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Conception (CC)

Expressions researched:
"concept" |"conception" |"conceptions" |"concepts" |"conceptual" |"conceptualization" |"conceptualize" |"conceptually"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query: concept* not "vedic concept*" not "material concept*" not "bodily concept*

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Preface and Introduction

CC Introduction:

It is not possible to imagine how far this material manifestation extends. In the material world everything is calculated by imagination or by some imperfect method, but the Vedic literatures give real information of what lies beyond the material universe. Since it is not possible to obtain information of anything beyond this material nature by experimental means, those who believe only in experimental knowledge may doubt the Vedic conclusions, for such people cannot even calculate how far this universe extends, nor can they reach far into the universe itself. That which is beyond our power of conception is called acintya, inconceivable. It is useless to argue or speculate about the inconceivable. If something is truly inconceivable, it is not subject to speculation or experimentation.

CC Introduction:

Since it is not possible to obtain information of anything beyond this material nature by experimental means, those who believe only in experimental knowledge may doubt the Vedic conclusions, for such people cannot even calculate how far this universe extends, nor can they reach far into the universe itself. That which is beyond our power of conception is called acintya, inconceivable. It is useless to argue or speculate about the inconceivable. If something is truly inconceivable, it is not subject to speculation or experimentation. Our energy is limited, and our sense perception is limited; therefore we must rely on the Vedic conclusions regarding that subject matter which is inconceivable. Knowledge of the superior nature must simply be accepted without argument. How is it possible to argue about something to which we have no access? The method for understanding transcendental subject matter is given by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā, where Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna at the beginning of the Fourth Chapter:

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1 Summary:

Finally, there is the Supreme Lord Himself, who is the fountainhead of all these manifestations.

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His plenary expansions are all in the category of the Lord Himself, the energetic Absolute Truth, whereas His devotees, His eternal associates, are His energies. The energy and energetic are fundamentally one, but since their functions are differently exhibited, they are simultaneously different also. Thus the Absolute Truth is manifested in diversity in one unit. This philosophical truth, which is pursuant to the Vedānta-sūtra, is called acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, or the conception of simultaneous oneness and difference. In the latter portion of this chapter, the transcendental position of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and that of Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu are described with reference to the above theistic facts.

CC Adi 1.56, Purport:

The highest standard of such bodily comfort is achieved by a fruitive worker who by pious activities reaches the plane of heaven, or the kingdom of the creative gods with their delegated powers. But the conception of comfortable life in heaven is insignificant in comparison to the happiness enjoyed in the impersonal Brahman, and this brahmānanda, the spiritual bliss derived from impersonal Brahman, is like the water in the hoofprint of a calf compared to the ocean of love of Godhead. When one develops pure love for the Lord, he derives an ocean of transcendental happiness from the association of the Personality of Godhead. To qualify oneself to reach this stage of life is the highest perfection.

One should try to purchase a ticket to go back home, back to Godhead. The price of such a ticket is one's intense desire for it, which is not easily awakened, even if one continuously performs pious activities for thousands of lives.

CC Adi 2.11, Purport:

He therefore chants with full respect and veneration. When he sees the forms of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he does not see anything different from the Lord. If one sees otherwise, he must be considered untrained in absolute knowledge. This lack of absolute knowledge is called māyā. One who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is ruled by the spell of māyā under the control of a duality in knowledge. In the Absolute, all manifestations of the Supreme Lord are nondual, just as the multifarious forms of Viṣṇu, the controller of māyā, are nondual. Empiric philosophers who pursue the impersonal Brahman accept only the knowledge that the personality of the living entity is not different from the personality of the Supreme Lord, and mystic yogīs who try to locate the Paramātmā accept only the knowledge that the pure soul is not different from the Supersoul. The absolute conception of a pure devotee, however, includes all others. A devotee does not see anything except in its relationship with Kṛṣṇa, and therefore his realization is the most perfect of all.

CC Adi 2.16, Purport:

Although the sun is situated far away from the other planets, its rays sustain and maintain them all. Indeed, the sun diffuses its heat and light all over the universe. Similarly, the supreme sun, Govinda, diffuses His heat and light everywhere in the form of His different potencies. The sun's heat and light are nondifferent from the sun. In the same way, the unlimited potencies of Govinda are nondifferent from Govinda Himself. Therefore the all-pervasive Brahman is the all-pervasive Govinda. The Bhagavad-gītā (14.27) clearly mentions that the impersonal Brahman is dependent upon Govinda. That is the real conception of absolute knowledge.

CC Adi 2.19, Purport:

Christian philosophers who do not believe in the law of karma put forward the argument that it is absurd to say one must accept the results of past deeds of which he has no consciousness. A criminal is first reminded of his misdeeds by witnesses in a law court, and then he is punished. If death is complete forgetfulness, why should a person be punished for his past misdeeds? The conception of the Paramātmā is an invincible answer to these fallacious arguments. The Paramātmā is the witness of the past activities of the individual living being. A man may not remember what he has done in his childhood, but his father, who has seen him grow through different stages of development, certainly remembers. Similarly, the living being undergoes many changes of body through many lives, but the Supersoul is always with him and remembers all his activities, despite his evolution through different bodies.

CC Adi 2.67, Purport:

This statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.28) definitely negates the concept that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is an avatāra of Viṣṇu or Nārāyaṇa. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, the supreme cause of all causes. This verse clearly indicates that incarnations of the Personality of Godhead such as Śrī Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and Varāha all undoubtedly belong to the Viṣṇu group, but all of Them are either plenary portions or portions of plenary portions of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 3.11, Purport:

Dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and śṛṅgāra are the transcendental modes of loving service to the Lord. Śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage, is not mentioned in this verse because although in śānta-rasa one considers the Absolute Truth the sublime great, one does not go beyond that conception. Śānta-rasa is a very grand idea for materialistic philosophers, but such idealistic appreciation is only the beginning; it is the lowest among the relationships in the spiritual world. Śānta-rasa is not given much importance because as soon as there is a slight understanding between the knower and the known, active loving transcendental reciprocations and exchanges begin. Dāsya-rasa is the basic relationship between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees; therefore this verse considers dāsya the first stage of transcendental devotional service.

CC Adi 3.102, Purport:

This is inconceivable for Māyāvādīs because they think in terms of mundane sense perception and therefore think that nondualism necessitates losing one's separate identity. It is clear from this verse, however, that Advaita Prabhu, although retaining His separate identity, is nondifferent from the Lord.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached the philosophy of inconceivable, simultaneous oneness with the Lord and difference from Him. Conceivable dualism and monism are conceptions of the imperfect senses, which are unable to reach the Transcendence because the Transcendence is beyond the conception of limited potency. The actions of Śrī Advaita Prabhu, however, give tangible proof of inconceivable nondualism. One who therefore surrenders unto Śrī Advaita Prabhu can easily follow the philosophy of inconceivable simultaneous dualism and monism.

