It is not possible to imagine how far this material manifestation extends. In the material world everything is calculated by imagination or by some imperfect method, but the Vedic literatures give real information of what lies beyond the material universe. Since it is not possible to obtain information of anything beyond this material nature by experimental means, those who believe only in experimental knowledge may doubt the Vedic conclusions, for such people cannot even calculate how far this universe extends, nor can they reach far into the universe itself. That which is beyond our power of conception is called acintya, inconceivable. It is useless to argue or speculate about the inconceivable. If something is truly inconceivable, it is not subject to speculation or experimentation. Our energy is limited, and our sense perception is limited; therefore we must rely on the Vedic conclusions regarding that subject matter which is inconceivable. Knowledge of the superior nature must simply be accepted without argument.
Power of... (CC)
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Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Preface and Introduction
Lord Brahmā lives only for the duration of one breath, and according to our time scale 4,320,000,000 years constitute only twelve hours for Brahmā, and Brahmā lives one hundred of his years. Yet the whole life of Brahmā is contained within one breath of Mahā-Viṣṇu. Thus it is not possible for us to imagine the breathing power of Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is but a partial manifestation of Lord Nityānanda.
CC Adi-lila
As far as the mystic powers of the yogīs are concerned, they are also material entanglements on the path of spiritual realization. One German scholar who became a devotee of Godhead in India said that material science had already made laudable progress in duplicating the mystic powers of the yogīs. He therefore came to India not to learn the methods of the yogīs' mystic powers but to learn the path of transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord, as mentioned in the great scripture Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Brahmā had tried to test Lord Kṛṣṇa to see if He were really the Supreme Personality of Godhead playing as a cowherd boy. Brahmā stole all the other boys and their calves from the pasturing grounds, but when he returned to the pastures he saw that all the boys and calves were still there, for Lord Kṛṣṇa had created them all again. When Brahmā saw this mystic power of Lord Kṛṣṇa's, he admitted defeat and offered prayers to the Lord, addressing Him as the proprietor and seer of everything in the creation and as the Supersoul who is within each and every living entity and is dear to all.
According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, śambhos tu tamo-’dhiṣṭhānatvāt kajjalamaya-sūkṣma-dīpa-śikhā-sthānīyasya na tathā sāmyam: "The śambhu-tattva, or the principle of Lord Śiva, is like a lamp covered with carbon because of his being in charge of the mode of ignorance. The illumination from such a lamp is very minute. Therefore the power of Lord Śiva cannot compare to that of the Viṣṇu principle."
Thus the lionlike Lord Caitanya has appeared in Navadvīpa. He has the shoulders of a lion, the powers of a lion, and the loud voice of a lion.
Spiritual variegatedness is eternally independent of all material conditions and is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both being absolute. The Lord and His devotees simultaneously perceive the hlādinī potency directly by the power of the samvit potency.
The glancing power of the Lord agitates the entire cosmic energy, and thus its actions begin at once. This indicates that matter, however powerful she may be, has no power by herself. Her activity begins by the grace of the Lord, and then the entire cosmic creation is manifested in a systematic way.
To explain how māyā acts by Kṛṣṇa's power, the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta gives the example of an iron rod in a fire: although the rod is not fire, it becomes red-hot and acts like fire itself. Similarly, all the actions and reactions of material nature are not actually the work of material nature but are actions and reactions of the energy of the Supreme Lord manifested through matter. The power of electricity is transmitted through the medium of copper, but this does not mean that the copper is electricity. The power is generated at a powerhouse under the control of an expert living being.
Inert material nature is not the actual cause of the material manifestation, for Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī, Mahā-Viṣṇu, the plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa, activates all the ingredients. It is in this way that material nature has the power to supply the ingredients. The example given is that iron has no power to heat or burn, but after coming in contact with fire the iron becomes red-hot and can then diffuse heat and burn other things. Material nature is like iron, for it has no independence to act without the touch of Viṣṇu, who is compared to fire. Lord Viṣṇu activates material nature by the power of His glance, and then the ironlike material nature becomes a material-supplying agent just as iron made red-hot becomes a burning agent. Material nature cannot independently become an agent for supplying the material ingredients.
I have thus described the power of the servants of Lord Nityānanda. Now I shall describe another characteristic of His mercy.
Material nature is electrified by the supreme authority, and the conditioned soul, within the limits of time and space, is trapped by awe of the material manifestation. In other words, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is actually realized in the vision of a material philosopher and scientist through the manifestations of His material energy. For one who does not understand the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His diverse energies because of not knowing the relationship between the source of the energies and the energies themselves, there is always a chance of error, which is known as vivarta.
