Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 7.130

'praṇava, mahā-vākya — tāhā kari' ācchādana

mahāvākye kari 'tat tvam asi'ra sthāpana

SYNONYMS

praṇava — oḿkāra; mahā-vākya — principal mantra; tāhā — that; kari' — making; ācchādana — covered; mahā-vākye — in place of the principal mantra; kari — I do; 'tat tvam asi'ra sthāpana — establishment of the statement tat tvam asi.

TRANSLATION

"Praṇava [oḿkāra] is the mahā-vākya [mahā-mantra] in the Vedas. Śańkarācārya's followers cover this to stress without authority the mantra tat tvam asi.

PURPORT

The Māyāvādī philosophers stress the statements tat tvam asi, so 'ham, etc., but they do not stress the real mahā-mantra, praṇava (oḿkāra). Therefore, because they misrepresent Vedic knowledge, they are the greatest offenders to the lotus feet of the Lord. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says clearly, māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī: "Māyāvādī philosophers are the greatest offenders to Lord Kṛṣṇa." Lord Kṛṣṇa declares:

tān ahaḿ dviṣataḥ krūrān saḿsāreṣu narādhamān

kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu

"Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among mankind, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life." (Bg. 16.19) Life in demoniac species awaits the Māyāvādī philosophers after death because they are envious of Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.34) man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māḿ namaskuru ("Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me"), one demoniac scholar says that it is not Kṛṣṇa to whom one must surrender. This scholar is already suffering in this life, and he will have to suffer again in the next if in this life he does not complete his prescribed suffering. One should be very careful not to be envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the next verse, therefore, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu clearly states the purpose of the Vedas.

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