmaṇa family, the son of Jagannātha Miśra; His grandfather, Nīlāmbara Cakravartī. Very respectful, respectable persons. He took birth in that family. Personally He was very beautiful; therefore His another name is Gaurasundara. And He was very learned scholar also; therefore His another name is Nimāi Paṇḍita. So, and in His family life He had very nice, beautiful young wife, Viṣṇupriyā, and very affectionate mother, and He was very influential. You know that. In one day He collected about one hundred thousand followers to protest against the Kazi's order. So in this way His social position was very favorable. Personal position was very favorable. Still, He took sannyāsa, left home. Why? Dayitaye: in order to favor, in order to show mercy to the fallen souls of the world.
So He left a legacy that anyone who has taken birth in India,
- bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra
- janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
- (CC Adi 9.41)
So He exhibited personally how to do para-upakāra, welfare to others, fallen souls. So this sannyāsa means following the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that,
- āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tara' ei deśa
- yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa
- (CC Madhya 7.128)
So not only... We are trying to create a position that not only the Indians have got this responsibility, but according to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, anyone—pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma (CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)—they should take up this missionary work. And I am so much obliged to you, you American boys and girls also, that you have taken this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very seriously. And by the grace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu you are taking sannyāsa, some of you. Keep it very perfectly and go from town to town, city to city, village to village, all over the world and spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement so that everyone will be happy. People are very much suffering. They, because they are mūḍhas, rascals, they do not know how to adjust living condition in human form. This is the bhāgavata-dharma everywhere. So the human form is not to become a dog, hog, pig. You should become a perfect human being. Śuddhyet sattva. Purify your existence. Why you are subjected to birth, death, old age and disease? Because we are impure. Now, if we purify our existence, then there will be no such thing as birth, death, old age and disease. That is the version of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa Himself. Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, you become purified and you escape the contamination of birth, death, old age and disease.
So try to convince the people in general, the philosophers, the religionists. We have no such thing, sectarian view. Anyone can join this movement and become purified himself. Janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (CC Adi 9.41). So I am very much pleased. You have given already service to the society. Now you take up sannyāsa and preach all over the world so that people may be benefited.