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Ordinary person (CC)

Expressions researched:
"ordinary person" |"ordinary persons"

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 3.73, Purport:

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.

CC Adi 7.70, Purport:

Due to renunciation, Vedānta study, meditation and the strict regulative principles of their daily routine, Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are certainly in a position to execute pious activities. Thus Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, on account of his piety, could understand that Caitanya Mahāprabhu was not an ordinary person but the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

CC Adi 10.43, Translation and Purport:

The twentieth branch of the Caitanya tree was Haridāsa Ṭhākura. His character was wonderful. He used to chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa 300,000 times a day without fail.

Certainly the chanting of 300,000 holy names of the Lord is wonderful. No ordinary person can chant so many names, nor should one artificially imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura's behavior.

CC Adi 13.42, Purport:

Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection that such feelings of separation as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu enjoyed from the books of Vidyāpati, Caṇḍīdāsa and Jayadeva are especially reserved for persons like Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Svarūpa Dāmodara, who were paramahaṁsas, men of the topmost perfection, because of their advanced spiritual consciousness. Such topics are not to be discussed by ordinary persons imitating the activities of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

CC Adi 17 Summary:

The same Absolute Truth who enjoys as Kṛṣṇa, Śyāmasundara, who plays His flute and dances with the gopīs, sometimes takes birth in a brāhmaṇa family and plays the part of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, accepting the renounced order of life. It appears contradictory that the same Kṛṣṇa accepted the ecstasy of the gopīs, and of course this is very difficult for an ordinary person to understand.

CC Adi 17.23, Purport:

To emphasize something to an ordinary person, one may repeat it three times, just as one might say, "You must do this! You must do this! You must do this!"

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 1.81, Translation:

The gopīs spoke thus: "Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are worshiped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary persons engaged in household affairs."

CC Madhya 2 Summary:

In the Second Chapter of the Madhya-līlā, the author describes the pastimes the Lord performed during the last twelve years of His life. Thus he has also described some of the pastimes of the antya-līlā. Why he has done so is very difficult for an ordinary person to understand.

CC Madhya 2.83, Purport:

An ordinary person cannot understand the transcendental ecstasies in the mode of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

CC Madhya 2.85, Translation and Purport:

If one says that Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta is full of Sanskrit verses and therefore not understandable by a common man, I reply that what I have described are the pastimes of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and that for me to satisfy everyone is not possible.

Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī and one who follows in his footsteps do not have to cater to the public. Their business is simply to satisfy the previous ācāryas and describe the pastimes of the Lord. One who is able to understand can relish this exalted transcendental literature, which is actually not meant for ordinary persons like scholars and literary men.

CC Madhya 3.96, Purport:

The remnants of food left by the spiritual master and similar paramahaṁsas, or pure Vaiṣṇavas, are purifying. When an ordinary person touches such prasādam, his mind is purified, and his mind is raised to the status of a pure brāhmaṇa.

CC Madhya 5.97, Purport:

Because of his advanced devotional position, the younger brāhmaṇa knew that although the Deity of Gopāla appeared to be stone, He was not stone. He was the son of Nanda Mahārāja, Vrajendra-nandana Himself. As such, the Deity could act exactly as the Lord does in His original form as Kṛṣṇa.

Lord Kṛṣṇa was talking to the young brāhmaṇa just to test his knowledge about the arcā-vigraha. In other words, those who have understood the science of Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa's name, form, qualities and so forth—can also talk with the Deity. To an ordinary person, however, the Deity will appear to be made of stone, wood or some other material.

CC Madhya 6.84, Purport:

If Lord Brahmā can make a mistake in understanding Kṛṣṇa, what to speak of ordinary persons, who either misunderstand Kṛṣṇa or falsely present a so-called incarnation of Kṛṣṇa for their own sense gratification.

CC Madhya 6.151, Translation and Purport:

"All these mantras confirm that the Absolute Truth is personal, but the Māyāvādīs, throwing away the direct meaning, interpret the Absolute Truth as impersonal."

As mentioned above, the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.19) states:

apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā
paśyaty acakṣuḥ sa śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ
sa vetti vedyaṁ na ca tasyāsti vettā
tam āhur agryaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam

This Vedic mantra clearly states, puruṣaṁ mahāntam. The word puruṣa means "person." In the Bhagavad-gītā (10.12) Arjuna confirms that this person is Kṛṣṇa when he addresses Kṛṣṇa as puruṣaṁ śāśvatam: "You are the original person." Thus the puruṣaṁ mahāntam mentioned in the verse from the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is Śrī Kṛṣṇa. His hands and legs are not mundane but are completely transcendental. However, when He comes, fools take Him to be an ordinary person (avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11)).

CC Madhya 6.151, Purport:

One who has no Vedic knowledge, who has not studied the Vedas from a bona fide spiritual master, does not know Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he is a mūḍha. Such fools take Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary person (paraṁ bhāvam ajānantaḥ).

CC Madhya 8.75, Translation:

"'Neither those engaged in the self-realization of appreciating the Brahman effulgence of the Lord, nor those engaged in devotional service while accepting the Supreme Personality of Godhead as master, nor those under the clutches of Māyā, thinking the Lord an ordinary person, can understand that certain exalted personalities, after accumulating volumes of pious activities, are now playing with the Lord in friendship as cowherd boys.'"

CC Madhya 9.49, Purport:

Obviously the Vedas did not come from an ordinary person born in this material world.

CC Madhya 13.28, Translation:

Sometimes the car would stand still and not move, even though it was pulled very vigorously. The chariot therefore moved by the will of the Lord, not by the strength of any ordinary person.

CC Madhya 13.136, Translation:

"(The gopīs spoke thus:) 'Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are worshiped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary persons engaged in household affairs.'"

CC Madhya 15.106, Purport:

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says that a person who simply chants the holy name of Kṛṣṇa once becomes perfect and should be regarded as a Vaiṣṇava. This is confirmed by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Upadeśāmṛta (5): kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta. With such faith in the holy name one may begin a life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But an ordinary person cannot chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa with such faith.

CC Madhya 16.72, Purport:

A neophyte devotee or an ordinary person should worship the madhyama-bhāgavata, who is a via medium.

CC Madhya 16.72, Purport:

The association of ordinary persons may destroy the principles of devotional service.

CC Madhya 22.145, Purport:

Sometimes a neophyte devotee or ordinary person thinks highly of speculative knowledge, austerity, penances and renunciation, thinking them the only path for advancement in devotional service.

CC Madhya 25.92, Translation:

"The purport of the Vedānta-sūtra is very difficult for an ordinary person to understand, but Vyāsadeva, out of his causeless mercy, has personally explained the meaning."

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 7.32, Translation:

"'Neither those who are engaged in self-realization, appreciating the Brahman effulgence of the Lord, nor those engaged in devotional service while accepting the Supreme Personality of Godhead as master, nor those who are under the clutches of Māyā, thinking the Lord an ordinary person, can understand that certain exalted personalities, after accumulating volumes of pious activities, are now playing with the Lord in friendship as cowherd boys.'"

Page Title:Ordinary person (CC)
Compiler:MadhuGopaldas, Labangalatika
Created:05 of Mar, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=25, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:25