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Imagination (CC)

Expressions researched:
"imaginable" |"imaginary" |"imaginated" |"imagination" |"imaginations" |"imaginative" |"imagine" |"imagined" |"imagines" |"imagining" |"imaginists" |"imaginology"

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.

CC Introduction:

The Brahma-saṁhitā confirms that the spiritual body of the Supreme Lord is so powerful that any part of His body can perform the functions of any other part. We can touch only with our hands or skin, but Kṛṣṇa can touch just by glancing. We can see only with our eyes; we cannot touch or smell with them. Kṛṣṇa, however, can smell and also eat with His eyes. When food is offered to Kṛṣṇa, we do not see Him eating, but He eats simply by glancing at the food. We cannot imagine how things work in the spiritual world, where everything is spiritual. It is not that Kṛṣṇa does not eat or that we imagine that He eats; He actually eats, but His eating is different from ours. Our eating process will be similar to His when we are completely on the spiritual platform. On that platform every part of the body can act on behalf of any other part.

CC Introduction:

Countless universes reside like seeds within the skin pores of Mahā-Viṣṇu, and when He exhales, they are all manifested. In the material world we have no experience of such a thing, but we do experience a perverted reflection in the phenomenon of perspiration. We cannot imagine, however, the duration of one breath of Mahā-Viṣṇu, for within one breath all the universes are created and annihilated. This is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Lord Brahmā lives only for the duration of one breath, and according to our time scale 4,320,000,000 years constitute only twelve hours for Brahmā, and Brahmā lives one hundred of his years. Yet the whole life of Brahmā is contained within one breath of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Thus it is not possible for us to imagine the breathing power of Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is but a partial manifestation of Lord Nityānanda. This the author of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains in the ninth verse.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.53, Purport:

The Lord indicates herein that before the material creation He existed in fullness with all transcendental opulences, including all strength, all wealth, all beauty, all knowledge, all fame and all renunciation. If one thinks of a king, he automatically thinks of his secretaries, ministers, military commanders, palaces and so on. Since a king has such opulences, one can simply try to imagine the opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the Lord says aham, therefore, it is to be understood that He exists with full potency, including all opulences.

CC Adi 2.10, Purport:

The first syllable of the word bhagavān is bha, which means "sustainer" and "protector." The next letter, ga, means "leader," "pusher" and "creator." Va means "dwelling" (all living beings dwell in the Supreme Lord, and the Supreme Lord dwells within the heart of every living being). Combining all these concepts, the word bhagavān carries the import of inconceivable potency in knowledge, energy, strength, opulence, power and influence, devoid of all varieties of inferiority. Without such inconceivable potencies, one cannot fully sustain or protect. Our modern civilization is sustained by scientific arrangements devised by many great scientific brains. We can just imagine, therefore, the gigantic brain whose arrangements sustain the gravity of the unlimited number of planets and satellites and who creates the unlimited space in which they float. If one considers the intelligence needed to orbit man-made satellites, one cannot be fooled into thinking that there is not a gigantic intelligence responsible for the arrangements of the various planetary systems.

CC Adi 3.73, Purport:

The word pāṣaṇḍa is very significant here. One who compares the Supreme Personality of Godhead to the demigods is known as a pāṣaṇḍa. Pāṣaṇḍas try to bring the Supreme Lord down to a mundane level. Sometimes they create their own imaginary God or accept an ordinary person as God and advertise him as equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are so foolish that they present someone as the next incarnation of Lord Caitanya or Kṛṣṇa although his activities are all contradictory to those of a genuine incarnation, and thus they fool the innocent public. One who is intelligent and who studies the characteristics of the Supreme Personality of Godhead with reference to the Vedic context cannot be bewildered by the pāṣaṇḍas.

CC Adi 3.89, Purport:

From the authentic scriptures, however, it is evident that beyond the sky is a covering of seven layers, each ten times thicker than the one preceding it. The covering layers are vast, but with or without coverings, space is limited. Our power to think about space and time is also limited. Time is eternal; we may imagine billions and trillions of years, but that will still be an inadequate estimate of the extent of time. Our imperfect senses, therefore, cannot think of the greatness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, nor can we bring Him within the limitations of time or our thinking power. His position is accordingly described by the word ullaṅghita. He is transcendental to space, time and thought; although He appears within them, He exists transcendentally. Even when the Lord's transcendental existence is disguised by space, time and thought, however, pure devotees of the Supreme Lord can see Him in His personal features beyond space, time and thought. In other words, even though the Lord is not visible to the eyes of ordinary men, those who are beyond the covering layers because of their transcendental devotional service can still see Him.

CC Adi 3.111, Purport:

For example, the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.29) describes that in the abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which is made of cintāmaṇi (touchstone), the Lord, acting as a cowherd boy, is served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. Māyāvādīs think that the devotees have imagined the form of Kṛṣṇa, but the authentic Vedic scriptures have actually described Kṛṣṇa and His various transcendental forms.

The word śruta in śrutekṣita-pathaḥ refers to the Vedas, and īkṣita indicates that the way to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead is by proper study of the Vedic scriptures. One cannot imagine something about God or His form. Such imagination is not accepted by those who are serious about enlightenment. Here Brahmā says that one can know Kṛṣṇa through the path of properly understanding the Vedic texts. If by studying the form, name, qualities, pastimes and paraphernalia of the Supreme Godhead one is attracted to the Lord, he can execute devotional service, and the form of the Lord will be impressed in his heart and remain transcendentally situated there.

CC Adi 4.108, Purport:

Those under the shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu can understand that His mode of worship of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa in separation is the real worship of the Lord. When the feelings of separation become very intense, one attains the stage of meeting Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

So-called devotees like the sahajiyās cheaply imagine they are meeting Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. Such thinking may be useful, but actually meeting Kṛṣṇa is possible through the attitude of separation taught by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

CC Adi 4.187, Purport:

The wonderful characteristics of the gopīs are beyond imagination. They have no desire for personal satisfaction, yet when Kṛṣṇa is happy by seeing them, that happiness of Kṛṣṇa makes the gopīs a million times more happy than Kṛṣṇa Himself.