CC Adi 4.17, Translation:

(Lord Kṛṣṇa thought:) “All the universe is filled with the conception of My majesty, but love weakened by that sense of majesty does not satisfy Me.

CC Adi 4.34, Purport:

Material sexual indulgence can never be equated with spiritual love, which is in unadulterated goodness. The activities of the sahajiyās simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind. Kṛṣṇa's transcendental pastimes display eternal servitorship to Adhokṣaja, the Supreme Lord, who is beyond all conception through material senses. Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service. The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be ordinary affairs. The rāsa dance is arranged by Kṛṣṇa's internal potency yogamāyā, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person. Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170) and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādṛśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 4.60, Purport:

What is the particular attraction that makes the Supreme Lord enthusiastic to accept devotional service, and what is the nature of such service? The Vedic scriptures inform us that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is self-sufficient, and that māyā, nescience, can never influence Him at all. Therefore the potency that overcomes the Supreme must be purely spiritual. Such a potency cannot be anything of the material manifestation. The bliss enjoyed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be of material composition, like the impersonalist conception of the bliss of Brahman. Devotional service is reciprocation between two, and therefore it cannot be located simply within one's self. Therefore the bliss of self-realization, brahmānanda, cannot be equated with devotional service.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has three kinds of internal potency, namely the hlādinī-śakti, or pleasure potency, the sandhinī-śakti, or existential potency, and the samvit-śakti, or cognitive potency.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

The living entities are supposed to be freed from material contamination by engaging in prolonged temple worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, reading Vedic literature and performing yoga and pious activities to attain the Supreme Lord. But if the living entities had been created from material nature at a certain point, they would be noneternal and would have no chance to be liberated and associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When a cause is nullified, its results are nullified. In the second chapter of the Vedānta-sūtra's second khaṇḍa, Ācārya Vedavyāsa has also refuted the conception that the living beings were ever born (nātmā śruter nityatvāc ca tābhyaḥ). Because there is no creation for the living entities, they must be eternal.

Śaṅkarācārya says (sūtra 43) that devotees think that Pradyumna, who is considered to represent the senses, has sprung from Saṅkarṣaṇa, who is considered to represent the living entities. But we cannot actually experience that a person can produce senses. Devotees also say that from Pradyumna has sprung Aniruddha, who is considered to represent the ego.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

"The Lord is personal although impersonal, He is atomic although great, and He is blackish and has red eyes although He is colorless." By material calculation all this may appear contradictory, but if we understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has inconceivable potencies, we can accept these facts as eternally possible in Him. In our present condition we cannot understand the spiritual activities and how they occur, but although they are inconceivable in the material context, we should not disregard such contradictory conceptions.

Although it is apparently inconceivable, it is quite possible for the Absolute to reconcile all opposing elements. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam establishes this in the Sixth Canto (6.9.34–37):

“O my Lord, Your transcendental pastimes and enjoyments all appear inconceivable because they are not limited by the causal and effective actions of material thought. You can do everything without performing bodily work.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

Philosophers and other thoughtful persons are overwhelmed by the contradictory manifestations of the physical world and the propositions of logical arguments and judgments. Because they are bewildered by word jugglery and disturbed by the different calculations of the scriptures, their theories cannot touch You, who are the ruler and controller of everyone and whose glories are beyond conception.

“Your inconceivable potency keeps You unattached to the mundane qualities. Surpassing all conceptions of material contemplation, Your pure transcendental knowledge keeps You beyond all speculative processes. By Your inconceivable potency, there is nothing contradictory in You.

"People may sometimes think of You as impersonal or personal, but You are one. For persons who are confused or bewildered, a rope may appear to manifest itself as different kinds of snakes. For similar confused persons who are uncertain about You, You create various philosophical methods in pursuance of their uncertain positions."

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

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. When the Lord appears as an incarnation to fulfill a particular purpose, this does not indicate that He is unable to fulfill it without appearing. He can do anything simply by His will, but by His causeless mercy He appears to be dependent upon His devotees. He appears as the son of Yaśodāmātā not because He is dependent on her care but because He accepts such a role by His causeless mercy. When He appears for the protection of His devotees, He naturally accepts trials and tribulations on their behalf.

In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the Lord, being equally disposed toward every living being, has no enemies and no friends but that He has special affection for a devotee who always thinks of Him in love.

CC Adi 5.51, Purport:

The glancing power of the Lord agitates the entire cosmic energy, and thus its actions begin at once. This indicates that matter, however powerful she may be, has no power by herself. Her activity begins by the grace of the Lord, and then the entire cosmic creation is manifested in a systematic way. The example of a woman's conception can help us understand this subject to a certain extent. The mother is passive, but the father puts his energy within the mother, and thus she conceives. She supplies the ingredients for the birth of the child in her womb. Similarly, the Lord activates material nature, which then supplies the ingredients for cosmic development.

Material nature has two different phases. The aspect called pradhāna supplies the material ingredients for cosmic development, and the aspect called māyā causes the manifestation of her ingredients, which are temporary, like foam in the ocean. In reality, the temporary manifestations of material nature are originally caused by the spiritual glance of the Lord. The Personality of Godhead is the direct, or remote, cause of creation, and material nature is the indirect, or immediate, cause. Materialistic scientists, puffed-up by the magical changes their so-called inventions have brought about, cannot see the real potency of Godhead behind matter.

CC Adi 6.6, Translation:

Śrī Advaita Ācārya is indeed directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. His glory is beyond the conception of ordinary living beings.

CC Adi 6.12, Purport:

In the teachings of Advaita Prabhu there is no question of fruitive activities or impersonal liberation. Bewildered by the spell of the material energy, however, persons who could not understand that Advaita Prabhu is nondifferent from Viṣṇu wanted to follow Him with their impersonal conceptions. The attempt of Advaita Prabhu to punish them is also auspicious. Lord Viṣṇu and His activities can bestow all good fortune, directly and indirectly. In other words, being favored by Lord Viṣṇu and being punished by Lord Viṣṇu are one and the same because all the activities of Viṣṇu are absolute. According to some, Maṅgala was another name of Advaita Prabhu. As the causal incarnation, or Lord Viṣṇu's incarnation for a particular occasion, He is the supply agent or ingredient in material nature. However, He is never to be considered material. All His activities are spiritual. Anyone who hears about and glorifies Him becomes glorified himself, for such activities free one from all kinds of misfortune. One should not invest any material contamination or impersonalism in the Viṣṇu form.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

Factually, the supreme absolute spirit soul is the cause of every kind of manifestation, and He is always complete, both as the energy and as the energetic. The cosmic manifestation is caused by the energy of the Supreme Absolute Person, in whom all energies are conserved. Philosophers who are subjectively engaged in the cosmic manifestation can appreciate only the wonderful energies of matter. Such philosophers accept the conception of God only as a product of the material energy. According to their conclusions, the source of the energy is also a product of the energy. Such philosophers wrongly observe that the living creatures within the cosmic manifestation are caused by the material energy, and they think that the supreme absolute conscious being must similarly be a product of the material energy.

