Ādi-līlāChapter 2: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Is the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 2.9

'nanda-suta' bali' yāńre bhāgavate gāi

sei kṛṣṇa avatīrṇa caitanya-gosāñi

SYNONYMS

nanda-suta — the son of Nanda Mahārāja; bali' — as; yāńre — who; bhāgavatein Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; gāi — is sung; sei — that; kṛṣṇa — Lord Kṛṣṇa; avatīrṇa — descended; caitanya-gosāñi — Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

TRANSLATION

He whom Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes as the son of Nanda Mahārāja has descended to earth as Lord Caitanya.

PURPORT

According to the rules of rhetorical arrangement for efficient composition in literature, a subject should be mentioned before its predicate. The Vedic literature frequently mentions Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, and therefore these three terms are widely known as the subjects of transcendental understanding. But it is not widely known that what is approached as the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's transcendental body. Nor is it widely known that the Supersoul, or Paramātmā, is only a partial representation of Lord Caitanya, who is identical with Bhagavān Himself. Therefore the descriptions of Brahman as the effulgence of Lord Caitanya, the Paramātmā as His partial representation, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa as identical with Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu must be verified by evidence from authoritative Vedic literatures.

The author wants to establish first that the essence of the Vedas is the viṣṇu-tattva, the Absolute Truth, Viṣṇu, the all-pervading Godhead. The viṣṇu-tattva has different categories, of which the highest is Lord Kṛṣṇa, the ultimate viṣṇu-tattva, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā and throughout the Vedic literature. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the same Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa is described as Nanda-suta, the son of King Nanda. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that Nandasuta has again appeared as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he bases this statement on his understanding that the Vedic literature concludes there is no difference between Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This the author will prove. If it is thus proved that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the origin of all tattvas (truths), namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, and that there is no difference between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it will not be difficult to understand that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is also the same origin of all tattvas. The same Absolute Truth, as He is revealed to students of different realizations, is called Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.

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