Ādi-līlāChapter 3: The External Reasons for the Appearance of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 3.73

ańgopāńga tīkṣṇa astra prabhura sahite

sei saba astra haya pāṣaṇḍa dalite

SYNONYMS

ańga-upāńga — plenary portions and parts; tīkṣṇa — sharp; astra — weapons; prabhura sahite — along with Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu; sei — these; saba — all; astra — weapons; haya — are; pāṣaṇḍa — the atheists; dalite — to trample.

TRANSLATION

Thus the Lord is equipped with sharp weapons in the form of His parts and plenary portions. All these weapons are competent enough to crush the faithless atheists.

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.

Pāṣaṇḍas, or atheists, cannot understand the pastimes of the Supreme Lord or transcendental loving service to the Lord. They think that devotional service is no better than ordinary fruitive activities (karma). As the Bhagavad-gītā (4.8) confirms, however, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His devotees, saving the righteous and chastising the miscreants (paritrāṇāya sādhūnāḿ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām), always curb these nonsensical atheists. Miscreants always want to deny the Supreme Personality of Godhead and put stumbling blocks in the path of devotional service. The Lord sends His bona fide representatives and appears Himself to curb this nonsense.

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