TRANSLATION
“Lord Jagannātha is completely spiritual and full of transcendental bliss, but you have compared Him to a dull, destructible body composed of the inert, external energy of the Lord.
PURPORT
If one thinks that the form of Lord Jagannātha is an idol made of wood, he immediately brings ill fortune into his life. According to the direction of the Padma Purāṇa: arcye viṣṇau śilā–dhīḥ. ..yasya vā nārakī saḥ. Thus one who thinks that the body of Lord Jagannātha is made of matter and who distinguishes between Lord Jagannātha’s body and soul is condemned, for he is an offender. A pure devotee who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness makes no distinction between Lord Jagannātha and His body. He knows that they are identical, just as Lord Kṛṣṇa and His soul are one and the same. When one’s eyes are purified by devotional service performed on the spiritual platform, one can actually envision Lord Jagannātha and His body as being completely spiritual. The advanced devotee, therefore, does not see the worshipable Deity to have a soul within a body like an ordinary human being. There is no distinction between the body and soul of Lord Jagannātha, for Lord Jagannātha is sac-cid-ānanda–vigraha, just as the body of Kṛṣṇa is sac-cid-ānanda–vigraha. There is actually no difference between Lord Jagannātha and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but the ignorant poet from Bengal applied a material distinction to the body of Lord Śrī Jagannātha.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā 5.118
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
TRANSLATION
“You have calculated Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in six opulences, to be on the level of an ordinary living being. Instead of knowing Him as the supreme fire, you have accepted Him as a spark.”
PURPORT
In the Upaniṣads it is said, yathāgner visphuliṅgā vyuccaranti: the living entities are like sparks of fire, and His Lordship the Supreme Personality of Godhead is considered the original great fire. When we hear this śruti–vākya, or message from the Vedas, we should understand the distinction between the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa and the living entities. A person under the control of the external energy, however, cannot understand that distinction. Such a person cannot understand that the Supreme Person is the original great fire, whereas the living entities are simply small fragmental parts of that Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7):
mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati
“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.”
There is a distinction between the body and soul of the materially existing living being, but because Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Jagannātha do not possess material bodies, there is no distinction between Their bodies and souls. On the spiritual platform, body and soul are identical; there is no distinction between them. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
etad īśanam īśasya
prakṛti-stho ‘pi tad-guṇaiḥ
na yujyate sadātma-sthair
yathā buddhis tad-āśrayā
“This is the divinity of the Personality of Godhead. He is not affected by the qualities of material nature, even though He is in contact with them. Similarly, the devotees who have taken shelter of the Lord cannot be influenced by the material qualities.” (Bhāg. 1.11.38) His Lordship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is unaffected by the influence of the three modes of material nature. Indeed, His devotees are also unpolluted by the influence of the external energy because they engage in the service of His Lordship. Even the very body of a devotee becomes spiritualized, just as an iron rod put into fire becomes as qualified as fire because it becomes red hot and will immediately burn anything it touches. Therefore the poet from Bengal committed a great offense by treating Lord Jagannātha’s body and Lord Jagannātha, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as two different entities, material and spiritual, as if the Lord were an ordinary living being. The Lord is always the master of the material energy; therefore He is not doomed to be covered by the material energy like an ordinary living entity.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā 5.119
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
TRANSLATION
Svarūpa Dāmodara continued, “Because you have committed an offense to Lord Jagannātha and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, you will attain a hellish destination. You do not know how to describe the Absolute Truth, but nevertheless you have tried to do so. Therefore you must be condemned.
PURPORT
The brāhmaṇa poet from Bengal was an offender in the estimation of Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, for although the poet had no knowledge of the Absolute Truth, he had nevertheless tried to describe it. The Bengali poet was an offender to both Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Jagannātha. Because he had made a distinction between Lord Jagannātha’s body and soul and because he had indicated that Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was different from Lord Jagannātha, he had committed offenses to Them both. A-tattva–jña refers to one who has no knowledge of the Absolute Truth or who worships his own body as the Supreme personality of Godhead. If an ahaṅgrahopāsaka-māyāvādī, a person engaged in fruitive activities or a person interested only in sense gratification, describes the Absolute Truth, he immediately becomes an offender.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā 5.120
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
TRANSLATION
“You are in complete illusion, for you have distinguished between the body and soul of His Lordship [Lord Jagannātha or Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu]. That is a great offense.
PURPORT
When one differentiates between the body and soul of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he immediately becomes an offender. Because the living entities in the material world are generally covered by material bodies, the body and soul of an ordinary human being cannot be identical. The Supreme Lord bestows the fruits of one’s activities, for He is the Lord of the results of fruitive action. He is also the cause of all causes, and He is the master of the material energy. Therefore He is supreme. An ordinary living being, however, in his material condition, enjoys the results of his own fruitive activities and therefore falls under their influence. Even in the liberated stage of brahma–bhūta identification, he engages in rendering service to His Lordship. Thus there are distinctions between an ordinary human being and the Supreme Lord. Karmīs and jñānīs who ignore these distinctions are offenders against the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
An ordinary human being is prone to be subjugated by the material energy, whereas His Lordship the Supreme Personality of Godhead-Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Jagannātha-is always the master of the material energy and is therefore never subject to its influence. His Lordship the Supreme Personality of Godhead has an unlimited spiritual identity, never to be broken, whereas the consciousness of the living entity is limited and fragmented. The living entities are fragmental portions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead eternally (mamaivāṁśo jīva–loke jīva–bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ). It is not that they are covered by the material energy in conditioned life but become one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead when freed from the influence of material energy. Such an idea is offensive.
According to the considerations of Māyāvādī fools, the Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts a material body when He appears in the material world. A Vaiṣṇava, however, knows perfectly well that for Kṛṣṇa, Lord Jagannātha or Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu-unlike ordinary human beings-there is no distinction between the body and the soul. Even in the material world His Lordship retains His spiritual identity; therefore Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited all opulences even in His childhood body. There is no distinction between the body and soul of Kṛṣṇa; whether He is in His childhood body or His youthful body, He is always identical with His body. Even though Kṛṣṇa appears like an ordinary human being, He is never subjected to the rules and regulations of the material world. He is svarāṭ, or fully independent. He can appear in the material world, but contrary to the offensive conclusion of the Māyāvāda school, He has no material body. In this connection one may again refer to the above-mentioned verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.11.38):
etad īśanam īśasya
prakṛti-stho ‘pi tad-guṇaiḥ
na yujyate sadātma-sthair
yathā buddhis tad-āśrayā
The Supreme Person has an eternal spiritual body. If one tries to distinguish between the body and soul of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he commits a great offense.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā 5.121
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
TRANSLATION
“At no time is there a distinction between the body and soul of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His personal identity and His body are made of blissful spiritual energy. There is no distinction between them.
PURPORT
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, is advaya–jñāna; in other words, there is no distinction between His body and soul, for His existence is completely spiritual. According to the verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam beginning with the words vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (1.2.11), the Absolute Truth is always to be understood from three angles of vision as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Unlike the objects of the material world, however, the Absolute Truth is always one and always the same. Thus there is no distinction between His body and soul. His form, name, attributes and pastimes, therefore, are completely distinct from those of the material world. One should know perfectly well that there is no difference between the body and soul of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one conceives of a distinction between His body and soul, one is immediately conditioned by material nature. Because a person in the material world makes such distinctions, he is called baddha–jīva, a conditioned soul.
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā 5.122
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
The authentic account of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pastimes and teachings, revealing His mission to spread the purest form of devotional service to Krishna through the chanting of His holy names.