Sāṅkhya philosophy, after describing the nature of prakṛti (material nature) and puruṣa (the enjoyer), asserts that the creation is only a product of their unification or proximity to one another. With such unification the living symptoms are visible in material nature, but one can guess that in the person of the enjoyer, the puruṣa, there are powers of control and enjoyment. When the puruṣa is illusioned for want of sufficient knowledge, He feels Himself to be the enjoyer, and when He is in full knowledge He is liberated.
The Lord infuses the material ingredients with His own creative potency. Then, by the power of the Lord, creation takes place.
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī explains, kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana: unless one receives special power of attorney from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he cannot preach the glories of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. As devotees propagate the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the general population of the entire world gets the opportunity to understand the glories of the holy name. While chanting and dancing or hearing the holy name of the Lord, one automatically remembers the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and because there is no difference between the holy name and Kṛṣṇa, the chanter is immediately linked with Kṛṣṇa.
Although sparks and a big fire are both fire and both have the power to burn, the burning power of the fire and that of the spark are not the same. Why should one artificially try to become like a big fire although by constitution he is like a small spark? It is due to ignorance.
To not know actual facts and thus to mistake one thing for another (as, for example, to accept the body as oneself) is called vivarta-vāda. Every conditioned living entity who considers the body to be the soul is deluded by this vivarta-vāda. One can be attacked by this vivarta-vāda philosophy when he forgets the inconceivable power of the omnipotent Personality of Godhead.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught His principles through four chief followers. Among them, Rāmānanda Rāya is exceptional, for through him the Lord taught how a devotee can completely vanquish the power of Cupid. By Cupid's power, as soon as one sees a beautiful woman he is conquered by her beauty. Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, however, vanquished Cupid's pride.
Let me offer my respectful obeisances to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even unclean yavanas become perfectly well bred gentlemen by chanting the holy name of the Lord. Such is the power of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
The members of the present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement were not born in India, nor do they belong to the Vedic culture, but within the short time of four or five years they have become such wonderful devotees simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra that even in India they are well received as perfectly well behaved Vaiṣṇavas wherever they go. Although less intelligent men cannot understand it, this is the special power of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Actually, the body of a Kṛṣṇa conscious person changes in many ways. Even in the United States, when our devotees chant on the street, American ladies and gentlemen inquire from them whether they are actually Americans because no one could expect Americans to become such nice devotees all of a sudden.
"You are now the same Personality of Godhead that You were in Your previous birth. Your identity is inconceivable eternal happiness."
By the power of astrological science one can even ascertain the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everything is to be identified by its symptoms. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is identified by the symptoms mentioned in the śāstras. It is not that anyone and everyone can become God without proof from śāstras.
CC Madhya-lila
We are the most fallen; therefore by showing us Your mercy, Your mercy is most successful. Let the power of Your mercy be exhibited throughout the entire universe!
When life becomes almost inactive, it is called "stunned." The emotions resulting from this condition are joy, fear, astonishment, moroseness and anger. In this condition, the power of speech is lost and there is no movement in the hands and legs. Otherwise, being stunned is a mental condition. Many other symptoms are visible on the entire body in the beginning. These are very subtle, but gradually they become very apparent.
Lord Brahmā had stolen all the calves and cowherd boys in order to test Kṛṣṇa's power. Lord Brahmā admitted that his own extraordinary powers within the universe were not in the least comparable to the unlimited powers of Lord Kṛṣṇa. If Lord Brahmā can make a mistake in understanding Kṛṣṇa, what to speak of ordinary persons, who either misunderstand Kṛṣṇa or falsely present a so-called incarnation of Kṛṣṇa for their own sense gratification.
""In almost all cases, whatever learned brāhmaṇas speak becomes accepted; nothing is impossible for one who takes shelter of My illusory energy and speaks under her influence.""
In this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.22.4), the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains that His illusory energy can perform the impossible; such is the power of the illusory energy.
A common brain in the conditioned state cannot conceive of how these inconceivable energies abide in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, how He exists in His innumerable forms as the master of both spiritual and material energies, how He is the master of both manifest and potential powers, and how contradictory potencies can abide in Him. As long as the living entity is within this material world, in the condition of illusion, he cannot understand the activities of the inconceivable energies of the Lord. Thus the Lord's energies, though factual, are simply beyond the power of the common brain to understand.
An authorized spiritual master empowered by Kṛṣṇa can spread the glories of the holy name of the Lord, for he has power of attorney from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the mundane world, anyone possessing his master's power of attorney can act on behalf of his master. Similarly, a spiritual master empowered by Kṛṣṇa through his own bona fide spiritual master should be considered as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. That is the meaning of sākṣād-dharitvena.