Since materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engaged with their imperfect senses, naturally they conclude that the living force is a product of a material combination. But the actual fact is just the opposite.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

The puruṣa, the enjoyer, is without transformation, whereas material nature is always subject to transformation. But although material nature is inert, it is the cause of enjoyment and salvation for many living creatures. Its activities are beyond the conception of sense perception, but still one may guess at them by superior intelligence. Material nature is one, but because of the interaction of the three qualities, it can produce the total energy and the wonderful cosmic manifestation. Such transformations divide material nature into two features, namely the efficient and material causes. The puruṣa, the enjoyer, is inactive and without material qualities, although at the same time He is the master, existing separately in each and every body as the emblem of knowledge. By understanding the material cause, one can guess that the puruṣa, the enjoyer, being without activity, is aloof from all kinds of enjoyment or superintendence. Sāṅkhya philosophy, after describing the nature of prakṛti (material nature) and puruṣa (the enjoyer), asserts that the creation is only a product of their unification or proximity to one another.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

Their statements, however, do not support the atheistic Kapila, because the Kapila mentioned in the Vedas is a different Kapila, the son of Kardama and Devahūti. The atheist Kapila is a descendant of the dynasty of Agni and is one of the conditioned souls. But the Kapila who is the son of Kardama Muni is accepted as an incarnation of Vāsudeva. The Padma Purāṇa gives evidence that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva takes birth in the incarnation of Kapila and, by His expansion of theistic Sāṅkhya philosophy, teaches all the demigods and a brāhmaṇa of the name Āsuri. In the doctrine of the atheist Kapila there are many statements directly against the Vedic principles. The atheist Kapila does not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He says that the living entity is himself the Supreme Lord and that no one is greater than him. His conceptions of so-called conditioned and liberated life are materialistic, and he refuses to accept the importance of immortal time. All such statements are against the principles of the Vedānta-sūtra.”

CC Adi 6.42, Purport:

"I do not wish to take liberation or to merge in the Brahman effulgence, where the conception of being a servant of the Lord is completely lost." Similarly, in the Nārada Pañcarātra it is stated:

dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣeṣu necchā mama kadācana
tvat-pāda-paṅkajasyādho jīvitaṁ dīyatāṁ mama

"I do not want any one of the four desirable stations. I simply want to engage as a servant of the lotus feet of the Lord." King Kulaśekhara, in his very famous book Mukunda-mālā-stotra, prays:

nāhaṁ vande tava caraṇayor dvandvam advandva-hetoḥ
kumbhī-pākaṁ gurum api hare nārakaṁ nāpanetum
ramyā-rāmā-mṛdu-tanu-latā-nandane nābhirantuṁ
bhāve bhāve hṛdaya-bhavane bhāvayeyaṁ bhavantam

"My Lord, I do not worship You to be liberated from this material entanglement, nor do I wish to save myself from the hellish condition of material existence, nor do I ever pray for a beautiful wife to enjoy in a nice garden. I wish only that I may always be in full ecstasy with the pleasure of serving Your Lordship."

CC Adi 6.43, Translation:

He forgets Himself in the joy of that conception and teaches all living entities, "You are servants of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu."

CC Adi 6.44, Translation:

The conception of servitude to Śrī Kṛṣṇa generates such an ocean of joy in the soul that even the joy of oneness with the Absolute, if multiplied ten million times, could not compare to a drop of it.

CC Adi 6.77, Translation:

He also considers Himself a servant of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Indeed, who is there who does not have this conception of being a servant of Lord Kṛṣṇa?

CC Adi 6.100, Purport:

The conception of oneness with the Supreme Personality of Godhead is inferior to that of eternal service to the Lord because Lord Kṛṣṇa is more affectionate to devotees than to His personal self. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.4.68) the Lord clearly says:

sādhavo hṛdayaṁ mahyaṁ
sādhūnāṁ hṛdayaṁ tv aham
mad anyat te na jānanti
nāhaṁ tebhyo manāg api

"The devotees are My heart, and I am the heart of My devotees. My devotees do not know anyone but Me; similarly, I do not know anyone but My devotees." This is the intimate relationship between the Lord and His devotees.

CC Adi 7.29-30, Purport:

Like Māyāvādī philosophers in the past such as Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī of Benares, modern impersonalists are not interested in Lord Caitanya's Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. They do not know the value of this material world; they consider it false and cannot understand how the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can utilize it. They are so absorbed in impersonal thought that they take it for granted that all spiritual variety is material. Because they do not know anything beyond their misconception of the brahma-jyotir, they cannot understand that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is spiritual and therefore beyond the conception of material illusion. Whenever Kṛṣṇa incarnates personally or as a devotee, these Māyāvādī philosophers accept Him as an ordinary human being. This is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.11):

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be."

CC Adi 7.39, Purport:

In describing the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained that persons who are bewildered by empiric knowledge or direct sensual perception, and who thus consider that even this limited material world can be gauged by their material estimations, conclude that anything that one can discern by direct sense perception is but māyā, or illusion. They maintain that although the Absolute Truth is beyond the range of sense perception, it includes no spiritual variety or enjoyment. According to the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, the spiritual world is simply void. They do not believe in the Personality of the Absolute Truth or in His varieties of activities in the spiritual world. Although they have their own arguments, which are not very strong, they have no conception of the variegated activities of the Absolute Truth. These impersonalists, who are followers of Śaṅkarācārya, are generally known as Kāśīra Māyāvādīs (impersonalists residing in Vārāṇasī).

Near Vārāṇasī there is another group of impersonalists, who are known as Saranātha Māyāvādīs. Outside the city of Vārāṇasī is a place known as Saranātha, where there is a big Buddhist stūpa. Many followers of Buddhist philosophy live there, and they are known as Saranātha Māyāvādīs.

