Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the most munificent incarnation of God, was known as the Golden Avatar, because His bodily complexion was like molten gold. He was the direct incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna and appeared on earth at the holy place known as Navadvipa in West Bengal about 500 years back in the year 1486. The purpose of His divine appearance on earth was to reveal to the world, the yuga-dharma, or the religion for this age. He also rediscovered Vrndavana and other sacred places associated with lord Krishna which had been lost over the time.

        The path to enlightenment that Lord Chaitanya revealed to the world is known as the sankirtana-yajna or the congregational chanting of the Lord’s holy names:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare !

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rima Rama Hare Hare.!!

        This is the easiest and most sublime process for God realization and even a child can follow it. In this dark age of Kali-yuga, intelligent men of the world can get true knowledge about God simply by performance of this sankirtana-yajna (sacrifice).

It was in the year 1515 that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Vrndavana, with the purpose of locating the lost holy places associated with Lord Sri Krishna’s transcendental pastimes. Lord Chaitanya wandered through the different sacred forests ofVrndavana in a spiritual trance of divine love, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, sometimes dancing in ecstasy and constantly chanting the holy names of Krishna. By His divine spiritual power, He was able to locate all the important places of Lord Krishna’s pastimes in and around Vrndavana.

When Lord Chaitanya first arrived in Vraja, He stayed at a brahmana’s house in Mathura and would walk around Vrndavana every day visiting the sacred places connected with Lord Krishna’s pastimes. Later, Lord Chaitanya moved His residence to Akrura Ghata and would daily visit Imli-tala, where He sat looking at the river Yamuna while chanting Hare Krishna on His japa beads and constantly shedding tears in an ecstatic mood of divine love.

After a few months, Lord Chaitanya left for Jagannatha Puri and directed two of His dear-most followers, Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis to proceed immediately to Vrndavana, not only to excavate the places of Lord Krishna’s pastimes but also to write books on the science of bhakti-yoga, in order to establish the teachings of Lord Chaitanya for the benefit of all future generations.