Live Caitanya Caritamrta · CC Madhya 23.82-83
Understand Kṛṣṇa’s Unique Personal Qualities
“ ‘Apart from these sixty transcendental qualities, Kṛṣṇa has an additional four transcendental qualities, which are not manifested even in the personality of Nārāyaṇa. These are: (1) Kṛṣṇa is like an ocean filled with waves of pastimes that evoke wonder within everyone in the three worlds. (2) In His activities of conjugal love, He is always surrounded by His dear devotees who possess unequaled love for Him. (3) He attracts the minds of all three worlds with the melodious vibration of His flute. (4) His personal beauty and opulence are beyond compare. No one is equal to Him, and no one is greater than Him. Thus the Personality of Godhead astonishes all living entities, both moving and nonmoving, within the three worlds. He is so beautiful that He is called Kṛṣṇa.
What the purport teaches
- Beyond the sixty qualities, Kṛṣṇa has four not manifested even in Nārāyaṇa: wonderful pastimes, devotees with unequaled conjugal love, His melodious flute, and incomparable beauty and opulence.
- The purport rejects reducing the meaning of Kṛṣṇa to “black” while failing to understand His qualities and accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Great personalities, ācāryas and sages describe and accept Him.
- Simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa, one can become free from the cycle of birth and death. Those preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness must try to understand Him from the statements in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.
Try this today
List Kṛṣṇa’s four unique qualities from this passage and slowly reread them.
Ask yourself
How can attending to Kṛṣṇa’s personal qualities deepen your understanding of Him?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport; the practice and question are plain words for trying the verse today.