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Read one verse of Śrī Caitanya Caritamrta with its Bengali, transliteration, word meanings, translation and study points.
Śrī Caitanya Caritamrta · Text Ādi 16.81
ঈশ্বর–অচিন্ত্যশক্ত্যে গঙ্গার প্রকাশ ।
ইহাতে বিরোধ নাহি, বিরোধ–আভাস ॥ ৮১ ॥
īśvara-acintya-śaktye gaṅgāra prakāśa
ihāte virodha nāhi, virodha-ābhāsa
“In this birth of the Ganges by the inconceivable potency of the Lord, there is no contradiction although it appears contradictory.
Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.ioThree study points drawn from the translation and purport.
The central point of all Vaiṣṇava philosophy is to accept the inconceivable potency of Lord Viṣṇu.
What appears contradictory from a material viewpoint can be understood in connection with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By His inconceivable potencies, the birth of the Ganges involves no contradiction.
The purport challenges the thesis that life comes from matter. It argues that explaining water as hydrogen and oxygen does not explain their vast supply or how they combined to form the oceans.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.
Grief and transformed pride. Lakṣmīdevī’s departure brings sorrow; Keśava Kāśmīrī’s pride yields to surrender.
The mood of Ādi 16 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas
From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:
This chapter also describes the Lord’s argument with Keśava Kāśmīrī, the celebrated scholar, and the Lord’s criticism of his prayer glorifying mother Ganges. In this prayer the Lord found five kinds of literary ornaments and five kinds of literary faults, thus defeating the paṇḍita.Read the whole chapter summaryBack to this verse in Ādi 16
Learn the words of the verse.
Take one thing from this verse into your day.
How might accepting the Lord’s inconceivable potency change my response to something I cannot explain?
Reread the translation and pause to consider the distinction between an apparent contradiction and the Lord’s inconceivable potency.
Study points are short summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport on Vedabase.
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