Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.12

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

mahā-viṣṅur jagat-kartā māyayā yaḥ sṛjaty adaḥ tasyāvatāra evāyam advaitācārya īśvaraḥ [Cc Ādi 1.12]

[break] [01:36]

"Lord Advaita Ācārya is the incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṅu, whose main function is to create the cosmic world through the actions of māyā."

Prabhupāda:

mahā-viṣṅur jagat-kartā māyayā yaḥ sṛjaty adaḥ tasyāvatāra evāyam advaitācārya īśvaraḥ [Cc Ādi 1.12]

So there are three principles—the īśvara principle and the māyā principle and the jīva principle—these three principles. So Advaita Ācārya is īśvara principle. He belongs to the īśvara group. Even in communistic country, they call "classless society," but they are also creating a managerial class. They cannot do without that. They could not avoid it, managers. Why manager? Make classless society, all worker. That is not possible. There must be īśvara. Īśvara means controller. That is the beginning, from the creation, īśvara.

So īśvara, there are innumerable īśvara forms, as it is stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam [Bs 5.33].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.]

Many, many, many millions and trillions of īśvara form. It is stated in the Bhāgavatam that many... How many, how you can calculate? That is compared—just like in the river or in the ocean there are waves, but you cannot count how many waves are there. That is not possible. Can you count the waves of the ocean, going on, day and night, waves? Similarly, in big, big rivers... So God's incarnation, they are coming out, innumerable, just like the waves, but we can understand by the action that He is incarnation of God.

So the activities of Advaita Ācārya means that He's īśvara. He called Caitanya Mahāprabhu to come down. That is īśvara. You cannot call the Supreme Personality of Godhead to come down. That is not possible. But īśvara, or one who has attained the power of attorney from īśvara, he can do that. It is no otherwise possible. Otherwise, it is impossible. Kṛṣṅa-śakti vinā nahe nāma pracāra. We have to receive the authority from Kṛṣṅa. Then it is possible to preach the cult of Hare Kṛṣṅa movement. That means īśvara, and anyone who attains the power of attorney from īśvara, he's also īśvara. That is called power of attorney. He can act on behalf of the proprietor. That is possible.

So Advaita, Advaita Ācārya, did it. He inaugurated this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement. When He saw that the people are so much misled that simply they are busy for the bodily necessities of life and completely have forgotten Kṛṣṅa, He became sympathetic. That is Vaiṣṅava behavior. Vaiṣṅavas, they are the best friend of the society, best friend, Vaiṣṅava. Patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṅavebhyo namo namaḥ. The Vaiṣṅava is always thinking how to deliver these fallen souls who are so much captivated with this false philosophy of hedonism—"Eat, drink, be merry and enjoy." This is called hedonism. So they are always thinking how to deliver them. Advaita Prabhu did it; therefore He is īśvara. Prahlāda Mahārāja did it. Any Vaiṣṅava who is actually feeling for the poor conditioned souls, he must make arrangement for delivering these rascals from the death knell of ignorance.

They do not know that nature is working, as it is said here, māyayā. Māyayā. The material nature means māyā. That is an energy, or agent, of Kṛṣṅa, to act something, instrumental. Māyā is instrumental. Māyā is not all in all. Material nature is not all in all. That is foolish observation. This materialistic theory of creation—"There was a chunk, and there was..." What is called?

Devotees: Explosion.

Prabhupāda: Blowing, eh?

Devotees: Big bang. Shock.

Prabhupāda: What is the word?

Acyutānanda: Big bang.

Prabhupāda: Big Ben?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṅa: Explosion.

Prabhupāda: Explosion, yes. So they are seeing that explosion and the chunk, but they cannot explain how the chunk became exploded. Sometimes we see that some earth, by the sunshine heating, heating, heating, it breaks all of a sudden. So this explosion of the chunk does not take place automatically. It is due to the sunshine drying it, drying it, drying it, and at a point it breaks. Similarly, the chunk is also, we can accept, the total material energy. That is..., you can take it as chunk. But this material energy in the form of chunk is agitated by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṅu. That is stated, sa aikṣata sa asṛjata. Material energy itself cannot explode. The explosion theory is there... Not theory—fact. But the total material energy, mahat-tattva, when it is glanced over by Mahā-Viṣṅu, then it becomes agitated, and the modes of material nature begins to act.

