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Read one verse of Śrī Caitanya Caritamrta with its Bengali, transliteration, word meanings, translation and study points.

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How to study this verse, in six steps

Śrī Caitanya Caritamrta · Text Ādi 7.116

ঈশ্বরের তত্ত্ব—যেন জ্বলিত জ্বলন ।

জীবের স্বরূপ—যৈছে স্ফুলিঙ্গের কণ ॥ ১১৬ ॥

īśvarera tattva — yena jvalita jvalana

jīvera svarūpa — yaiche sphuliṅgera kaṇa

Translation

“The Lord is like a great blazing fire, and the living entities are like small sparks of that fire.

Understand it

Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.

1
The Lord is like a great blazing fire, and living entities are like small sparks. Both have fiery qualities, but their powers are not equal.
2
Living entities are spiritual, yet material contact leaves their spiritual quality almost extinguished. As Kṛṣṇa’s parts and parcels, they can revive their original position by becoming free from material contact.
3
The spiritual sparks are eternal. Material energy cannot change their constitutional position.

Key points from the purport

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.
One should therefore understand that neither the Supreme Personality of Godhead nor the small sparklike living entities have anything to do with matter, but when the spiritual spark comes in contact with the material world his fiery quality is extinguished.
In the Bhagavad-gītā the spiritual sparks are declared to be sanātana (eternal); therefore the material energy, māyā, cannot affect their constitutional position.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

How it feels

Collective delight. The Pañca-tattva gives divine love a relational and communal form.

The mood of Ādi 7 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Learn the words of the verse.

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

How does the image of a small spark help you understand both your spiritual nature and your limits?

Spend a quiet minute reflecting: “I am an eternal part of Kṛṣṇa, like a spark of a great fire—not the great fire itself.”

His recorded lectures on this verse, and the talks where he quotes it.

1 lecture given on it. Recordings and transcripts on prabhupada.io.

Study points are short summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport on Vedabase.