Question: According to the Caitanya Caritamrita, I have always heard that Lord Caitanya was the Supreme Lord but He was in the guise of a devotee. Is there any evidence that He Himself knew He was Krsna?

Jayapataka Swami: You see, Advaita Gosain, He had done some sacrifice to bring Lord Caitanya down. He Himself is an avatar of Mahavisnu. But to give out love of Godhead is not easy, not possible for other incarnations. Only Krsna Himself and Balarama, They can give out love. So there is a pastime that Lord Caitanya He had to reveal Himself to Advaita Gosain that He was Krsna Himself. That Advaita’s sacrifice to bring down Krsna was successful. That Krsna had come, so that for 21 hours Lord Advaita offered arati to Lord Caitanya and everyone saw, amongst His intimate associates, everybody could see that He was the Supreme Person. But normally, He would keep Himself hidden. There are a few occasions like that where He showed His actual identity. But actually at other times if someone said He was Krsna, He would close His ears and say, no, no, no, Visnu, Visnu, Visnu! I am a devotee. So He was playing the part of a devotee. But just to prove to Advaita Gosain and to some other devotees on certain occasions He revealed His actual identity. To Sarvabauma Bhattacarya, to Ramananda Rai, a few times, He revealed His actual identity. There was one travelling mendicant, he went to the house of Saci mata and Jagannath Misra. He was living in the forest and he was eating fruits and roots. Please cook for your Gopal Deity and you being our guest we will be happy if you take full rice, sabzi, dal, etc. prasadam here. Well, he cooked and as he was offering to His Gopal, he called ‘Gopal avaahayami come here Gopal.’ Lord Caitanya, He is Gopal, so He went and He ate! He thought what is this, this child? No, no, no, no! The offering is spoiled! Then Jagannath Misra, he went with a stick to punish his boy, ‘why are You doing this? Why are You disturbing this sadhu?’ The sadhu stopped him, He is a little boy, He doesn’t know right or wrong, why do you want to punish Him? So like this it went on. He requested again. Finally, the elder brother of Lord Caitanya, Viswarupa, who is Himself incarnation of Sankarsana, He requested the sadhu to please cook one more time! This is the third time. And they would keep Lord Caitanya, it would be alright, they would keep Him away. But then at midnight, nobody around, silent! ‘Gopal, please come here! Take this offering!’ Lord Caitanya appeared! He said, ‘no, no!’ Then He said, ‘why do you keep calling Me?’ And then He showed Himself as Gopal! He was seeing His worshipable deity of Gopal as a child! So Nimai left. He was so happy, he started to eat the fruit eaten by Gopal, rubbing it all over his body and saying Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! And Jagannath Misra came out and said, ‘wow! He really likes the food, he is rubbing it on his body!’ So there are some special occasions where Lord Caitanya revealed who He was, but that was very rare. That wasn’t for the general public. But there are such pastimes! Haribol! Gauuuuranga! Nityananda! Gauranga! Nityananda!
17-NOVEMBER-2019 ATLANTA, USA