CC Adi 5 Summary:

Mahā-Viṣṇu again enters every universe as the reservoir of all living entities, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. From Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu expands Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Supersoul of every living entity. Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu also has His own Vaikuṇṭha planet in every universe, where He lives as the Supersoul or supreme controller of the universe. Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu reclines in the midst of the watery portion of the universe and generates the first living creature of the universe, Brahmā. The imaginary universal form is a partial manifestation of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

In the Vaikuṇṭhas there are airplanes, but they make no tumultuous sounds. Material airplanes are not at all safe: they can fall down and crash at any time, for matter is imperfect in every respect. In the spiritual sky, however, the airplanes are also spiritual, and they are spiritually brilliant and bright. These airplanes do not fly business executives, politicians or planning commissions as passengers, nor do they carry cargo or postal bags, for these are all unknown there. These planes are for pleasure trips only, and the residents of Vaikuṇṭha fly in them with their heavenly, beautiful, fairylike consorts. Therefore these airplanes, full of residents of Vaikuṇṭha, both male and female, increase the beauty of the spiritual sky. We cannot imagine how beautiful they are, but their beauty may be compared to the clouds in the sky accompanied by silver branches of electric lightning. The spiritual sky of Vaikuṇṭhaloka is always decorated in this way.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

The velocities of air and light are taken into consideration by the material scientist, but he has no information of the velocity of the mind and intelligence. We have some limited experience of the velocity of the mind because in a moment we can transfer our minds to places hundreds of thousands of miles away. Intelligence is even finer. Finer than intelligence is the soul, which is not matter like mind and intelligence but is spirit, or antimatter. The soul is hundreds of thousands of times finer and more powerful than intelligence. We can thus only imagine the velocity of the soul in its traveling from one planet to another. Needless to say, the soul travels by its own strength and not with the help of any kind of material vehicle.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

As already described, a yogī can go anywhere he desires without mechanical help, for a yogī can place his mind and intelligence within the air circulating inside his body, and by practicing the art of breath control he can mix that air with the air that blows all over the universe outside his body. With the help of this universal air, a yogī can travel to any planet and get a body suitable for its atmosphere. We can understand this process by comparing it to the electronic transmission of radio messages. With radio transmitters, sound waves produced at a certain station can travel all over the earth in seconds. But sound is produced from the ethereal sky, and as already explained, subtler than the ethereal sky is the mind, and finer than the mind is the intelligence. Spirit is still finer than the intelligence, and by nature it is completely different from matter. Thus we can just imagine how quickly the spirit soul can travel through the universal atmosphere.

CC Adi 5.22, Purport:

According to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the above description of the material and spiritual skies is neither imaginary nor utopian. The actual facts are recorded in the Vedic hymns, and Lord Vāsudeva disclosed them to Lord Brahmā when Brahmā satisfied Him. One can achieve the perfection of life only when he has a definite idea of Vaikuṇṭha and the Supreme Godhead. One should always think about and describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for this is recommended in both the Bhagavad-gītā and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which are two authorized commentaries upon the Vedas. Lord Caitanya has made all these subject matters easier for the fallen people of this age to accept, and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta has therefore presented them for the easy understanding of all concerned.

CC Adi 5.41, Purport:

"Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead has nothing to do, He nevertheless acts; although He is always unborn, He nevertheless takes birth; although He is time, fearful to everyone, He flees Mathurā in fear of His enemy to take shelter in a fort; and although He is self-sufficient, He marries 16,000 women. These pastimes seem like bewildering contradictions, even to the most intelligent." Had these activities of the Lord not been a reality, sages would not have been puzzled by them. Therefore such activities should never be considered imaginary. Whenever the Lord desires, His inconceivable energy (yogamāyā) serves Him in creating and performing such pastimes.

CC Adi 5.232, Purport:

Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, predicts in verses 225 and 226 that in the future those who manufacture imaginary methods of worship will gradually give up the worship of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, and although they will call themselves devotees of Lord Caitanya, they will also give up the worship of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and fall down into material activities. For the real worshipers of Lord Caitanya, the ultimate goal of life is to worship Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 6.14-15, Purport:

“Material nature is inert, and as such it cannot be the cause of matter, neither as the material nor as the efficient cause. Seeing the wonderful arrangement and management of the cosmic manifestation generally suggests that a living brain is behind this arrangement, for without a living brain such an arrangement could not exist. One should not imagine that such an arrangement can exist without conscious direction. In our practical experience we never see that inert bricks can themselves construct a big building.

“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 6.14-15, Purport:

Therefore, the main purpose of understanding the Vedas, performing Vedic sacrifices and speculating on the Vedānta-sūtra is to understand Kṛṣṇa. Accepting the impersonalist view of voidness or the nonexistence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead negates all study of the Vedas. Impersonal speculation aims at disproving the conclusion of the Vedas. Therefore any impersonal speculative presentation should be understood to be against the principles of the Vedas, or standard scriptures. Since the speculation of the impersonalists does not follow the principles of the Vedas, their conclusion must be considered to be against the Vedic principles. Anything not supported by the Vedic principles must be considered imaginary and lacking in standard proof. Therefore no impersonalist explanation of any Vedic literature can be accepted.

CC Adi 7.39, Purport:

Theorizing as if devotional service were subject to their mental speculation, both kinds of Māyāvādī impersonalists conclude that the subject matter of bhakti-yoga is a creation of māyā and that Kṛṣṇa, devotional service and the devotee are also māyā. Therefore, as stated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī: "All the Māyāvādīs are offenders to Lord Kṛṣṇa." (CC Madhya 17.129) It is not possible for them to understand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement; therefore we do not value their philosophical conclusions. However expert such quarrelsome impersonalists are in putting forward their so-called logic, we defeat them in every respect and go forward with our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Their imaginative mental speculation cannot deter the progress of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is completely spiritual and is never under the control of such Māyāvādīs.

