Saktiman means

Expressions researched:
"Saktiman means"

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Śaktimān means one who possesses the potency. And we are all śaktis.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.110 -- New York, July 17, 1976:

So far we get information, all the planets, they are full of living entities. Janakīrṇa. It is stated in the Vedic literatures, janakīrṇa. Janakīrṇa means congested with living entities. Therefore we see New York City is congested with so many living entities. But if you go higher, then you cannot appreciate how New York City is so congested, or other cities are congested. So similarly, we have no knowledge of these planets, but each and every planet, millions and trillions, they are all congested, full with living entities. This is Vedic information. It is not imagination, imperfect imagination. No. It is fact. So we learn from the śāstra that on account of illumination of the moon, the vegetation in every planet is, I mean to say, flourishing condition, due to the moon. Still we find reaction of the moon on the waves of the seas and ocean. So everything has got its necessity. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktir. They are all acting as potency of the Supreme Lord. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktir. They are śakti; they are not śaktimān. Śaktimān means one who possesses the potency. And we are all śaktis.

General Lectures

Śaktimān means the powerful, one who possesses the power, and śakti means the power or energy.

Lecture -- Bombay, March 19, 1972:

The Mahā-Viṣṇu, from whose breathing period millions of universes are coming out, and when He is inhaling, millions of universes are going within Him, He is called Mahā-Viṣṇu. That Mahā-Viṣṇu is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā. That Brahma, Lord Brahma, who exists only on the breathing period of Mahā-Viṣṇu, that Mahā-Viṣṇu is partial expansion of Kṛṣṇa. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. Kṛṣṇa says that there are many manifestations of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. Just like candles, there are many candles, each candle has got the illuminating power. Similarly, eko bahu syām. Viṣṇu expands Himself in many, many millions of forms. Those forms are called svāṁśa and vibhinnāṁśa. Svāṁśa, personal expansions, and separated expansions. The separated expansions are we, we living entities. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, mamaivāṁso jīva bhūta (BG 15.7). So we are also expansions of Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, but we are separated. Means we are not personal expansions. The personal expansions is called Viṣṇu-tattva, and the separated expansion is called jīva-tattva. And jīva-tattva is also śakti-tattva. Viṣṇu is śaktimān, and we are śakti. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

apareyam itas tu viddhi

me prakṛti parām

jīva-bhutāṁ mahā-baho

yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

(BG 7.5)

So we are śakti-tattva. We are not śaktimān-tattva. It is not corroborated. One who thinks that "I am God," śaktimān-tattva, that is false. We are śakti-tattva. Śaktimān means the powerful, one who possesses the power, and śakti means the power or energy. Or one who controls the energy, He is called śaktimān, and the energy acts in different way. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). There are different kinds of, millions of energies, of the śaktimān. So we are energy of Kṛṣṇa. We cannot be Kṛṣṇa. Just like fire and heat or light. Heat is not different from fire, but heat is not fire. If you feel heat, it does not mean that you're touching the fire or that you are being burned. So simultaneously one and different. This philosophy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, acintya-bhedābheda-tattva: simultaneously, inconceivable one and different. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy, Vaiṣṇava philosophy. We are neither different nor one, simultaneously, and therefore it is called inconceivable, acintya. In our material conception we cannot think that one thing may be simultaneously one with another and different from another. So this is our position: jīva is śakti-tattva and bhagavān is śaktimān-tattva. But śakti, śaktimān abheda, there is no difference. There are many other examples. Just like the sun and sunlight. Sunlight is not different from the sun, and still the sunlight is not the sun. In the morning, when you find that there is sunlight within your room, you can say that the sun is within your room. You can say that, but the actual sun is far, far away, 93,000,000 miles away from us. So there are so many examples that we are energy of the Supreme Lord, we living entities.