Chaitanya Bhagavata

by Bhumipati Dāsa | 2008 | 1,349,850 words

The Chaitanya Bhagavata 1.4.140, English translation, including a commentary (Gaudiya-bhasya). This text is similair to the Caitanya-caritamrita and narrates the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, proclaimed to be the direct incarnation of Krishna (as Bhagavan) This is verse 140 of Adi-khanda chapter 4—“Name-giving Ceremony, Childhood Pastimes, and Thieves Kidnap the Lord”.

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.4.140:

এই-মত বিচার করেন সর্ব-জনে বিষ্ণু-মাযা-মোহে কেহ তত্ত্ব নাহি জানে ॥ ১৪০ ॥

एइ-मत विचार करेन सर्व-जने विष्णु-माया-मोहे केह तत्त्व नाहि जाने ॥ १४० ॥

ei-mata vicāra karena sarva-jane viṣṇu-māyā-mohe keha tattva nāhi jāne || 140 ||

ei-mata vicara karena sarva-jane visnu-maya-mohe keha tattva nahi jane (140)

English translation:

(140) In this way the people considered what had happened, but they could not know the facts due to being illusioned by Lord Viṣṇu’s illusory energy.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Lord Viṣṇu is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge. Sometimes He

mercifully manifests before a person and instructs him in transcendental knowledge, and sometimes He bewilders a person with His illusory energy by which He generally bewilders the demons. The illusory energy is also named Vaiṣṇavī, or Daivī-māyā. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14): daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā—“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” It is also stated in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (1.7.4- 5):

bhakti-yogena manasi samyak praṇihite ‘male apaśyat puruṣaṃ pūrṇaṃ māyāṃ ca tad-apāśrayam yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṃ tri-guṇātmakam paro ‘pi manute ‘narthaṃ tat-kṛtaṃ cābhipadyate

“Thus he fixed his mind, perfectly engaging it by linking it in devotional service [bhakti-yoga] without any tinge of materialism, and thus he saw the Absolute Personality of Godhead along with His external energy, which was under full control. Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.” Māyā means “that which is not.” In other words, māyā is that which induces a living entity to try to understand, measure, or achieve satisfaction from a material object with the help of his mental speculation. It is stated: māyā-mugdha jīvera nāhi svataḥ kṛṣṇa- jñāna—“When a living entity is enchanted by the external energy, he cannot revive his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness independently.” Such people are therefore unable to understand the science of the transcendentally pure Absolute Truth, or Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān.

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