Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila Chapter 6 Verse 81

SYNONYMS

sishya kahe -- the disciples said; isvara-tattva -- the truth of the Absolute; sadhi -- derive; anumane -- by hypothesis; acarya kahe -- Gopinatha Acarya replied; anumane -- by hypothesis; nahe -- there is not; isvara-jnane -- real knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

TRANSLATION

The disciples of the Bhattacarya said, "We derive knowledge of the Absolute Truth by logical hypothesis."

Gopinatha Acarya replied, "One cannot attain real knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such logical hypothesis and argument."

PURPORT

The Mayavadi philosophers in particular make certain hypotheses about the Absolute Truth. They reason that in the material world we experience that everything is created. If we trace the history of anything, we find a creator. Therefore there must be a creator of this huge cosmic manifestation. By such reasoning they come to the conclusion that a higher power has created this cosmic manifestation. The Mayavadis do not accept this great power to be a person. Their brains cannot accommodate the fact that the huge cosmic manifestation can be created by a person. They doubt this because as soon as they think of a person, they think of a person within the material world with limited potency. Sometimes the Mayavadi philosophers will accept Lord Krishna or Lord Rama as Bhagavan, but they think of the Lord as a person having a material body. The Mayavadis do not understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, has a spiritual body. They think of Krishna as a great personality, a human being, within whom there is the supreme impersonal power, Brahman. Therefore they finally conclude that the impersonal Brahman is the Supreme, not the personality Krishna. This is the basis of Mayavadi philosophy. However, from the sastras we can understand that the Brahman effulgence consists of the bodily rays of Krishna:

yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-anda-koti-

kotishv asesha-vasudhadi-vibhuti-bhinnam

tad brahma nishkalam anantam asesha-bhutam

govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami

[Bs. 5.40]

"I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, the primeval Lord, the effulgence of whose transcendental body is known as the brahmajyoti. That brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life." (Brahma-samhita 5.40)

Mayavadi philosophers study the Vedic literature, but they do not understand that in the last stage of realization the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. They do accept the fact that there is a creator of this cosmic manifestation, but that is anumana (hypothesis). The Mayavadi philosophers' logic is something like seeing smoke on a hill and concluding that there is a fire. When there is a forest fire on a high hill, smoke is first of all visible. Since it is known that smoke is created when there is fire, from seeing the smoke on the hill one can conclude that a fire is burning there. Similarly, from seeing this cosmic manifestation the Mayavadi philosophers conclude that there must be a creator.

The disciples of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya wanted evidence to show that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was actually the creator of the cosmic manifestation. Only then would they accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original cause of creation. Gopinatha Acarya replied that one could not understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by guesswork. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (7.25):

naham prakasah sarvasya yoga-maya-samavritah

mudho 'yam nabhijanati loko mam ajam avyayam

"I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yogamaya]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible." The Supreme Personality of Godhead reserves the right of not being exposed to nondevotees. He can only be understood by bona fide devotees. Lord Krishna says elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gita (18.55), bhaktya mam abhijanati: "One can understand Me only by the devotional process." In the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita (4.3) Lord Krishna says, bhakto 'si me sakha ceti rahasyam hy etad uttamam. Here Lord Krishna informs Arjuna that He is disclosing the secrets of the Bhagavad-gita to him because he is His devotee. Arjuna was not a sannyasi, nor was he a Vedantist or brahmana. He was, however, a devotee of Krishna. The conclusion is that we have to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead from the devotees. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself says, guru-krishna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija. (Cc. Madhya 19.151)

More evidence can be cited to show that without the mercy of a devotee or the mercy of Krishna, one cannot understand what is Krishna and what is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in the next verse.

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