So that these activities are executed by Mahā-Viṣṅu, by His glancing, simply by His glancing. The power... Kṛṣṅa is all-powerful. Viṣṅu is all-powerful. So simply by glancing He can agitate the material energy, and the creation begins. Sa aikṣata sa asṛjata. Eko nārāyaṅa āsīt. These are the Vedic information. "In the beginning, there was only Nārāyaṅa." Na īśa na brahmā: "There was no Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā." We have studied that. Nārāyaṅa, the Mahā-Viṣṅu, er, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṅu, He created, first of all, Brahmā. He is already there, from Mahā-Viṣṅu to Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṅu. Then He created Brahmā. Then, through the material energy and Brahmā's cooperation, the whole creation came into existence.

So actually the original person for this material creation, Mahā-Viṣṅu, through the agency of māyā, He has created. Māyayā sṛjaty adaḥ. All this cosmic manifestation is created in that way. Those who are not devotee, they cannot see that over the chunk, total material energy, there is the vision of Mahā-Viṣṅu. That they cannot see. Just like you'll find on the ground, so many flowers and grasses are coming up. How? By the sunrise, the glance of the sun. Where there is no sunshine, there the vegetables do not grow. We have got practical experience. Similar... Therefore the field or the earth is not exploding with the vegetation. It is due to the sunshine. Therefore it is coming out. It is the real cause. Similarly, accepting that chunk, the total material energy, it is agitated by the glance of Mahā-Viṣṅu. Then it explodes and things are coming out. We can accept that in that way, but not that automatically there was explosion. That is not fact. Therefore to the foolish person, the power behind the explosion is not visible. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ [Bg 7.25].

[I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-māyā]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.]

Therefore Kṛṣṅa says that "I am not visible to everyone, they being covered by the curtain of yoga-māyā." Mūḍhāḥ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam. Tribhir guṅa-mayair bhāvair mohitaḥ [Bg 7.13].

[Deluded by the three modes [goodness, passion and ignorance], the whole world does not know Me who am above the modes and inexhaustible.]

So this is our position. We do not know who is the actual architect behind all this nice material creation. That is Mahā-Viṣṅu, and His incarnation is Advaita Prabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is directly Kṛṣṅa, or Kṛṣṅa's incarnation. Nityānanda Prabhu is directly incarnation of Baladeva, and similarly, Śrī Advaita Prabhu is incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṅu. So all of Them are on the equal footing. Śrī-kṛṣṅa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda, śrī-advaita. They are on the same equal level. And then śakti-tattva, Śrī-Gadādhara, and śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Gadādhara is the internal energy, and śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, they are marginal energy. So īśvara-tattva and śakti-tattva. So within this group there is no this material energy, because in the spiritual world there is no action of material energy, only spiritual energy. In the material world there is action of material energy. In the spiritual world there is no material energy. Therefore, in this Pañca-tattva, there is no mention of material energy because in the spiritual world there is no material energy. Māyā-gandha-hīna.

So Advaita, Advaita Ācārya, is īśvara, but there are many īśvaras. Even in this material world there are īśvaras, innumerable. But the śāstra has analyzed that the supreme īśvara is Kṛṣṅa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ [Bs 5.1]:

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

"There is no more higher īśvara than Kṛṣṅa." Kṛṣṅa also says, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat [Bg 7.7]:

[O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.]

"There is no more. This is the end." You go on finding out īśvaras that... In material world, every one of us, īśvara. Īśvara means controller. So anyone controls, he can be called īśvara. But there are īśvaras over īśvara. You go on searching, īśvara over īśvara over īśvara. When you come to the point there is no more other īśvara, then He's God. That is definition. That is Kṛṣṅa. You go on searching out, searching out. Just like... Generally, you know, Brahmā is the cre... He's also īśvara. He has created this universe. But he's not the supreme īśvara. He's created by Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṅu. He's also īśvara, but He is expansion of Mahā-Viṣṅu. Then He is also īśvara. Then He's also expansion of Sankarsana. Then Saṅkarṣaṅa is expansion of Nārāyaṅa. In this way, you go on, go on, go on, searching out. When you come to the point that no more īśvara—īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, anādi... [Bs 5.1].