CC Adi 7.101, Purport:

There are other Vedānta commentaries, written by Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, none of whom follow Śrī Śaṅkarācārya or accept the imaginative commentary of his school. Their commentaries are based on the philosophy of duality. Monist philosophers like Śaṅkarācārya and his followers want to establish that God and the living entity are one, and instead of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead they present themselves as God. They want to be worshiped as God by others. Such persons do not accept the philosophies of the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas, which are known as śuddhādvaita (purified monism), śuddha-dvaita (purified dualism), viśiṣṭādvaita (specific monism), dvaitādvaita (monism and dualism) and acintya-bhedābheda (inconceivable oneness and difference). Māyāvādīs do not discuss these philosophies, for they are firmly convinced of their own philosophy of kevalādvaita, exclusive monism.

CC Adi 7.110, Purport:

"The Māyāvāda philosophy," Lord Śiva informed his wife Pārvatī, "is impious (asac chāstra). It is covered Buddhism. My dear Pārvatī, in Kali-yuga I assume the form of a brāhmaṇa and teach this imagined Māyāvāda philosophy. In order to cheat the atheists, I describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be without form and without qualities. Similarly, in explaining Vedānta I describe the same Māyāvāda philosophy in order to mislead the entire population toward atheism by denying the personal form of the Lord." In the Śiva Purāṇa the Supreme Personality of Godhead told Lord Śiva:

dvāparādau yuge bhūtvā kalayā mānuṣādiṣu
svāgamaiḥ kalpitais tvaṁ ca janān mad-vimukhān kuru

"In Kali-yuga, mislead the people in general by propounding imaginary meanings for the Vedas to bewilder them." These are the descriptions of the Purāṇas.

CC Adi 7.110, Purport:

"In Kali-yuga, mislead the people in general by propounding imaginary meanings for the Vedas to bewilder them." These are the descriptions of the Purāṇas.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments that mukhya-vṛtti ("the direct meaning") is abhidhā-vṛtti, or the meaning that one can understand immediately from the statements of dictionaries, whereas gauṇa-vṛtti ("the indirect meaning") is a meaning that one imagines without consulting the dictionary. For example, one politician has said that Kurukṣetra refers to the body, but in the dictionary there is no such definition. Therefore this imaginary meaning is gauṇa-vṛtti, whereas the direct meaning found in the dictionary is mukhya-vṛtti or abhidhā-vṛtti. This is the distinction between the two. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends that one understand the Vedic literature in terms of abhidhā-vṛtti, and the gauṇa-vṛtti He rejects. Sometimes, however, as a matter of necessity, the Vedic literature is described in terms of the lakṣaṇā-vṛtti or gauṇa-vṛtti, but one should not accept such explanations as permanent truths.

CC Adi 7.113, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, therefore, explains in this verse that Kṛṣṇa—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth—has a spiritual body that is distinct from material bodies, and thus His name, abode, entourage and qualities are all spiritual. The material mode of goodness has nothing to do with spiritual varieties. Māyāvādī philosophers, however, cannot clearly understand spiritual varieties; therefore they imagine a negation of the material world to be the spiritual world. The material qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance cannot act in the spiritual world, which is therefore called nirguṇa, as clearly indicated in the Bhagavad-gītā (trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna). The material world is a manifestation of the three modes of material nature, but one has to become free from these modes to come to the spiritual world, where their influence is completely absent. Now Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu will disassociate Lord Śiva from Māyāvāda philosophy in the following verse.

CC Adi 7.122, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura comments that if one does not clearly understand the meaning of pariṇāma-vāda, or transformation of energy, one is sure to misunderstand the truth regarding this material cosmic manifestation and the living entities. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (6.8.4) it is said, san-mūlāḥ saumyemāḥ prajāḥ sad-āyatanāḥ sat-pratiṣṭhāḥ. The material world and the living entities are separate beings, and they are eternally true, not false. Śaṅkarācārya, however, unnecessarily fearing that by pariṇāma-vāda (transformation of energy) Brahman would be transformed (vikārī), has imagined both the material world and the living entities to be false and to have no individuality. By word jugglery he has tried to prove that the individual identities of the living entities and the material world are illusory, and he has cited the examples of mistaking a rope for a snake or an oyster shell for gold. Thus he has most abominably cheated people in general.

CC Adi 7.122, Purport:

How the Supreme Personality of Godhead remains as He is, never changing, is explained in the Īśopaniṣad: pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśo Invocation). God is complete. 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 7.128, Purport:

Aside from oṁkāra, none of the words uttered by the followers of Śaṅkarācārya can be considered the mahā-vākya. They are merely passing remarks. Śaṅkarācārya, however, has never stressed chanting of the mahā-vākya oṁkāra; he has accepted only tat tvam asi as the mahā-vākya. Imagining the living entity to be God, he has misrepresented all the mantras of the Vedānta-sūtra with the motive of proving that there is no separate existence of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. This is similar to the politician's attempt to prove nonviolence from the Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa is violent to demons, and to attempt to prove that Kṛṣṇa is not violent is ultimately to deny Kṛṣṇa. As such explanations of the Bhagavad-gītā are absurd, so also is Śaṅkarācārya's explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra, and no sane and reasonable man will accept it. At present, however, the Vedānta-sūtra is misrepresented not only by the so-called Vedāntīs but also by other unscrupulous persons who are so degraded that they even recommend that sannyāsīs eat meat, fish and eggs. In this way, the so-called followers of Śaṅkara, the impersonalist Māyāvādīs, are sinking lower and lower.