"My devotees take great care and respect in rendering Me service. They offer obeisances to Me with all their bodily limbs. They worship other devotees and find all living entities related to Me. For Me they engage the entire energy of their bodies. They engage the power of speech in the glorification of My qualities and form. They also dedicate their minds unto Me and try to give up all kinds of material desires. Thus My devotees are characterized."
As evidence of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy, we are experiencing that the people of Africa are taking to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, chanting and dancing and taking prasādam like other Vaiṣṇavas. This is all due to the power of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Who can understand how His potency is working all over the world?
Whenever we see something exalted, we must consider it part of the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A powerful man (vibhūtimat sattvam) is one who has obtained the grace of the Lord or has derived some power from Him. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.10) Kṛṣṇa says, tejas tejasvinām aham: "I am the power of the powerful." The learned brāhmaṇa scholars showed respect to Nawab Hussain Shah because he represented a fraction of Kṛṣṇa's power.
Kṛṣṇa has unlimited potencies, out of which three are chief—willpower, the power of knowledge and the creative energy.
That original Saṅkarṣaṇa (Lord Balarāma) is the cause of both the material and the spiritual creation. He is the predominating Deity of egotism, and by the will of Kṛṣṇa and the power of the spiritual energy, He creates the spiritual world, which consists of the planet Goloka Vṛndāvana and the Vaikuṇṭha planets.
Dull matter alone cannot create anything. The material energy produces the creation by the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Iron itself has no power to burn, but when iron is placed in fire, it is empowered to burn.
When Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu accepts the material modes of nature for the purpose of dissolving the cosmic manifestation, His form is called Rudra. As already explained, Lord Viṣṇu is the controller of māyā. How, then, can He associate with māyā? The conclusion is that the incarnation of Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā indicates the absence of the supreme power of Viṣṇu. When the supreme power is not there, it is possible to associate with māyā, the external energy. Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are to be considered creations of māyā.
The power of knowledge was invested in the four Kumāras, and the power of devotional service was invested in Nārada. The power of creation was invested in Lord Brahmā, and the power to carry innumerable planets was invested in Lord Ananta.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead invested the power of personal service in Lord Śeṣa, and He invested the power to rule the earth in King Pṛthu. Lord Paraśurāma received the power to kill rogues and miscreants.
"The power of these five principles is very wonderful and difficult to understand. Even without faith in them, a person who is offenseless can awaken his dormant love of Kṛṣṇa simply by being a little connected with them."
"O my Lord, I do not have any love for You, nor am I qualified for discharging devotional service by chanting and hearing. Nor do I possess the mystic power of a Vaiṣṇava, knowledge or pious activities. Nor do I belong to a very high-caste family. On the whole, I do not possess anything. Still, O beloved of the gopīs, because You bestow Your mercy on the most fallen, I have an unbreakable hope that is constantly in my heart. That hope is always giving me pain."
"The power of these five principles is very wonderful and difficult to understand. Even without faith in them, a person who is offenseless can awaken his dormant love of Kṛṣṇa simply by being a little connected with them."
One cannot write on spiritual matters without being blessed by Kṛṣṇa and the disciplic succession of gurus. The blessings of the authorities are one's power of attorney. One should not try to write anything about Vaiṣṇava behavior and activities without being authorized by superior authorities. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2): evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ.
We should note, however, that according to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's instructions, one should not wait to purify himself before chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Whatever our condition may be, we should begin chanting immediately. By the power of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, we will gradually be relieved from all material contamination and will get shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, the ultimate goal of life.
CC Antya-lila
Unless one is empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, one cannot spread the holy names of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra throughout the world. Persons who do so are empowered. Therefore they are sometimes called āveśa-avatāras, or empowered incarnations, for they are endowed with the power of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
He is such a great personality that by His mercy He can convert even the meat-eaters (mlecchas) to the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. Who, therefore, can estimate the power of His Vaiṣṇavism?
It is extremely difficult to convert a mleccha, or meat-eater, into a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore anyone who can do so is situated on the highest level of Vaiṣṇavism.
On the cāṅga I began meditating upon Your lotus feet, and the power of that remembrance has yielded all these results.
""My dear Lord, anyone who always keeps Your holy name on his tongue is greater than an initiated brāhmaṇa. Although he may be born in a family of dog-eaters and therefore, by material calculations, be the lowest of men, he is glorious nevertheless. That is the wonderful power of chanting the holy name of the Lord. One who chants the holy name is understood to have performed all kinds of austerities. He has studied all the Vedas, he has performed all the great sacrifices mentioned in the Vedas, and he has already taken his bath in all the holy places of pilgrimage. It is he who is factually the Āryan.""
| Page Title: | Power of... (CC) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, ChandrasekharaAcarya |
| Created: | 12 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=45, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 45 |