CC Adi 7.99, Purport:

Impersonalist Māyāvādīs always try to defy Vaiṣṇavas because Vaiṣṇavas accept the Supreme Personality as the supreme cause and want to serve Him, talk with Him and see Him, just as the Lord is also eager to see His devotees and talk, eat and dance with them. These personal exchanges of love do not appeal to the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. Therefore the original purpose of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs of Benares in meeting Caitanya Mahāprabhu was to defeat His personal conception of God. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, however, as a preacher, turned the minds of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. They were melted by the sweet words of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and thus became friendly and spoke to Him also in sweet words. Similarly, all preachers will have to meet opponents, but they should not make them more inimical. They are already enemies, and if we talk with them harshly or impolitely their enmity will merely increase. We should therefore follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu as far as possible and try to convince the opposition by quoting from the śāstras and presenting the conclusion of the ācāryas. It is in this way that we should try to defeat all the enemies of the Lord.

CC Adi 7.116, Purport:

If the Personality of Godhead did not possess both limited and unlimited energies, He could not be called omnipotent. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān: "The Lord is smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest." He is smaller than the smallest in the form of the living entities and greater than the greatest in His form of Kṛṣṇa. If there were no one to control, there would be no meaning to the conception of the supreme controller (īśvara), just as there is no meaning to a king without his subjects. If all the subjects became king, there would be no distinction between the king and an ordinary citizen. Thus for the Lord to be the supreme controller there must be a creation to control. The basic principle for the existence of the living entities is called cid-vilāsa, or spiritual pleasure. The omnipotent Lord displays His pleasure potency as the living entities. The Lord is described in the Vedānta-sūtra (1.1.12) as ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt. He is by nature the reservoir of all pleasures, and because He wants to enjoy pleasure, there must be energies to give Him pleasure or supply Him the impetus for pleasure. This is the perfect philosophical understanding of the Absolute Truth.

CC Adi 7.121, Purport:

Commenting on this sūtra in his Śārīraka-bhāṣya, Śaṅkarācārya has introduced the statement vācārambhaṇaṁ vikāro nāmadheyam from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.1.4) to try to prove that acceptance of the transformation of the energy of the Supreme Lord is faulty. He has tried to defy this transformation of energy in a misguided way, which will be explained later. Since his conception of God is impersonal, he does not believe that the entire cosmic manifestation is a transformation of the energies of the Lord, for as soon as one accepts the various energies of the Absolute Truth, one must immediately accept the Absolute Truth to be personal, not impersonal. A person can create many things by the transformation of his energy. For example, a businessman transforms his energy by establishing many big factories or business organizations, yet he remains a person although his energy has been transformed into these many factories or business concerns. The Māyāvādī philosophers do not understand this simple fact. Their tiny brains and poor fund of knowledge cannot afford them sufficient enlightenment to realize that when a man's energy is transformed, the man himself is not transformed but remains the same person.

CC Adi 7.121, Purport:

This is also confirmed in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad (3.1): yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. "This entire cosmic manifestation is made possible by the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead." In this verse it is indicated that Brahman, the Absolute Truth, is the original cause and that the living entities (jīvas) and the cosmic manifestation are effects of this cause. The cause being a fact, the effects are also factual. They are not illusion. Śaṅkarācārya has inconsistently tried to prove that it is an illusion to accept the material world and the jīvas as by-products of the Supreme Lord because (in his conception) the existence of the material world and the jīvas is different and separate from that of the Absolute Truth. With this jugglery of understanding, Māyāvādī philosophers have propagated the slogan brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, which declares that the Absolute Truth is fact but the cosmic manifestation and the living entities are simply illusions, or that all of them are in fact the Absolute Truth and that the material world and living entities do not separately exist.

CC Adi 7.122, Purport:

Even if a complete manifestation is taken away from Him, He continues to be complete. The material creation is manifested by the energy of the Lord, but He is still the same person. His form, entourage, qualities and so on never deteriorate. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in his Paramātma-sandarbha, comments regarding the vivarta-vāda as follows: "Under the spell of vivarta-vāda one imagines the separate entities, namely the cosmic manifestation and the living entities, to be one with Brahman. This is due to complete ignorance regarding the actual fact. The Absolute Truth, or Para-brahman, is always one and always the same. He is completely free from all other conceptions of existence. He is completely free from false ego, for He is the full spiritual identity. It is absolutely impossible for Him to be subjected to ignorance and fall under the spell of a misconception (vivarta-vāda). The Absolute Truth is beyond our conception. One must admit that He has unblemished qualities that He does not share with every living entity. He is never tainted in the slightest degree by the flaws of ordinary living beings. Everyone must therefore understand the Absolute Truth to possess inconceivable potencies."

CC Adi 7.142, Purport:

That is called abhidheya. The next step is prayojana-siddhi, or fulfillment of the ultimate goal of one's life. If one can understand his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and act accordingly, automatically his mission in life is fulfilled. The Māyāvādī philosophers miss even the first stage in self-realization because they have no conception of God's being personal. He is the master of all, and He is the only person who can accept the service of all living entities, but since this knowledge is lacking in Māyāvāda philosophy, Māyāvādīs do not have knowledge even of their relationship with God. They wrongly think that everyone is God or that everyone is equal to God. Therefore, since the real position of the living entity is not clear to them, how can they advance further? Although they are very much puffed up at being liberated, Māyāvādī philosophers very shortly fall down again to material activities due to their neglecting the lotus feet of the Lord. That is called patanty adhaḥ:

CC Adi 8.15, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection that people in general, in their narrow-minded conception of life, create many different types of humanitarian activities, but the humanitarian activities inaugurated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are different. For logicians who want to accept only that which is proven through logic and argument, it is a fact that without logic and reason there can be no question of accepting the Absolute Truth. Unfortunately, when such logicians take to this path without the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they remain on the platform of logic and argument and do not advance in spiritual life. However, if one is intelligent enough to apply his arguments and logic to the subtle understanding of the fundamental spiritual substance, he will be able to know that a poor fund of knowledge established on the basis of material logic cannot help one understand the Absolute Truth, which is beyond the reach of imperfect senses. The Mahābhārata therefore says, acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. (Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma-parva 5.22) How can that which is beyond the imagination or sensory speculation of mundane creatures be approached simply by logic?

CC Adi 8.24, Purport:

If one has heard the glories of the transcendental holy name of the Lord but nevertheless continues in a materialistic concept of life, thinking "I am this body and everything belonging to this body is mine (ahaṁ mameti SB 5.5.8)," and does not show respect and love for the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, that is an offense.

CC Adi 13.86, Purport:

"When magnanimous, broad-hearted Nanda Mahārāja came back from a tour, he immediately took his son Kṛṣṇa on his lap and experienced transcendental bliss by smelling His head." Similarly, in the Tenth Canto, Ninth Chapter, verse 21, it is said, "This Personality of Godhead, appearing as the son of a cowherd damsel, is easily available and understandable to devotees, whereas those who are under the concept of bodily life, even though they are very much advanced in austerity and penance, or even though they are great philosophers, are unable to understand Him."