So He has no ādi. Anādir ādiḥ: "He is the beginning of everything, but He has no beginning." How it is, that? He has no...? So many īśvaras have beginning. And why? Now, svarāṭ. That is the dis... Svarāṭ, completely independent. Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. This is the Vedānta-sūtra. And it is explained by the Vedānta-sūtra-bhāṣya, janmādy asya yataḥ anvayāt itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ [SB 1.1.1]. Svarāṭ—that is īśvara; that is supreme īśvara. He has no īśvara. Everyone has got īśvara over, but Kṛṣṅa has no over-īśvara. He is the ultimate, Supreme. Therefore śāstra says, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1].

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

Kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]:

[All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.]

"All of them are Bhagavān, but the original Bhagavān, real Bhagavān, is Kṛṣṅa." Kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam. So everyone is under Kṛṣṅa. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta kar says, ekale īśvara kṛṣṅa āra saba bhṛtya [Cc Ādi 5.142].

[Lord Kṛṣṅa alone is the supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so.]

Āra saba bhṛtya, servant. Even īśvara-tattva, viṣṅu-tattva, they are also working as servant of Kṛṣṅa. Advaita Ācārya, just like He's īśvara, but He's serving as servant of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore ekale īśvara... Na kṛṣṅāt caitanyāt para-tattvam param iha. They're... Above Kṛṣṅa, above Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there is no more para-tattva. Param iha. It is the Supreme.

So in this way we have to study īśvara-tattva, then śakti-tattva, jīva-tattva. That is knowledge; that is education. Not whimsically suggesting something and talking foolishly and... Athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi jānāti tattvam [SB 10.14.29].

[My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years.]

If you want to know the truth, then you have to follow these principles, how to know īśvara-tattva. And how to know? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

Then you have to go, approach the bona fide guru. He will let you know. Tad viddhi praṅipātena paripraśnena sevayā [Bg 4.34].

[Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.]

No challenge. That is foolishness. No challenge. Praṅipātena. First of all surrender. You don't surrender to a foolish man, but you have to surrender. Now it is your business to find out where to surrender. But you have to surrender. This is the process. Without surrender, you cannot understand the truth as it is. That is the instruction of Vedas everywhere. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam [SB 11.3.21]:

[Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.]

"One has to surrender to guru." Why? Jijñāsu: "If you are inquisitive to know the Absolute Truth." And if you want to know something which is flickering, relative truth, that is another thing. But if you want to know the Absolute Truth, śreyaḥ uttamam... Absolute Truth means ultimate benefit, śreya. Ultimate... Yes, exactly the word, benefit. If you want ultimate benefit, then guruṁ prapadyeta. Who is guru? Śābde pare ca niṣṅātaṁ brahmaṅy upaśamāśrayam [SB 11.3.21]: one who is expert in understanding the Vedic literature, śābde pare ca, especially transcendental.

So we have to go through like that. As Caitanya-caritāmṛta kar is explaining, we have to follow this principle. Then if you are really inquisitive to learn the Absolute Truth, they will explain, as here it is explained that here Advaita Ācārya is īśvara, He's incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṅu. Sometimes Advaita Ācārya is called Sadāśiva avatāra. The Sadāśiva is also expansion of Mahā-Viṣṅu. So either way you say, incarnation of Sadāśiva or Mahā-Viṣṅu, it doesn't matter. But Advaita Ācārya is īśvara-tattva. He's not śakti-tattva. He's īśvara-tattva. And we are all śakti-tattva. Therefore there is difference. Śakti-śaktimān. Although there is no difference abhinna, but still, śakti-tattva is superior, er, śaktimān tattva is superior than śakti-tattva.

So in this way try to understand Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, and Gadādhara and śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. And... But they are so kind because they have come to deliver the fallen souls. If you sincerely chant their name, śrī-kṛṣṅa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda...

Devotees: ...śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.

Prabhupāda: ...they'll be very, very kind to reveal themselves to you, and your path for liberation will be open.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [break]

Acyutānanda: We can understand how Śrī Advaita Ācārya is the servant of Lord Caitanya, but how is Maha-Viṣṅu and the viṣṅu-catur-bhuja, how do They serve Kṛṣṅa?

Prabhupāda: They are serving already Kṛṣṅa. Why don't you see? Sṛṣṭi-tattva. Kṛṣṅa wanted the creation, and They are the agents to serve Kṛṣṅa. They are creating. Ekale īśvara kṛṣṅa āra saba bhṛtya [Cc Ādi 5.142].

[Lord Kṛṣṅa alone is the supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so.]

They're serving already. All right. [end]