The great Mayavadi sannyasi Prakasananda inquired from Lord Chaitanya as to the reason for His preferring the sankirtana movement to the study of the Vedanta-sutra. Prakasananda said that it is the duty of a sannyasi to read the Vedanta-sutra. What caused the Lord to indulge in sankirtana?

After this inquiry, the Lord submissively replied: "I have taken to
the sankirtana movement instead of the study of Vedanta because I am a great fool." The Lord thus represented Himself as one of the numberless
fools of this age who are absolutely incapable of studying the Vedanta
philosophy. The fools' indulgence in the study of Vedanta has caused so
much havoc in society. The Lord thus continued: "And because I am a great
fool, My spiritual master forbade Me to play with Vedanta philosophy. He
said that it is better that I chant the holy name of the Lord, for that
would deliver Me from material bondage.

"In this age of Kali there is no other religion but the glorification
of the Lord by utterance of His holy name, and that is the injunction of
all the revealed scriptures. And My spiritual master has taught Me one
sloka [from the Brhan-naradiya Purana]:

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha

"So on the order of My spiritual master, I chant the holy name of
Hari, and I am now mad after this holy name. Whenever I utter the holy
name I forget Myself completely, and sometimes I laugh, cry and dance
like a madman. I thought that I had actually gone mad by this process of
chanting, and therefore I asked My spiritual master about it. He informed
Me that this was the real effect of chanting the holy name, which
produces a transcendental emotion that is a rare manifestation. It is the
sign of love of God, which is the ultimate end of life. Love of God is
transcendental to liberation [mukti], and thus it is called the fifth
stage of spiritual realization, above the stage of liberation. By
chanting the holy name of Krsna one attains the stage of love of God, and
it was good that fortunately I was favored with the blessing."

On hearing this statement from the Lord, the Mayavadi sannyasi asked
the Lord what was the harm in studying the Vedanta along with chanting
the holy name. Prakasananda Sarasvati knew well that the Lord was
formerly known as Nimai Pandita, a very learned scholar of Navadvipa, and
His posing as a great fool was certainly to some purpose. Hearing this
inquiry by the sannyasi, the Lord smiled and said, "My dear sir, if you
do not mind, I will answer your inquiry."

All the sannyasis there were very much pleased with the Lord for His
honest dealings, and they unanimously replied that they would not be
offended by whatever He replied. The Lord then spoke as follows:

"Vedanta-sutra consists of transcendental words or sounds uttered by
the transcendental Personality of Godhead. As such, in the Vedanta there
cannot be any human deficiencies like mistake, illusion, cheating or
inefficiency. The message of the Upanisads is expressed in the Vedantasutra, and what is said there directly is certainly glorified. Whatever
interpretations have been given by Sankaracarya have no direct bearing on
the sutra, and therefore such commentation spoils everything.

"The word Brahman indicates the greatest of all, which is full with
transcendental opulences, superior to all. Brahman is ultimately the
Personality of Godhead, and He is covered by indirect interpretations and
established as impersonal. Everything that is in the spiritual world is
full of transcendental bliss, including the form, body, place and
paraphernalia of the Lord. All are eternally cognizant and blissful. It
is not the fault of the Acarya Sankara that he has so interpreted
Vedanta, but if someone accepts it, then certainly he is doomed. Anyone
who accepts the transcendental body of the Personality of Godhead as
something mundane certainly commits the greatest blasphemy."

The Lord thus spoke to the sannyasi almost in the same way that He
spoke to the Bhattacarya of Puri, and by forceful arguments He nullified
the Mayavada interpretations of the Vedanta-sutra. All the sannyasis
there claimed that the Lord was the personified Vedas and the Personality of Godhead. All the sannyasis were converted to the cult of bhakti, all of them accepted the holy name of the Lord Sri Krsna, and they dined together with the Lord in the midst of them. After this conversion of the sannyasis, the popularity of the Lord increased at Varanasi, and thousands of people assembled to see the Lord in person. The Lord thus established the primary importance of Srimad-Bhagavata-dharma, and He defeated all other systems of spiritual realization. After that everyone at Varanasi was overwhelmed with the transcendental sankirtana movement.