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura next quotes Śrīpāda Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, who refers to the prayers offered by the demigods to Lord Kṛṣṇa in the womb of Devakī and summarizes the birth of Kṛṣṇa as follows: "As the rising moon manifests light in the east, so Devakī, who was always situated on the transcendental platform, having been initiated in the Kṛṣṇa mantra by Vasudeva, the son of Śūrasena, kept Kṛṣṇa within her heart." From this statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.18) it is understood that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, having been transferred from the heart of Ānakadundubhi, or Vasudeva, manifested Himself in the heart of Devakī. According to Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, "the heart of Devakī" means the womb of Devakī because in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.41 the demigods say, diṣṭyāmba te kukṣi-gataḥ paraḥ pumān: "Mother Devakī, the Lord is already within your womb." Therefore, that the Lord was transferred from the heart of Vasudeva to the heart of Devakī means that He was transferred to the womb of Devakī.

CC Adi 16.54, Purport:

Placing the unknown first to make the compound word dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr is another fault. The words dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr iva were intended to compare the Ganges to the goddess of fortune, but because of this fault the meaning of the compound word was bewildering.

The third fault is that of viruddha-mati, or contradictory conception, in the words bhavānī-bhartuḥ. The word bhavānī refers to the wife of Bhava, Lord Śiva. But since Bhavānī is already known as the wife of Lord Śiva, to add the word bhartā, "husband," thus forming a compound meaning "the husband of the wife of Lord Śiva," is contradictory, for thus it appears as if the wife of Lord Śiva had another husband.

The fourth fault is punar-ukti, or redundancy, which occurs when the verb vibhavati ("flourishes"), which should have ended the composition, is further qualified by the unnecessary adjective adbhuta-guṇā ("endowed with wonderful qualities"). The fifth fault is bhagna-krama, which means "broken order." In the first, third and fourth lines there is anuprāsa, or alliteration, created by the sounds ta, ra and bha, but in the second line there is no such anuprāsa, and therefore the order is broken.

CC Adi 17.212, Purport:

According to the materialistic point of view, observing a religious ceremony invokes an auspicious atmosphere for the material benefit of the entire world. Materialists therefore manufacture religious principles to live comfortably and without disturbance in executing their material activities. Since they do not believe in the existence of God, they have manufactured the idea that God is impersonal and that to have some conception of God one may imagine any form. Thus they respect the many forms of the demigods as different representations or manifestations of the Lord. They are called bahv-īśvara-vādīs, or followers of thousands and thousands of gods. They consider the chanting of the names of the demigods an auspicious activity. Great so-called svāmīs have written books saying that one may chant any name—Durgā, Kālī, Śiva, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and so on—because any name is all right for invoking an auspicious atmosphere in society. Thus they are called pāṣaṇḍīs—unbelievers or faithless demons.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 4.95, Purport:

The actual mission of human life is to understand Kṛṣṇa and return home, back to Godhead. Therefore one who is sincerely engaged in the service of the Lord with love and faith can talk with Kṛṣṇa and receive instructions by which he can speedily return home, back to Godhead. Today many scholars defend the science of religion, and they have some conception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but religion without practical experience of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is no religion at all. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes this as a form of cheating. Religion means abiding by the orders of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one is not qualified to talk with Him and take lessons from Him, how can one understand the principles of religion? Thus talks of religion or religious experience without Kṛṣṇa consciousness are a useless waste of time.

CC Madhya 4.197, Purport:

Thus he took sannyāsa according to paramparā, the disciplic succession. Beginning from Madhvācārya down to the spiritual master of Mādhavendra Purī, the ācārya named Lakṣmīpati, there was no realization of devotional service in conjugal love. Śrī Mādhavendra Purī introduced the conception of conjugal love for the first time in the Madhvācārya-sampradāya, and this conclusion of the Madhvācārya-sampradāya was revealed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He toured southern India and met the Tattvavādīs, who supposedly belonged to the Madhvācārya-sampradāya.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa left Vṛndāvana and accepted the kingdom of Mathurā, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, out of ecstatic feelings of separation, expressed how Kṛṣṇa can be loved in separation. Thus devotional service in separation is central to this verse. Worship in separation is considered by the Gauḍīya-Mādhva-sampradāya to be the topmost level of devotional service. According to this conception, the devotee thinks of himself as very poor and neglected by the Lord. Thus he addresses the Lord as dīna-dayārdra nātha, as did Mādhavendra Purī. Such an ecstatic feeling is the highest form of devotional service. Because Kṛṣṇa had gone to Mathurā, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was very much affected, and She expressed Herself thus: "My dear Lord, because of Your separation My mind has become overly agitated. Now tell Me, what can I do? I am very poor and You are very merciful, so kindly have compassion upon Me and let Me know when I shall see You."

CC Madhya 6 Summary:

There was then a discussion between the Bhaṭṭācārya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu concerning the authority of the Vedic scriptures, specifically the Upaniṣads and Vedānta-sūtra. The Bhaṭṭācārya was an impersonalist, but Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu proved that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He proved that the conceptions of the Māyāvādī philosophers concerning the impersonal Absolute Truth are incorrect.

The Absolute Truth is neither impersonal nor without power. The greatest mistake made by the Māyāvādī philosophers is in conceiving the Absolute Truth to be impersonal and without energy. In all the Vedas, the unlimited energies of the Absolute Truth have been accepted. It is also accepted that the Absolute Truth has His transcendental, blissful, eternal form. According to the Vedas, the Lord and the living entity are equal in quality but different quantitatively. The real philosophy of the Absolute Truth states that the Lord and His creation are inconceivably and simultaneously one and different. The conclusion is that the Māyāvādī philosophers are actually atheists. There was much discussion on this issue between Sārvabhauma and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but despite all his endeavors, the Bhaṭṭācārya was defeated in the end.

CC Madhya 6.167, Purport:

However, one should know that beyond this material nature is another nature, which is spiritual. Just as there are material forms in this material world, there are spiritual forms in the spiritual world. This is confirmed by all Vedic literature. The spiritual forms in the transcendental world have nothing to do with the negative conception of formlessness. The conclusion is that a person is an agnostic when he does not agree to worship the transcendental form of the Lord.

