There are different stages of devotional service and God realization, strictly speaking, anyone who accepts the existence of God is situated in devotional service. To acknowledge that God is great is something, but not much.
Caitanya, preaching as an acarya, a great teacher, taught that we can enter into a relationship with God and actually become God's friend. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna showed Arjuna His universal form because Arjuna was His "very dear friend."
Upon seeing Krsna as the Lord of the universes, however, Arjuna actually asked Krsna to forgive the familiarity of his friendship. Caitanya goes beyond this point. Through Lord Caitanya we can become friends of Krsna, and there is no limit to this friendship.
We can become friends of Krsna not in awe or adoration but in complete freedom. We can even relate to God as His father. This is not only the philosophy of Caitanya-caritamrta but of Srimad-Bhagavatam as well. There are no other literatures in the world in which God is treated as the son of a devotee. Usually God is seen as the almighty Father who supplies the demands of Hs sons. The great devotees, however, sometimes treat God as a son in their execution of devotional service.
The son demands, and the father supplies, and in supplying Krsna the devotee becomes like a father. Instead of taking from God, we give to God. It was in this relationship that Krsna's mother, Yasoda, told the Lord, "Here, eat this or You'll die. Eat nicely." In this way Krsna, although the proprietor of everything, depends on the mercy of His devotee. This is a uniquiely high level of friendship in which the devotee actually believes himself to be the father of Krsna.
However, Lord Caitanya's greatest gift was His teaching that Krsna can be actually treated as one's lover. In this relationship the Lord is so much attached that He expresses His inability to reciprocate. Krsna was so obliged to the gopis, the cowherd girls of Vrndavana, that He felt unable to return their love. "I cannot repay your love," He told them. "I have no more assets to return." Thus devotional service is performed on this excellent platform, and knowledge of the devotee's relationship to Krsna as lover and beloved was given by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
It was never given by any previous incarnation or acarya. Thus Rupa Gosvami wrote of Caitnaya: "Devotional service itself is the highest platform, the glorious platform which You have contributed. You are Krsna in a yellow complexion, and You are Dacinandana, the son of mother Saci. Those who hear Caitanya-caritamrta will keep You in their hearts. It will be easy to understand Krsna through You."
Thus Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to deliver Krsna. His method of deliverance was not meditation, fruitive activities or scriptural study, but love.
We have often heard the phrase "love of Godhead." How far this love of Godhead can actually be developed can be learned from the Vaisnava philosophy. Theoretical knowledge of love of God can be found in many places and in many scriptures, but what that love of Godhead actually is and how it is developed can be found in Vaisnava literatures. It is the unique and highest development of love of God that is given by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Even in this material world we can have a little sense of love. How is this possible? It is due to the love which is found in the Godhead. Whatever we find within our experience within this conditional life is situated in the Supreme Lord, who is the ultimate source of everything.
In our original relationship with the Supreme Lord there is real love, and that love is reflected pervertedly through material conditions. Our real love is continuous and unending, but because that love is reflected pervertedly in this material world, it lacks continuity and is inebriating. If we want real transcendental love, we have to transfer our love to the supreme lovable object-the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the basic principle of Krsna consciousness.
In material consciousness we are trying to love that which is not at all lovable. We give our love to dogs and cats, running the risk that at the time of death we may think of them and consequently take birth in a family of cats or dogs. Thus love that does not have Krsna as its object leads downward.
It is not that Krsna or God is something abscure or something that only a few chosen people can attain. Caitanya Mahaprabhu informs us that in every country and in every scripture there is some hint of love of Godhead. Unfortunately no one knows what love of Godhead actually is.
The Vedic scriptures, however, are different in that they can direct the individual in the proper way to love God. Other scriptures do not give information on how one can love God, nor do they actually define or describe what or who the Godhead actually is. Although they officially promote love of Godhead, they have no idea how to execute it.
But Caitanya Mahaprabhu gives a practical demonstration of how to love God in a conjugal relationship. Taking the part of Radharani, Caitanya tries to love Krsna as Radharani loved Him. Krsna was always amazed by Radharani's love. "How does Radharani gives Me such pleasure?" He would ask.
In order to study Radharani, Krsna lived in Her role and tried to understand Himself. This is the secret of Lord Caitanya's incarnation. Caitanya is Krsna, but He has taken the mode or role of Radharani to show us how to love Krsna. Thus He is addressed: "I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord who is absorbed in Radharani's thoughts."
This brings up the question of who Radharani is and what Radha-Krsna is. Actually Radha-Krsna is the exchange of love. This is not ordinary love; Krsna has immense potencies, of which three are principal: internal, external and marginal.
In the internal potency there are three divisions: samvit, hladini and sandhini. The hladini potency is the pleasure potency. All living entities have this pleasure-seeking potency, for all beings are trying to have pleasure. This is the very nature of the living entity.
At present we are trying to enjoy our pleasure potency by means of the body in this material condition. By bodily contact we are attempting to derive pleasure from material sense objects. We should not think, however, that Krsna, who is always spiritual, tries to seek pleasure on this material plane like us. Krsna describes the material universe as a nonpermanent place full of miseries. Why, then, would He seek pleasure in the material form? He is the Supersoul, the supreme spirit, and His pleasure is beyond the material conception.
In order to learn how Krsna's pleasure can be obtained, we must read the Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam in which Krsna's pleasure potency is displayed in His pastimes with Radharani and the damsels of Vraja.
Unfortunately, unintelligent people turn at once to the sports of Krsna in the Dasama-skandha, the Tenth Canto. Krsna's embracing Radharani or His dancing with the cowherd girls in the rasa dance are genrally not understood by ordinary men because they consider these pastimes in the light of mundane lust.
They incorrectly think that Krsna is like themselves and that He embraces the gopis just as an ordinary man embraces a young girl. Some people thus become interested in Krsna because they think that His religion allows indulgence in sex. This is not Krsna-bhakti, love of Krsna, but prakrta-sahajiya-materialistic lust.
In order to avoid such errors, we shold understand what Radha-Krsna actually is. Radhe and Krsna display their pastimes through Krsna's internal energy. The pleasure potency of Krsna's internal energy is a most difficult subject matter, and unless one understands what Krsna is, he cannot understand it. Krsna does not take any pleasure in this material world, but He has a pleasure potency. Because we are past and parcel of Krsna, the pleasure potency is within us also, but we are trying to exhibit that pleasure potency in matter.
Krsna, however, does not make such a vain attempt. The object of Krsna's pleasure potency is Radharani, and He exhibits His potency or His energy as Radharani and then engages in loving affairs with Her.
In other words, Krsna does not take pleasure in this external energy but exhibits His internal energy, His pleasure potency, as Radharani. Thus Krsna manifests Himself as Radharani in order to exhibit His internal pleasure potency. Of the many extensions, expansions and incarnations of the Lord, this pleasure potency is the foremost and chief.