CC Adi 7.133, Translation:

"To prove their philosophy, the members of the Māyāvāda school have given up the real, easily understood meaning of the Vedic literature and introduced indirect meanings based on their imaginative powers."

CC Adi 7.136, Translation:

“We know that all this word jugglery springs from the imagination of Śaṅkarācārya, and yet because we belong to his sect, we accept it although it does not satisfy us.

CC Adi 7.168, Purport:

In such chants there are also many discrepancies, which need not be discussed here. Strictly speaking, when chanting the names of the Pañca-tattva, one should fully offer his obeisances: śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. By such chanting one is blessed with the competency to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra without offense. When chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one should also chant it fully: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. One should not foolishly adopt any of the slogans concocted by imaginative devotees. If one actually wants to derive the effects of chanting, one must strictly follow the great ācāryas. This is confirmed in the Mahābhārata: mahā-jano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ. “The real path of progress is that which is traversed by great ācāryas and authorities.

CC Adi 8.15, Purport:

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? Logic and argument are very poor in spiritual strength and always imperfect when applied to spiritual understanding. By putting forward mundane logic one frequently comes to the wrong conclusion regarding the Absolute Truth, and as a result of such a conclusion one may fall down to accept a body like that of a jackal.

CC Adi 8.24, Purport:

The third offense at the lotus feet of the holy name, which is called guror avajñā, is to consider the spiritual master to be material and therefore to envy his exalted position. The fourth offense (śruti-śāstra-nindanam) is to blaspheme Vedic literatures such as the four Vedas and the Purāṇas. The fifth offense (artha-vādaḥ) is to consider the glories of the holy name to be exaggerations. Similarly, the sixth offense (hari-nāmni kalpanam) is to consider the holy name of the Lord to be imaginary.

CC Adi 8.32, Purport:

One must be a submissive student of the Six Gosvāmīs, from Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī to Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. Not following their instructions but imagining how to worship Gaurasundara and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is a great offense, as a result of which one clears a path to hell. If one neglects the instructions of the Six Gosvāmīs and yet becomes a so-called devotee of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, he merely criticizes the real devotees of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. As a result of speculation, he considers Gaurasundara to be an ordinary devotee and therefore cannot make progress in serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 10.11, Purport:

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has said, anya-devāśraya nāi, tomāre kahinu bhāi, ei bhakti parama-kāraṇa: if one wants to become a pure, staunch devotee, one should not take shelter of any of the demigods or -goddesses. Foolish Māyāvādīs say that worshiping demigods is as good as worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but that is not a fact. This philosophy misleads people to atheism. One who has no idea what God actually is thinks that any form he imagines or any rascal he accepts can be God. This acceptance of cheap gods or incarnations of God is actually atheism. It is to be concluded, therefore, that those who worship demigods or self-proclaimed incarnations of God are all atheists. They have lost their knowledge, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20): kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ prapadyante ’nya-devatāḥ. "Those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods."

CC Adi 13.41, Purport:

In this connection one should refer to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s soliloquy after meeting Uddhava in Vṛndāvana. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu presented a similar picture of such ecstatic imaginary talking. Full of jealousy and madness symptomizing neglect by Kṛṣṇa, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, criticizing a bumblebee, talked just like a madwoman. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in the last days of His pastimes, exhibited all the symptoms of such ecstasy. In this connection one should refer to the Fourth Chapter of the Ādi-līlā, verses 107 and 108.

CC Adi 16.85, Translation:

“You have achieved poetic imagination and ingenuity by the grace of your worshipable demigod. But poetry not well reviewed is certainly subject to criticism.

CC Adi 17.105, Purport:

As there are many planets within the material world, there are many millions of planets, called Vaikuṇṭhalokas, in the spiritual world. All these Vaikuṇṭhalokas, or superior planets, rest on the effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi- (Bs. 5.40)), the Brahman effulgence emanating from the body of the Supreme Lord creates innumerable planets in both the spiritual and material worlds; thus these planets are creations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The astrologer saw Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to be the very same Personality of Godhead. We can just imagine how learned he was, yet he was traveling door to door, just like an ordinary beggar, for the highest benefit of human society.

CC Adi 17.170, Translation:

“I know that our scriptures are full of imagination and mistaken ideas, yet because I am a Muslim I accept them for the sake of my community, despite their insufficient support.

CC Adi 17.212, Purport:

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 1.43, Purport:

Unmotivated devotional service is highly praised, and an explanation is given of how each devotee can achieve the platform of unmotivated service by association with other devotees. There is a discussion of the differences between the mahā-bhāgavata and the ordinary devotee, the symptoms of philosophical speculation, the symptoms of self-worship, or ahaṅgrahopāsanā, the symptoms of devotional service, the symptoms of imaginary perfection, the acceptance of regulative principles, service to the spiritual master, the mahā-bhāgavata (liberated devotee) and service to him, service to Vaiṣṇavas in general, the principles of hearing, chanting, remembering and serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offenses in worship, offensive effects, prayers, engaging oneself as an eternal servant of the Lord, making friendships with the Lord and surrendering everything for His pleasure. There is also a discussion of rāgānugā-bhakti (spontaneous love of Godhead), of the specific purpose of becoming a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and a comparative study of other perfectional stages.

CC Madhya 1.87, Purport:

In the highest transcendental ecstasy there is a feeling of being enchanted in the presence of the enchanter. When the enchanter and the enchanted become separated, mohana, or bewilderment, occurs. When so bewildered due to separation, one becomes stunned, and at that time all the bodily symptoms of transcendental ecstasy are manifested. When they are manifest, one appears inconceivably crazy. This is called transcendental madness. In this state, there is imaginative discourse, and one experiences emotions like those of a madman. The madness of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was explained to Kṛṣṇa by Uddhava, who said, "My dear Kṛṣṇa, because of extreme feelings of separation from You, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is sometimes making Her bed in the groves of the forest, sometimes rebuking a bluish cloud, and sometimes wandering about in the dense darkness of the forest. Thus She has become like a crazy woman."