Actually, at the present moment all systems of religion deny the worship of the form of the Lord due to ignorance of His transcendental form. The first-class materialists (the Māyāvādīs) imagine five specific forms of the Lord, but when they try to equate the worship of such imaginary forms with bhakti, they are immediately condemned. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa confirms this in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.15), where He says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ. Bereft of real knowledge due to agnosticism, the Māyāvādī philosophers should not even be seen by the devotees of the Lord, nor touched, because those philosophers are liable to be punished by Yamarāja, the superintendent demigod who judges the activities of sinful men. The Māyāvādī agnostics wander within this universe in different species of life due to their nondevotional activities.

CC Madhya 6.168, Purport:

The intelligence of the Māyāvādīs is not purified; therefore even though they practice austerities for self-realization, they cannot remain within the impersonal brahma-jyotir. Consequently, they fall down again into this material world.

The Māyāvādīs' conception of spiritual existence is almost identical to the negation of material existence. The Māyāvādīs believe that there is nothing positive in spiritual life. As a result, they cannot understand devotional service or the worship of the Supreme Person, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). The Māyāvādī philosophers consider Deity worship in devotional service to be pratibimba-vāda, or the worship of a form that is the reflection of a false material form. Thus the Lord's transcendental form, which is eternally blissful and full of knowledge, is unknown to Māyāvādī philosophers. Although the term "Bhagavān" is explicitly described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they cannot understand it. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate: "The Absolute Truth is called Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān." (SB 1.2.11) The Māyāvādīs try to understand Brahman only, or, at the most, Paramātmā. However, they are unable to understand Bhagavān. Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15).

CC Madhya 6.268, Purport:

Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī has sung, kaivalyaṁ narakāyate. The impersonalist's conception of becoming one with the effulgence of the Lord is exactly like hell. Therefore, of the five types of liberation, the first four (sālokya, sāmīpya, sārūpya and sārṣṭi) are not so undesirable because they can be avenues of service to the Lord. Nonetheless, a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa rejects even these types of liberation; he aspires only to serve Kṛṣṇa birth after birth. He is not very interested in stopping the repetition of birth, for he simply desires to serve the Lord, even in hellish circumstances. Consequently the pure devotee hates and fears sāyujya-mukti, merging into the effulgence of the Lord. This merging is due to an offense committed against the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and therefore it is not at all desirable for a pure devotee.

CC Madhya 6.269, Purport:

"Such a person is always supreme and is not influenced by the element of time." The followers of the Patañjali system therefore accept the eternity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yet, according to them, puruṣārtha-śūnyānāṁ pratiprasavaḥ kaivalyaṁ svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā vā citi-śaktir iti. They believe that in the perfectional stage, the conception of puruṣa is vanquished. According to their description, citi-śaktir iti. They believe that when one becomes perfect, he cannot remain a person. This yoga system is therefore abominable because its final conception is impersonal. In the beginning, these yogīs accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they ultimately give up this idea in order to become impersonal. They are most unfortunate because although they have a personal conception of the Absolute Truth, they neglect to render devotional service to the Lord and thus fall down again into the material world. As mentioned above, this idea is supported by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.32: aruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adho ’nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Due to neglecting the lotus feet of the Lord, these yogīs again fall down into the material existence (patanty adhaḥ). Consequently this path of yoga is more abominable than the impersonalists' path. This conclusion is also supported by Lord Kapiladeva in the following verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.29.13).

CC Madhya 8.60, Purport:

Naturally Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was asking Rāmānanda Rāya about the execution of devotional service. Rāmānanda Rāya first enunciated the principle of varṇāśrama-dharma in consideration of materialistic people. However, this conception is not transcendental. As long as one is in the material world, he must follow the principles of varṇāśrama-dharma, but devotional service is transcendental. The system of varṇāśrama-dharma refers to the three modes of material nature, but transcendental devotional service is on the absolute platform.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu belongs to the spiritual world, and His methods for propagating the saṅkīrtana movement are also imported from the spiritual world. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung: golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, rati na janmila kene tāya. This states that the saṅkīrtana movement has nothing to do with this material world. It is imported from the spiritual world, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura laments that mundane people do not take this saṅkīrtana movement seriously.

CC Madhya 8.67, Translation:

Rāmānanda Rāya continued, "Lord Brahmā said, "My dear Lord, those devotees who have thrown away the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth and have therefore abandoned discussing empiric philosophical truths should hear from self-realized devotees about Your holy name, form, pastimes and qualities. They should completely follow the principles of devotional service and remain free from illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and animal slaughter. Surrendering themselves fully with body, words and mind, they can live in any āśrama or social status. Indeed, You are conquered by such persons, although You are always unconquerable.""

CC Madhya 8.90, Purport:

Such identity is impossible in the material world, where the name of a person is different from the person himself. The Supreme Lord has many holy names like Paramātmā, Brahman and "the creator," but one who worships the Lord as the creator cannot understand the relationship between a devotee and the Lord in the five types of transcendental mellows, nor can he understand the conception of Kṛṣṇa. One cannot understand the six transcendental opulences of the Lord simply by understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead as impersonal Brahman.

Impersonal realization of the Absolute Truth is certainly transcendental, but this does not mean that one who has attained this realization can understand the sac-cid-ānanda form of the Lord. Similarly, Paramātmā realization—realization of the plenary expansion of the Absolute Truth within everyone's heart—is also an incomplete understanding of the Absolute Truth. Even a devotee of the Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa cannot actually understand the transcendental attractive features of Kṛṣṇa. Indeed, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa who is attached to the sublime attractive features of the Lord does not consider Nārāyaṇa very important. When the gopīs sometimes saw Kṛṣṇa in the form of Nārāyaṇa, they were not very much attracted to Him.

CC Madhya 8.139, Purport:

There is no material contamination in His body, and one should not consider His body a lump of flesh and bones. The Māyāvādī philosophers conceive of Kṛṣṇa's body as material, and this is an abominable, grossly materialistic conception. Just as Kṛṣṇa is completely spiritual, the gopīs are also spiritual, and this is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37):

ānanda-cin-maya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis
tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ
goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord. He resides in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, who resembles His own spiritual figure and who embodies the ecstatic potency (hlādinī). Their companions are Her confidantes, who embody extensions of Her bodily form and who are imbued and permeated with ever-blissful spiritual rasa."

CC Madhya 8.204-205, Purport:

One should not be misled by mental concoctions, supposing his material body to be perfect and deeming oneself a sakhī. This is something like ahaṅgrahopāsanā, that is, a Māyāvādī’s worship of his own body as the Supreme. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has cautioned mundaners to abstain from such conceptions. He also warns that thinking oneself one of the associates of the Supreme without following in the footsteps of the gopīs is as offensive as thinking oneself the Supreme. Such thinking is an aparādha. One has to practice living in Vṛndāvana by hearing about the talks of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa. However, one should not consider himself a gopī, for this is offensive.

