Pot (CC)

Expressions researched:
"pot" |"pot's" |"pots" |"potter" |"potter's" |"potters" |"pottery"

CC Preface and Introduction

CC Introduction:

In support of their view that the self-realized remain silent, the Māyāvādīs are fond of using the example of the water pot, maintaining that when a pot is not filled with water it makes a sound, but that when it is filled it makes no sound. But are we waterpots? How can we be compared to them? A good analogy utilizes as many similarities between two objects as possible. A waterpot is not an active living force, but we are. Ever-silent meditation may be adequate for a waterpot, but not for us. Indeed, when a devotee realizes how much he has to say about Kṛṣṇa, twenty-four hours in a day are not sufficient.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.97, Translation:

The sun and moon dissipate the darkness of the external world and thus reveal external material objects like pots and plates.

CC Adi 2.37, Translation:

“As the earth is the original cause and shelter of all pots made of earth, so You are the ultimate cause and shelter of all living beings.

CC Adi 2.37, Purport:

As the vast earth is the source for the ingredients of all earthen pots, so the Supreme Soul is the source for the complete substance of all individual living entities. The cause of all causes, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the cause of the living entities. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.10), where the Lord says, bījaṁ māṁ sarva-bhūtānām ("I am the seed of all living entities"), and in the Upaniṣads (Kaṭha Up. 2.2.13), which say, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām ("the Lord is the supreme leader among all the eternal living beings").

CC Adi 3.34, Purport:

The authentic biographies also mention that Lord Caitanya accepted the daṇḍa (rod) and begging pot, symbolic of the sannyāsa order, at the time He took sannyāsa.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

Even if we agree to accept that the quadruple forms of Godhead are all identical, we cannot avoid the incongruous flaw of noneternity. Unless we accept that there are some differences among the personalities, there is no meaning to the idea that Saṅkarṣaṇa is an expansion of Vāsudeva, Pradyumna is an expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa, and Aniruddha is an expansion of Pradyumna. There must be a distinction between cause and effect. For example, a pot is distinct from the earth from which it is made, and therefore we can ascertain that the earth is the cause and the pot is the effect. Without such distinctions, there is no meaning to cause and effect.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

The Supreme Lord, being all-spiritual, can perform any act without extraneous help. In the material world, if we want to manufacture an earthen pot, we need the ingredients, a machine and also a laborer. But we should not extend this idea to the actions of the Supreme Lord, for He can create anything in a moment without that which appears necessary in our own conception.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has tried to prove that Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha expand through cause and effect. He has compared Them with earth and earthen pots. That is completely ignorant, however, for there is no such thing as cause and effect in Their expansions (nānyad yat sad-asat-param). The Kūrma Purāṇa also confirms, deha-dehi-vibhedo ’yaṁ neśvare vidyate kvacit: "There is no difference between body and soul in the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

CC Adi 5.51, Purport:

The modes of nature, which directly cause material actions, are also originally activated by Nārāyaṇa. A simple example will explain how this is so: When a potter manufactures a pot from clay, the potter's wheel, his tools and the clay are the immediate causes of the pot, but the potter is the chief cause. Similarly, Nārāyaṇa is the chief cause of all material creations, and the material energy supplies the ingredients of matter. Therefore without Nārāyaṇa, all other causes are useless, just as the potter's wheel and tools are useless without the potter himself. Since materialistic scientists ignore the Personality of Godhead, it is as if they were concerned with the potter's wheel and its rotation, the potter's tools and the ingredients for the pots, but had no knowledge of the potter himself. Therefore modern science has created an imperfect, godless civilization that is in gross ignorance of the ultimate cause. Scientific advancement should have a great goal to attain, and that great goal should be the Personality of Godhead.

CC Adi 5.63, Translation:

Just as the original cause of an earthen pot is the potter, so the creator of the material world is the first puruṣa incarnation (Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu).

CC Adi 5.64, Translation:

Lord Kṛṣṇa is the creator, and māyā only helps Him as an instrument, just like the potter's wheel and other instruments, which are the instrumental causes of a pot.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

“The example of the water pot cannot be accepted because a waterpot has no perception of pleasure and distress. Such perception is within. Therefore the covering body, or the waterpot, cannot be synchronized with it.

CC Adi 10.68, Translation:

Every day Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu jokingly snatched fruits, flowers and pulp from Śrīdhara and drank from his broken iron pot.

CC Adi 14.32, Translation and Purport:

"In a waterpot, which is a transformation of dirt, I can bring water very easily. But if I poured water on a lump of dirt, the lump would soak up the water, and my labor would be useless."

This simple philosophy propounded by Śacīmātā, even though she is a woman, can defeat the Māyāvādī philosophers who speculate on oneness. The defect of Māyāvāda philosophy is that it does not accept the variety that is useful for practical purposes. Śacīmātā gave the example that although an earthen pot and a lump of dirt are basically one, for practical purposes the waterpot is useful whereas the lump of dirt is useless.

CC Adi 14.43, Translation:

Thus rebuked by His mother, he Lord would go in anger to a room and break all the pots within it.

CC Adi 14.44, Purport:

There is a nice description of the faults of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His childhood in the Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa, Chapter Three, where it is said that as a child the Lord used to steal all kinds of eatables from the houses of neighboring friends. In some houses He would steal milk and drink it, and in others He would steal and eat prepared rice. Sometimes He would break cooking pots. If there were nothing to eat but there were small babies, the Lord would tease the babies and make them cry. Sometimes a neighbor would complain to Śacīmātā, "My child is very small, but your child puts water in his ears and makes him cry."

CC Adi 14.73, Translation:

Although He is the maintainer of the entire universe, once the Lord sat upon some rejected pots in the pit where the remnants of food were thrown, after the pots had been used for cooking.

CC Adi 14.73, Purport:

Formerly it was the custom of brāhmaṇas to worship Lord Viṣṇu daily at home and cook food in new pots. This system is still going on in Jagannātha Purī. The food would be cooked in earthen pots, all fresh and new, and after cooking, the pots would be thrown away. By the side of the house there was generally a big pit where such pots were thrown. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu sat down on the pots very pleasingly, just to give His mother a lesson.

CC Adi 14.74, Translation:

When mother Śacī saw her boy sitting on the rejected pots, she protested, "Why have You touched these untouchable pots? You have now become impure. Go and bathe in the Ganges."

CC Adi 14.75, Purport:

The absolute knowledge explained by the Lord to His mother is described by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in his Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya as follows: “The Lord said, "Mother, that this is pure and that is impure is surely a worldly sentiment with no basis in fact. You have cooked food for Lord Viṣṇu within these pots and offered the food to Him. How then can these pots be untouchable? Everything in relationship with Viṣṇu is to be considered an expansion of Viṣṇu"s energy. Viṣṇu, the Supersoul, is eternal and uncontaminated. How then may these pots be considered pure or impure?’ Hearing this discourse on absolute knowledge, His mother was very much astonished and forced Him to take a bath.”

CC Adi 17.17, Purport:

By the order of Lord Caitanya, both Nityānanda Prabhu and Haridāsa Ṭhākura used to preach the cult of Kṛṣṇa consciousness door to door. In the course of such preaching they found Jagāi and Mādhāi, two maddened drunken brothers, who, upon seeing them, began to chase them. On the next day, Mādhāi struck Nityānanda Prabhu on the head with a piece of earthen pot, thus drawing blood.