CC Madhya 2.47, Purport:

In this connection, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says that the lovable Supreme Lord is the supreme shelter. The Lord is the supreme subject, and the devotees are the object. The coming together of a subject and object is called ālambana. The object hears, and the subject plays the flute. That the object cannot see the moonlike face of Kṛṣṇa and has no eagerness to see Him is the sign of being without ālambana. Externally imagining such a thing simply satisfies one's lusty desires, and thus one lives without purpose.

CC Madhya 4.61, Purport:

The ingredients of pañca-gavya are milk, yogurt, ghee (clarified butter), cow urine and cow dung. All these items come from the cow; therefore we can just imagine how important the cow is, since its urine and stool are required for bathing the Deity. The pañcāmṛta consists of five kinds of nectar—yogurt, milk, ghee, honey and sugar. The major portion of this preparation also comes from the cow. To make it more palatable, sugar and honey are added.

CC Madhya 6.130, Purport:

The factual meaning of the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra is as clear as sunshine. The Māyāvādī philosophers simply try to cover the sunshine with the clouds of interpretations imagined by Śaṅkarācārya and his followers.

CC Madhya 6.132, Purport:

This is typical of all Māyāvādīs or atheists who interpret the meaning of Vedic literature in their own imaginative way. The real purpose of such foolish people is to impose the impersonalist conclusion on all Vedic literature. The Māyāvādī atheists also interpret the Bhagavad-gītā. In every verse of Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly stated that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In every verse Vyāsadeva says, śrī-bhagavān uvāca, "the Supreme Personality of Godhead said," or "the Blessed Lord said." It is clearly stated that the Blessed Lord is the Supreme Person, but Māyāvādī atheists still try to prove that the Absolute Truth is impersonal. In order to present their false, imaginary meanings, they must adopt so much word jugglery and grammatical interpretation that they finally become ludicrous. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu remarked that no one should hear the Māyāvādī commentaries or purports to any Vedic literature.

CC Madhya 6.134, Translation:

“For each sūtra the direct meaning must be accepted without interpretation. However, you simply abandon the direct meaning and proceed with your imaginative interpretation.

CC Madhya 6.137, Translation and Purport:

"The Vedic statements are self-evident. Whatever is stated there must be accepted. If we interpret according to our own imagination, the authority of the Vedas is immediately lost."

Out of four main types of evidence—direct perception, hypothesis, historical reference and the Vedas—Vedic evidence is accepted as the foremost. If we want to interpret the Vedic version, we must imagine an interpretation according to what we want to do. First of all, we set forth such an interpretation as a suggestion or hypothesis. As such, it is not actually true, and the self-evident proof is lost.

CC Madhya 6.167, Purport:

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. Such living entities are subjected to the punishments of Yamarāja. Only the devotees, who are always engaged in the service of the Lord, are exempt from the jurisdiction of Yamarāja.

CC Madhya 6.171, Purport:

When the atheistic philosophers or the Māyāvādīs, being unable to understand the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, imagine an impersonal void, their imagination is only the counterpart of materialistic thinking. Within the material world, there is nothing inconceivable. High-thinking philosophers and scientists can tackle the material energy, but not being able to understand the spiritual energy, they can simply imagine an inactive state, such as the impersonal Brahman. This is simply the negative side of material life. By such imperfect knowledge, the Māyāvādī philosophers conclude that the cosmic manifestation is a transformation of the Supreme. Thus they must necessarily also accept the theory of the illusion of the Supreme (vivarta-vāda). However, if we accept the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, we can understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead can appear within this material world without being touched or contaminated by the three modes of material nature.

CC Madhya 6.176, Translation:

Thus Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu criticized Śaṅkarācārya's Śārīraka-bhāṣya as imaginary, and He pointed out hundreds of faults in it. To defend Śaṅkarācārya, however, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya presented unlimited opposition.

CC Madhya 6.179, Translation:

If one tries to explain the Vedic literature in a different way, he is indulging in imagination. Any interpretation of the self-evident Vedic version is simply imaginary.

CC Madhya 6.179, Purport:

When the devotee executes devotional service properly, he attains the highest perfection of life—love of Godhead: sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). The ultimate goal of understanding the Vedas is to be elevated to the platform of rendering loving service to the Lord. The Māyāvādī philosophers, however, consider the central point of relationship to be the impersonal Brahman, the function of the living entity to be the acquisition of knowledge of Brahman, resulting in detachment from material activity, and the ultimate goal of life to be liberation, or merging into the existence of the Supreme. All of this, however, is simply due to the imagination of the conditioned soul. It simply opposes him to material activities. One should always remember that all Vedic literatures are self-evident. No one is allowed to interpret the Vedic verses. If one does so, he indulges in imagination, and that has no value.

CC Madhya 6.180, Translation:

“Actually there is no fault on the part of Śaṅkarācārya. He simply carried out the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He had to imagine some kind of interpretation, and therefore he presented a kind of Vedic literature that is full of atheism.

CC Madhya 6.181, Translation:

“(Addressing Lord Śiva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead said:) "Please make the general populace averse to Me by imagining your own interpretation of the Vedas. Also, cover Me in such a way that people will take more interest in advancing material civilization just to propagate a population bereft of spiritual knowledge."

CC Madhya 8.80, Translation:

"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’

CC Madhya 8.116, Translation:

“Since Kṛṣṇa's lusty desires were not satisfied even in the midst of hundreds of thousands of gopīs and He was thus searching after Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, we can easily imagine how transcendentally qualified She is.”