CC Madhya 9.154, Translation:

“The goddess of fortune enjoys the association of Kṛṣṇa through the gopīs. One should not differentiate between the forms of the Lord, for such a conception is offensive.

CC Madhya 9.263, Purport:

"Knowledge of self-realization, even though freed from all material affinity, does not look well if devoid of a conception of the Infallible (God). What, then, is the use of fruitive activities, which are naturally painful from the very beginning and transient by nature, if they are not utilized for the devotional service of the Lord?" This means that even knowledge, which is superior to fruitive activity, is not successful if it is devoid of devotional service. Therefore in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—in the beginning, middle and end—karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa are condemned. For example, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.1.2) it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra.

This is explained in the following verses taken from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.11.32) and the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66).

CC Madhya 9.360, Purport:

Not understanding the process of disciplic succession, so-called logicians put forward the theory of pañcopāsanā, in which a person worships one of five deities—namely Viṣṇu, Śiva, Durgā, the sun-god or Ganeśa. In this conception the impersonalists imagine one of these five deities as supreme and reject the others. Such philosophical speculation, which is certainly idol worship, is not accepted by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu or by Vaiṣṇavas. This imaginary deity worship has recently been transformed into Māyāvāda impersonalism. For want of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, people are victimized by the Māyāvāda philosophy, and consequently they sometimes become staunch atheists. However, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu established the process of self-realization by His own personal behavior. As stated in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (CC Madhya 8.274):

CC Madhya 12.135, Purport:

One who cannot give up the desire for fruitive activity is understood to be covered by the dust of material contamination. Karmīs generally think that the interaction of fruitive activities can be counteracted by another karma, or fruitive activity. This is certainly a mistaken conception. If one is deluded by such a conception, he is cheated by his own activity. Such activities have been compared to an elephant's bathing. An elephant may bathe very thoroughly, but as soon as it comes out of the river, it immediately takes some sand from the land and throws it all over its body. If one suffers due to his past fruitive activities, he cannot counteract his suffering by performing auspicious activities. The sufferings of human society cannot be counteracted by material plans. The only way suffering can be mitigated is by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord—beginning with chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord—the cleansing of the heart begins. When the heart is actually cleansed, one can clearly see the Lord sitting there without any disturbance. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.4.68) the Lord confirms that He sits within the heart of the pure devotee: sādhavo hṛdayaṁ mahyaṁ sādhūnāṁ hṛdayaṁ tv aham.

CC Madhya 12.194, Purport:

Due to the eternal existence of knowledge, the knower and the knowable, devotees everywhere know about the eternal existence of the form, name, qualities, pastimes and entourage of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Devotees never agree with the monists' preaching of oneness. Unless one adheres to the conceptions of the knower, the knowable and knowledge, there is no possibility of understanding spiritual variety, nor can one taste the transcendental bliss of spiritual variety.

The philosophy of monism is an adjustment of the Buddhist philosophy of voidism. In a mock fight with Śrī Advaita Ācārya, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu was refuting this type of monistic philosophy. Vaiṣṇavas certainly accept Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the ultimate "one," and that which is without Kṛṣṇa is called māyā, or that which has no existence. External māyā is exhibited in two phases—jīva-māyā, the living entities, and guṇa-māyā, the material world. In the material world there is prakṛti (material nature) and pradhāna (the ingredients of material nature). However, for one who becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, the distinction between material and spiritual varieties does not exist. An advanced devotee like Prahlāda Mahārāja sees everything as one—Kṛṣṇa.

CC Madhya 15.83, Purport:

Sometimes neophytes, devotees on the lower platform, try to imitate Rāghava Paṇḍita on the platform of material purity and impurity. Such imitation will not help anyone. As explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya-līlā 4.174), bhadrābhadra-vastu-jñāna nāhika "prākṛte." On the transcendental platform there is no higher or lower, pure or impure. On the material platform, distinction is made between good and bad, but on the spiritual platform everything is of the same quality.

"dvaite" bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba—"manodharma"
"ei bhāla, ei manda",—ei saba "bhrama"

"In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations. Therefore, saying "This is good and that is bad" is all a mistake." (CC Antya 4.176)

CC Madhya 15.163, Purport:

Vāsudeva Datta's example is unique not only within this world but within the universe. It is beyond the conception of fruitive actors or the speculation of mundane philosophers. Due to being illusioned by the external energy and due to a poor fund of knowledge, people tend to envy one another. Because of this they are entangled in fruitive activity, and they try to escape this fruitive activity by mental speculation. Consequently neither karmīs nor jñānīs are purified. In the words of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura, they are kukarmīs and kujñānīs—bad fruitive actors and bad speculators. The Māyāvādīs and karmīs should therefore turn their attention to the magnanimous Vāsudeva Datta, who wanted to suffer for others in a hellish condition. No one should consider Vāsudeva Datta a mundane philanthropist or welfare worker. Nor was he interested in merging into the Brahman effulgence or in gaining material honor or reputation. He was far, far above philanthropists, philosophers and fruitive actors. He was the most exalted personality to ever show mercy to the conditioned souls. This is not an exaggeration of his transcendental qualities. It is perfectly true. Actually, there cannot be any comparison to Vāsudeva Datta. As the perfect Vaiṣṇava, he was para-duḥkha-duḥkhī, very much aggrieved to see others suffer.

CC Madhya 17.134, Purport:

Since Kṛṣṇa's transcendental body, name, form, qualities, pastimes and entourage are all the Absolute Truth, they are as good as Kṛṣṇa Himself (sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1)). As long as the living entity is conditioned by the three modes of material nature (goodness, passion and ignorance), the objects of his material senses—material form, taste, smell, sound and touch—will not help him understand spiritual knowledge and bliss. Rather, these are revealed to the pure devotee. One's material name, form and qualities are certainly different from one another. In the material world, there is no conception of absolute; however, when we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness we find that there is no material difference between Kṛṣṇa's body and His names, activities and entourage.

CC Madhya 18.115, Purport:

"Worshipers of impersonalists like Dattātreya are also pāṣaṇḍīs." Concerning the offense of ahaṁ-mama-buddhi, or dehātma-buddhi (considering the body to be the self), Jīva Gosvāmī states, deva-draviṇādi-nimittaka- "pāṣaṇḍa"-śabdena ca daśāparādhā eva lakṣyante, pāṣaṇḍa-mayatvāt teṣām: "Those who are overly absorbed in the conception of the body and the bodily necessities are also called pāṣaṇḍīs." Elsewhere in the Bhakti-sandarbha it is stated:

uddiśya devatā eva juhoti ca dadāti ca
sa pāṣaṇḍīti vijñeyaḥ svatantro vāpi karmasu

"A pāṣaṇḍī is one who considers the demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be one; therefore a pāṣaṇḍī worships any kind of demigod as the Supreme Personality of Godhead." One who disobeys the orders of the spiritual master is also considered a pāṣaṇḍī. The word pāṣaṇḍī has been described in many places in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, including 4.2.28, 30 and 32, 5.6.9, and 12.2.13 and 3.43.

