Sri Chaitanya's Life and Teachings: The Golden Avatara of Divine Love

by Steven Rosen, Jeffery D. Long (Foreword by)

Overview

Tucked away in ancient Sanskrit and Bengali texts is a secret teaching, a blissful devotional (bhakti) tradition that involves sacred congregational chanting (kīrtana), mindfulness practices (japa, smaraṇam), and the deepening of one’s relationship with God (rasa). Brought to the world’s stage by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu (1486–1533), and fully documented by his immediate followers, the Six Goswāmīs of Vrindāvan, these unprecedented teachings were passed down from master to student in Gauḍīya Vaishnava lineages. The Golden Avatāra of Love: Śrī Chaitanya’s Life and Teachings, by contemporary scholar Steven J. Rosen, makes the profound truths of this confidential knowledge easily accessible for an English language audience. In his well-researched text, modern readers—spiritual practitioners, scholars, and seekers of knowledge alike—will encounter a treasure of hitherto unrevealed spiritual teachings, and be able to fathom sublime dimensions of Śrī Chaitanya’s method. Using the ancient texts themselves and the findings of contemporary academics, Rosen succeeds in summarizing and establishing Śrī Chaitanya’s life and doctrine for the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498558358
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	05/30/2019
Series:	Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 8.63(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Steven J. Rosen is author of 31 books, the founding editor of the Journal of Vaishnava Studies, and associate editor of Back to Godhead magazine.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Gauḍīya Tradition: From Veda to Rādhā
2. Śrī Krishna: Enter the Dark Lord
3. Śrī Gaura Tattva: From Black to Gold
4. The World of Bhakti
5. The Nectar of the Holy Name
6. Śikṣāṣṭakam:Eight Beautiful Prayers
7. Gauḍīya Vedānta: Inconceivable Unity in Diversity
8. Śrī Chaitanya and Other Traditions
9. Rāmānanda Rāya: The Viceroy of Devotion
10. Rāgānuga-bhakti: Śrī Chaitanya’s Special Gift
Afterword: Mahāprabhu Comes West

Editorial Reviews

Steven J. Rosen is well known and respected for his prolific output of writing on Krishna bhakti and related topics, but I would venture to state that this is by far his most important work yet. It represents a lifetime of serious study and scholarship, sieving through all the literature on Chaitanya— hagiographic, theological, pedagogical, academic and more—from the earliest literary sources to the transplantation of the tradition to the West. Indeed, this accumulation of sources from different genres is among the unique contributions of this book, allowing us to engage the significance of this remarkable saint/avatāra through a wide variety of lenses. This user-friendly volume seems set to be the go-to source for scholars, students, and practitioners of bhakti on one of the most divinely intoxicated personalities in recorded history.”

Edwin Bryant

There is much that is praiseworthy and much to be learned from Steven Rosen's book.

Reading Religion

As one might imagine, I was delighted to learn that Steven was interested in contributing a work to this series. And not just any work: it could well be argued that this volume is his magnum opus. While it is written with the clarity of his earlier work, there is scholarly depth here that makes this particular volume a substantial contribution to academic knowledge of the important, but under-studied figure of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.

Jeffery Long