CC Madhya 8.193, Purport:

Since material philosophers are situated in the material conception of life, they are unable to realize the spiritual prema-vilāsa-vivarta. They cannot accommodate an elephant upon a dish. Similarly, mundane speculators cannot capture the spiritual elephant within their limited conception. It is just like a frog's trying to measure the Atlantic Ocean by imagining it so many times larger than his well. Materialistic philosophers and sahajiyās cannot understand the talks between Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu concerning the pastimes of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The only tendency of the impersonalists or the prākṛta-sahajiyās is to face the platform of impersonalism. They cannot understand spiritual variegatedness. Consequently, when Rāmānanda Rāya attempted to sing his own verses, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu stopped him by covering his mouth with His own hand.

CC Madhya 8.232, Translation:

"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’

CC Madhya 9.49, Purport:

The Buddhists argue that the world is false, but this is not valid. The world is temporary, but it is not false. As long as we have the body, we must suffer the pleasures and pains of the body, even though we are not the body. We may not take these pleasures and pains very seriously, but they are factual nonetheless. We cannot actually say that they are false. If the bodily pains and pleasures were false, the creation would be false also, and consequently no one would take very much interest in it. The conclusion is that the material creation is not false or imaginary, but it is temporary.

CC Madhya 9.121, Translation:

"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma exactly resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’

CC Madhya 9.360, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura remarks, "The impersonalists imagine some forms of the Absolute Truth through the direct perception of their senses. The impersonalists worship such imaginary forms, but neither Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam nor Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepts this sense gratificatory worship to be of any spiritual significance." The Māyāvādīs imagine themselves to be the Supreme. They imagine that the Supreme has no personal form and that all His forms are imaginary like the will-o’-the-wisp or a flower in the sky. Both Māyāvādīs and those who imagine forms of God are misguided. According to them, worship of the Deity or any other form of the Lord is a result of the conditioned soul's illusion. However, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms the conclusion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on the strength of His philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. That philosophy holds that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. That is to say, there is unity in diversity. In this way Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu proved the impotence of fruitive workers, speculative empiric philosophers and mystic yogīs. The realization of such men is simply a waste of time and energy.

CC Madhya 9.360, Purport:

To set the example, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally visited temples in various holy places. Wherever He visited, He immediately exhibited His ecstatic love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When a Vaiṣṇava visits the temple of a demigod, his vision of that demigod is different from the vision of the impersonalists and Māyāvādīs. The Brahma-saṁhitā supports this. A Vaiṣṇava's visit to the temple of Lord Śiva, for example, is different from a nondevotee's visit. The nondevotee considers the deity of Lord Śiva an imaginary form because he ultimately thinks that the Supreme Absolute Truth is void. However, a Vaiṣṇava sees Lord Śiva as being simultaneously one with and different from the Supreme Lord. In this regard, the example of milk and yogurt is given. Yogurt is actually nothing but milk, but at the same time it is not milk. It is simultaneously one with milk yet different from it.

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.

CC Madhya 12.61, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not regard the son of Mahārāja Pratāparudra with the idea that he was a materialist, being the son of a materialist. Nor did He consider Himself the enjoyer. Māyāvādī philosophers make a great mistake by assuming that the sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), the transcendental form of the Lord, is like a material body. However, there is no material contamination in transcendence, nor is there any possibility of imagining a spirituality in matter. One cannot accept matter as spirit. As indicated by the technical words bhauma ijya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13), materialistic Māyāvādīs imagine the form of God in matter, although according to their imagination, God is ultimately formless. This is simply mental speculation. Even though Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He placed Himself in the position of a gopī. He also accepted the King's son directly as the son of Mahārāja Nanda, Vrajendra-nandana Hari.

CC Madhya 15.277, Purport:

Unless a brāhmaṇa transcends such contamination and approaches the platform of unalloyed devotional service, he cannot be accepted as a Vaiṣṇava. An impersonalist may be aware of the impersonal Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth, but his activities are on the impersonal platform. Sometimes he imagines a form of the Lord (saguṇa-upāsanā), but such an attempt is never successful in helping one attain complete realization. The impersonalist may consider himself a brāhmaṇa and may be situated in the mode of goodness, but nonetheless he is conditioned by one of the modes of material nature. This means that he is not yet liberated, for liberation cannot be attained unless one is completely free from the modes. In any case, the Māyāvāda philosophy keeps one conditioned. If one becomes a Vaiṣṇava through proper initiation, he automatically becomes a brāhmaṇa. There is no doubt about it.

CC Madhya 15.277, Purport:

We can actually see that in this Age of Kali many so-called brāhmaṇas are envious of Vaiṣṇavas. The Kali-contaminated brāhmaṇas consider Deity worship to be imaginative: arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. Such a contaminated brāhmaṇa may superficially imagine a form of the Lord, but actually he considers the Deity in the temple to be made of stone or wood. Similarly, such a contaminated brāhmaṇa considers the guru to be an ordinary human being, and he objects when a Vaiṣṇava is created by the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Many so-called brāhmaṇas attempt to fight us, saying, "How can you create a brāhmaṇa out of a European or American? A brāhmaṇa can be born only in a brāhmaṇa family." They do not consider that this is never stated in any revealed scripture. Lord Kṛṣṇa specifically states in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.13), cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ: "According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me."

CC Madhya 17.95, Purport:

The word prārabdhe ("past deeds") is important in this verse. Since Candraśekhara was a devotee, he was always eager to hear about Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental pastimes. Most of the inhabitants of Benares were and are impersonalists, worshipers of Lord Śiva and followers of the pañcopāsanā method. The impersonalists imagine some form of the impersonal Brahman, and to facilitate meditation they concentrate upon the forms of Viṣṇu, Śiva, Gaṇeśa, Sūrya and goddess Durgā. Actually these pañcopāsakas are not devotees of anyone. As it is said, to be a servant of everyone is to be a servant of no one. Vārāṇasī, or Kāśī, is the chief holy place of pilgrimage for impersonalists, and it is not at all suitable for devotees. A Vaiṣṇava likes to live in a viṣṇu-tīrtha, a place where Lord Viṣṇu's temples are present.