CC Madhya 18.187, Translation:

When that person tried to establish the impersonal Brahman conception of the Absolute Truth on the basis of the Koran, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu refuted his argument.

CC Madhya 19.148, Purport:

It is therefore clearly said in this verse, koṭi-mukta-madhye "durlabha" eka kṛṣṇa-bhakta. Those who search after the knowledge of impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā are certainly accepted as liberated, but due to their imperfect knowledge they are described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as vimukta-māninaḥ. Since their knowledge is imperfect, their conception of liberation is imperfect. Perfect knowledge is possible when one knows the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is supported by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29):

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

"A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries."

CC Madhya 19.183-184, Purport:

The śānta-rati realization of Kṛṣṇa is in the neutral stage between the conception of impersonalism and personalism. This means that one is not very strongly attached to the personal feature of the Lord. An appreciation of the greatness of the Lord is called śānta-rati. This is attachment not to the personal feature but to the impersonal feature. Generally, one in this stage is attached to the Paramātmā feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine made of the material energy.” (BG 18.61) On the strength of this statement from the Bhagavad-gītā, we can understand that in śānta-rasa a devotee sees the Lord's representation everywhere.

CC Madhya 20.119, Translation:

“"When the living entity is attracted by the material energy, which is separate from Kṛṣṇa, he is overpowered by fear. Because he is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the material energy, his conception of life is reversed. In other words, instead of being the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes Kṛṣṇa"s competitor. This is called viparyayo "smṛtiḥ. To nullify this mistake, one who is actually learned and advanced worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his spiritual master, worshipful Deity and source of life. He thus worships the Lord by the process of unalloyed devotional service."

CC Madhya 22.25, Purport:

It is a fact that every living entity is eternally a servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is forgotten due to the influence of māyā, which induces one to believe in material happiness. Being illusioned by māyā, one thinks that material happiness is the only desirable object. This material consciousness is like a chain around the neck of the conditioned soul. As long as he is bound to that conception, he cannot get out of māyā’s clutches. However, if by Kṛṣṇa's mercy he gets in touch with a bona fide spiritual master, abides by his order and serves him, engaging other conditioned souls in the Lord's service, he then attains liberation and Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa's shelter.

CC Madhya 24.137, Translation:

“"When the living entity is attracted by the material energy, which is separate from Kṛṣṇa, he is overpowered by fear. Because he is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the material energy, his conception of life is reversed. In other words, instead of being the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes Kṛṣṇa"s competitor. This is called viparyayo "smṛtiḥ. To nullify this mistake, one who is actually learned and advanced worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his spiritual master, worshipful Deity and source of life. He thus worships the Lord by the process of unalloyed devotional service."

CC Madhya 25.138, Translation:

“"When the living entity is attracted by the material energy, which is separate from Kṛṣṇa, he is overpowered by fear. Because he is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the material energy, his conception of life is reversed. In other words, instead of being the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes Kṛṣṇa"s competitor. This is called viparyayo "smṛtiḥ. To nullify this mistake, one who is actually learned and advanced worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead as his spiritual master, worshipful Deity and source of life. He thus worships the Lord by the process of unalloyed devotional service."

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 3.251, Purport:

This is practical proof of the strength of devotional service. Because of his full engagement in the service of the Lord, he could not be induced to enjoy māyā. The verdict of the śāstras is that a pure Vaiṣṇava, or devotee of the Lord, never thinks of enjoying the material world, which culminates in sex life. He never thinks himself an enjoyer; instead, he always wants to be enjoyed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the conclusion is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternal, transcendental, beyond the perception of sense gratification and beyond the material qualities. Only if a living entity gives up the false conception that the body is the self and always thinks himself an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa and the Vaiṣṇavas can he surpass the influence of māyā (mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14)). A pure living entity who thus attains the stage of anartha-nivṛtti, cessation of everything unwanted, has nothing to enjoy in the material world. One attains this stage only by properly performing the functions of devotional service. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has written:

CC Antya 4.176, Translation and Purport:

“In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations. Therefore, saying "This is good" and "This is bad" is all a mistake.

Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the Absolute Truth, ever existing with different varieties of energies. When one is absorbed in the illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa and cannot understand Kṛṣṇa, one cannot ascertain what is good for him and what is bad. Conceptions of good and bad are all imaginations or mental speculations. When one forgets that he is an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, he wants to enjoy the material world through different plans. At that time he distinguishes between material plans that are good and those that are bad. Actually, however, they are all false.

CC Antya 4.179, Purport:

It is the duty of a sannyāsī, a person in the renounced order, to be always equipoised, and that is also the duty of a learned man and a Vaiṣṇava. A Vaiṣṇava, a sannyāsī or a learned person has no conception of the material world; in other words, he has no conception of anything materially important. He has no desire to use sandalwood pulp for sense gratification, nor does sense gratification make him hate mud. Acceptance or rejection of material things is not the concern of a sannyāsī, a Vaiṣṇava or a learned person. An advanced devotee has no desire to enjoy or reject anything. His only duty is to accept whatever is favorable for the advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A Vaiṣṇava should be indifferent to material enjoyment and renunciation and should always hanker for the spiritual life of rendering service to the Lord.

CC Antya 14.14, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains that the purport of the word abhimāna, or "self-conception," is that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu thought Himself to be in the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and was always ready to render Kṛṣṇa service in that way. Although Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa Himself, He assumed the complexion and emotions of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and remained in that status. He never assumed the complexion or status of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Of course, Kṛṣṇa wanted to experience the role of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī; that is the original cause of His assuming the body of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore pure Vaiṣṇavas never disturb Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's conception of being Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

Unfortunately, at the present time a group of so-called devotees maintain that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the enjoyer and that they are enjoyers as well. They have actually deviated from devotional service to the Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu manifested Himself to show that cultivation of love for Kṛṣṇa in separation is the easiest way of success for all living entities. Despite this fact, there are some theosophists who declare that because Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, such cultivation is easy for Him but difficult for the living entity and that one can therefore approach Kṛṣṇa in any way he likes.

Page Title:Conception (CC)
Compiler:Mayapur, RupaManjari
Created:21 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=73, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:73