The Path of Love
The soul's nature is to seek real freedom, to hanker for lasting pleasure. We seek satisfaction and happiness in the world around us, but our experiences over time expose the futility of such ephemeral pleasure. Enlightened souls, who are full of compassion, describe the reality of a permanent bliss based on a lasting spiritual existence.
 
Their writings provide us with an intimate insight into reality, which is replete with variety, form, qualities and exquisite, lustrous personalities. Their writings also invite us to participate in the sweetness of ever-increasing transcendental love, or prema. They thus direct us to that ultimate destination, which is achieved by attaining the spiritual perfection that they themselves possess. What they describe is called the path of love, distinct among the philosophies of India as bhakti-yoga, or devotion to God.
 
The Great Master
Bhakti-yoga is the essence of the Vedas (India's vast body of ancient Sanskrit scriptures; veda means "knowledge"). It is the path that all paths ultimately lead to, since it reveals the topmost condition of the heart. Although bhakti-yoga has been practised since time immemorial, the bhakti-yoga movement underwent a renaissance five hundred years ago in Bengal, coinciding with Europe's own Renaissance period.
 
The leading figure and reformer of this bhakti movement was Sri Krsna Caitanya, also known as Mahaprabhu, 'the Great Master'. The general populace of India regard Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a most extraordinary saint, but actually, He is an avatara, an incarnation of the Lord who comes to this world with a specific mission.
 
He chose to incarnate as compassion personified in order to benefit the world in the troubled Age of Kali (our current epoch, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy).
According to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, worldly social distinctions are utterly irrelevant to one's eternal spiritual identity, which can easily be realized by chanting the names of God in the maha-mantra - Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.