CC Madhya 17.172, Translation:

“Upon seeing Your ecstatic love, I can just imagine that You must have some relationship with Mādhavendra Purī. This is my understanding.

CC Madhya 18.109, Purport:

This is the viewpoint of Māyāvāda philosophy. Māyāvāda philosophy supports the impersonalist view that Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has no form. One can imagine impersonal Brahman in any form—as Viṣṇu, Lord Śiva, Vivasvān, Gaṇeśa or Devī Durgā. According to the Māyāvāda philosophy, when one becomes a sannyāsī he is to be considered a moving Nārāyaṇa. Māyāvāda philosophy holds that the real Nārāyaṇa does not move because, being impersonal, He has no legs. Thus according to Māyāvāda philosophy, whoever becomes a sannyāsī declares himself Nārāyaṇa. Foolish people accept such ordinary human beings as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is called vivarta-vāda.

CC Madhya 18.120, Translation:

“Indeed, Your characteristics are uncommon and beyond the imagination of an ordinary living being. Simply by seeing You, the entire universe becomes mad with ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.

CC Madhya 20.145, Translation:

"There are many types of Vedic literatures and supplementary Purāṇas. In each of them there are particular demigods who are spoken of as the chief demigods. This is just to create an illusion for moving and nonmoving living entities. Let them perpetually engage in such imaginations. However, when one analytically studies all these Vedic literatures collectively, he comes to the conclusion that Lord Viṣṇu is the one and only Supreme Personality of Godhead."

CC Madhya 20.323, Translation:

The number of manvantara-avatāras for only one universe has been given. One can only imagine how many manvantara-avatāras exist in the innumerable universes. And all these universes and Brahmās exist only during one exhalation of Mahā-Viṣṇu.

CC Madhya 20.345, Purport:

This verse is quoted from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (12.3.52). At the present moment in Kali-yuga there are many false meditators who concoct some imaginary form and try to meditate upon it. It has become fashionable to meditate, but people know nothing about the object of meditation. That is explained here. Yad dhyāyato viṣṇum. One has to meditate upon Lord Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa. Without referring to the śāstras, so-called meditators aim at impersonal objects. Lord Kṛṣṇa has condemned them in the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5):

kleśo ’dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām
avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate

"For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied." Not knowing how to meditate, foolish people simply suffer, and there is no benefit derived from their spiritual activities.

CC Madhya 21.8, Translation:

“Each Vaikuṇṭha planet is full of spiritual bliss, complete opulence and space, and each is inhabited by incarnations. If Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva cannot estimate the length and breadth of the spiritual sky and the Vaikuṇṭha planets, how can ordinary living entities begin to imagine them?

CC Madhya 23.60, Purport:

Imaginative mad talks, known as citra-jalpa, can be divided into ten categories—prajalpa, parijalpa, vijalpa, ujjalpa, sañjalpa, avajalpa, abhijalpa, ājalpa, pratijalpa and sujalpa. There are no English equivalents for these different features of jalpa (imaginative talk).

CC Madhya 23.117-118, Purport:

Actually these are not factual but are related for the bewilderment of the asuras, who want to prove that Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary human being. They are false in the sense that these pastimes are not eternal, nor are they transcendental or spiritual. There are many people who are by nature averse to the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. Such people are called asuras. They have mistaken ideas about Kṛṣṇa. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the asuras are given a chance to forget Kṛṣṇa more and more, birth after birth. Thus they make their appearance in a family of asuras and continue this process, being kept in bewilderment about Kṛṣṇa. Asuras in the dress of sannyāsīs even explain the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in different ways according to their own imaginations. Thus they continue to remain asuras birth after birth.

CC Madhya 24.249, Purport:

Although the hunter Mṛgāri was uncivilized, he still had to suffer the results of his sinful activities. However, if a civilized man kills animals regularly in a slaughterhouse to maintain his so-called civilization, using scientific methods and machines to kill animals, one cannot even estimate the suffering awaiting him. So-called civilized people consider themselves very advanced in education, but they do not know about the stringent laws of nature. According to nature's law, it is a life for a life. We can hardly imagine the sufferings of one who maintains a slaughterhouse. He endures suffering not only in this life, but in his next life also. It is said that a hunter, murderer or killer is advised not to live and not to die. If he lives, he accumulates even more sins, which bring about more suffering in a future life. He is advised not to die because his dying means that he immediately begins to endure more suffering. Therefore he is advised not to live and not to die.

CC Madhya 24.313, Translation:

“(Lord Śiva said:) "I may know; Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, may know; and Vyāsadeva may know or may not know Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. On the whole, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the spotless Purāṇa, can be learned only through devotional service, not by material intelligence, speculative methods or imaginary commentaries."

CC Madhya 25.26, Translation:

“Giving up the direct meaning of the Vedānta-sūtra and the Upaniṣads, Śaṅkarācārya imagines some other interpretation.

CC Madhya 25.27, Translation:

“All the interpretations of Śaṅkarācārya are imaginary. Such imaginary interpretations are verbally accepted by learned scholars, but they do not appeal to the heart.

CC Madhya 25.42, Translation and Purport:

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has given his interpretation and imaginary meaning. It does not actually appeal to the mind of any sane man. He has done this to convince the atheists and bring them under his control.

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya's propaganda opposed the atheistic philosophy of Buddha. Lord Buddha's intention was to stop atheists from committing the sin of killing animals. Atheists cannot understand God; therefore Lord Buddha appeared and spread the philosophy of nonviolence to keep the atheists from killing animals. Unless one is free from the sin of animal-killing, he cannot understand religion or God. Although Lord Buddha was an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, he did not speak about God, for the people were unable to understand. He simply wanted to stop animal-killing. Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya wanted to establish the predominance of one's spiritual identity; therefore he wanted to convert the atheists through an imaginary interpretation of the Vedic literatures. These are the secrets of the ācāryas. Sometimes they conceal the real purport of the Vedas and explain the Vedas in a different way. Sometimes they enunciate a different theory just to bring the atheists under their control. Thus it is said that Śaṅkara's philosophy is for pāṣaṇḍas, atheists.

