Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 12.35

īśvarera dainya kari' kariyāche bhikṣā

ataeva daṇḍa kari' karāiba śikṣā

SYNONYMS

īśvarera — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; dainya — poverty; kari' — establishing; kariyāche — has done; bhikṣā — begging; ataeva — therefore; daṇḍa — punishment; kari' — giving him; karāiba — shall cause; śikṣā — instruction.

TRANSLATION

"But he has made the incarnation of Godhead a poverty-stricken beggar. Therefore I shall punish him in order to correct him."

PURPORT

To describe a man as an incarnation of God, or Nārāyaṇa, and at the same time present him as poverty-stricken is contradictory, and it is the greatest offense. The Māyāvādī philosophers, engaged in the missionary work of spoiling the Vedic culture by preaching that everyone is God, describe a poverty-stricken man as daridra-nārāyaṇa, or "poor Nārāyaṇa." Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu never accepted such foolish and unauthorized ideas. He strictly warned, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa: "Anyone who follows the principles of Māyāvāda philosophy is certainly doomed." Such a fool needs to be reformed by punishment.

Although it is contradictory to say that the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His incarnation is poverty-stricken, we find in the revealed scriptures that when the Lord incarnated as Vāmana, He begged some land from Mahārāja Bali. Everyone knows, however, that Vāmanadeva was not at all poverty-stricken. His begging from Mahārāja Bali was a device to favor him. When Mahārāja Bali actually gave the land, Vāmanadeva exhibited His all-powerful position by covering the three worlds with three steps. One should not accept the so-called daridra-nārāyaṇas as incarnations, because they are completely unable to show the opulence of the genuine incarnations of God.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness