Sri Sri Panca-Tattva

(jaya) sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is always accompanied by His plenary expansion Sri Nityananda Prabhu, His incarnation Sri Advaita Prabhu, His internal potency Sri Gadadhara Prabhu, and His marginal potency Srivasa Prabhu. He is in the midst of them as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is always accompanied by these other tattvas. Therefore our obeisances to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are complete when we say, sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda. As preachers of the Krishna consciousness movement, we first offer our obeisances to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by chanting this Panca-tattva mantra; then we say,
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.
(CC Madhya 19.53)

In his Anubhāṣya, Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, describing the truth about the Pañca-tattva, explains that we should understand that Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the supreme predominator and that Nityānanda Prabhu and Advaita Prabhu are His subordinates but are also predominators. Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Lord, and Nityānanda Prabhu and Advaita Prabhu are manifestations of the Supreme Lord. All of Them are viṣṇu-tattva, the Supreme, and are therefore worshipable by the living entities. Although the other two tattvas within the category of Pañca-tattva—namely, śakti-tattva and jīva-tattva, represented by Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa—are worshipers of the Supreme Lord, they are in the same category because they eternally engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.
(CC Adi 7.15 purport)

The more the five members of the Pañca-tattva cause the rains of love of Godhead to fall, the more the inundation increases and spreads all over the world.
(CC Adi 7.28)

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa [Vrajendra-kumāra], the embodiment of rasas. He is amorous love personified. (CC Adi 4.222)
Balarāma appeared with Him as Lord Nityānanda.(CC Adi 5.6)
Lord Advaita Ācārya is the incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṇu (CC Ādi 6.4)
Gadādhara Paṇḍita is simultaneously an incarnation of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Lalitā-sakhī (CC Adi 10.15)
Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita was an incarnation of Nārada Muni (CC Adi 12.65)

Information – In Srila Prabhupada’s Centennial Year, 1996, Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir would undergo an- other change in Deity worship with the arrival of Sri Pañca-tattva, and the temple expanded yet again to accommodate Them. Their worship commenced on Gaura-pūrṇimā of that year.
But the most amazing change was yet to come: the arrival in 2004 of the big Pañca-tattva Deities. That event saw a new era commence in ISKCON. “When Radha-Madhava were installed, there were definitely feelings of transcendence,” Jananivasa says. “When we went up to instal the chakra after They were installed, you could feel They were manifest- ing something. But nothing like the installation of Pañca-tattva. Even before They were installed, there was so much mercy there.” Both installations were many years apart. Was this, then, a maturation of devotional sentiment, or the mercy of the Lord?
“I would say it was an act of mercy, of Their sweet will,” Jananivasa says. “We had fulfilled a desire of Srila Prabhupada’s to bring these Deities, and the overwhelming feelings that everyone experienced was Śri Panca-tattva manifesting Their presence.”
Worldwide, devotees felt that merciful glance of Śri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates; they experienced the abundant grace that emanates from the Deity form of the Lord, and all were swept up in an unmistakable shower of love of God. Jananivāsa concludes, “It’s not something you can create. It’s something that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t produce it. Grace comes of it’s own accord.”

Śrīla Prabhupada said, ‘Lord Caitanya should be seven feet tall and covered with gold,’ and I said, ‘Oh, not marble?’ Prabhupāda said, ‘No, They should be aṣṭa-dhātu.’
(‘Article Full of Abundant Grace’ by Braja Sevaki dasi, Mayapur Magazine 2006)