CC Madhya 25.44, Translation:

“The conclusion is that the import of the Vedānta-sūtra is covered by the imaginary explanation of Śaṅkarācārya. Whatever Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said is perfectly true.

CC Madhya 25.56, Purport:

Such philosophers do not accept the Vedic principle of bhakti-yoga. Instead, they give stress to following one's prescribed duty. (2) Atheistic Sāṅkhya philosophers like Kapila analyze the material elements very scrutinizingly and thereby come to the conclusion that material nature is the cause of everything. They do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the cause of all causes. (3) Nyāya philosophers like Gautama and Kaṇāda have accepted a combination of atoms as the original cause of the creation. (4) Māyāvādī philosophers say that everything is an illusion. Headed by philosophers like Aṣṭāvakra, they stress the impersonal Brahman effulgence as the cause of everything. (5) Philosophers following the precepts of Patañjali practice rāja-yoga. They imagine a form of the Absolute Truth within many forms. That is their process of self-realization.

CC Madhya 25.88, Translation:

Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī said, “We can understand the faults You have pointed out in the Māyāvāda philosophy. All the explanations given by Śaṅkarācārya are imaginary.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 2.95, Purport:

The philosophers known as kevalādvaita-vādīs generally occupy themselves with hearing the Śārīraka-bhāṣya, a commentary by Śaṅkarācārya advocating that one impersonally consider oneself the Supreme Lord. Such Māyāvāda philosophical commentaries upon the Vedānta-sūtra are simply imaginary, but there are other commentaries on the Vedānta-sūtra. The commentary by Śrīla Rāmānujācārya, known as Śrī-bhāṣya, establishes the viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda philosophy. Similarly, in the Brahma-sampradāya, Madhvācārya's Pūrṇaprajña-bhāṣya establishes śuddha-dvaita-vāda. In the Kumāra-sampradāya, or Nimbārka-sampradāya, Śrī Nimbārka establishes the philosophy of dvaitādvaita-vāda in the Pārijāta-saurabha-bhāṣya. And in the Viṣṇu-svāmi-sampradāya, or Rudra-sampradāya, which comes from Lord Śiva, Viṣṇu Svāmī has written a commentary called Sarvajña-bhāṣya, which establishes śuddhādvaita-vāda.

CC Antya 2.99, Translation:

"The Māyāvādī philosopher tries to establish that the living entity is only imaginary and that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is under the influence of māyā. Hearing this kind of commentary breaks the heart and life of a devotee."

CC Antya 2.99, Purport:

Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī wanted to impress upon Bhagavān Ācārya that even though someone firmly fixed in devotion to Kṛṣṇa's service might not be deviated by hearing the Māyāvāda bhāṣya, that bhāṣya is nevertheless full of impersonal words and ideas—such as Brahman—which represent knowledge but which are impersonal. The Māyāvādīs say that the world created by māyā is false and that actually there is no living entity but only one spiritual effulgence. They further say that God is imaginary, that people think of God only because of ignorance, and that when the Supreme Absolute Truth is befooled by the external energy, māyā, He becomes a jīva, or living entity. Upon hearing all these nonsensical ideas from the nondevotee, a devotee is greatly afflicted, as if his heart and soul were broken.

CC Antya 4.176, Purport:

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 4.221, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura writes, "The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa was originally compiled by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī. Later, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī produced a shortened version of it and added the Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā. In the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa there are so many quotations from the sātvata scriptures that sometimes it is inquired how the atheistic smārtas can refuse to accept them and instead imagine some other opinions. What is recorded in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa strictly follows the Vedic scriptures and is certainly pure, but the attitude of the karmīs is always one of giving up the conclusion of pure Vaiṣṇava understanding. Because the karmīs are very much attached to the world and material activities, they always try to establish atheistic principles that oppose the understanding of the Vaiṣṇavas."

CC Antya 7.29, Translation:

"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’

CC Antya 8.50, Purport:

Rāmacandra Purī could find no faults in the character of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, for He is situated in a transcendental position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Ants are generally found everywhere, but when Rāmacandra Purī saw ants crawling in the abode of the Lord, he took it for granted that they must have been there because Caitanya Mahāprabhu had been eating sweetmeats. He thus discovered imaginary faults in the Lord and then left.

CC Antya 8.51, Translation:

Ants generally crawl about here, there and everywhere, but Rāmacandra Purī, imagining faults, criticized Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by alleging that there had been sweetmeats in His room.

CC Antya 14.7, Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's transcendental feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa and His consequent madness are not at all understandable by a person on the material platform. Nonetheless, a so-called party of devotees named nadīyā-nāgarī has sprung up and introduced the worship of Viṣṇupriyā. This certainly indicates their ignorance concerning Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's pastimes. In the opinion of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, such worship is a product of the imagination. Many other methods of worshiping Caitanya Mahāprabhu have also been introduced, but they have all been rejected by stalwart devotees like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

CC Antya 16.131, Translation:

“Even after much prayer, the demigods themselves cannot obtain even a small portion of the remnants of such food. Just imagine the pride of those remnants! Only a person who has acted piously for many, many births and has thus become a devotee can obtain the remnants of such food.

CC Antya 16.145, Translation:

"Although the nectar of Kṛṣṇa"s lips is the absolute property of the gopīs, the flute, which is just an insignificant stick, is forcibly drinking that nectar and loudly inviting the gopīs to come drink it also. Just imagine the strength of the flute's austerities and good fortune! Even great devotees drink the nectar of Kṛṣṇa's lips after the flute has done so.

Page Title:Imagination (CC)
Compiler:SunitaS, Mayapur
Created:27 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=95, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:95