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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 7.132

স্বতঃপ্রমাণ বেদ প্রমাণ–শিরোমণি ।

লক্ষণা করিলে স্বতঃপ্রমাণতা–হানি ॥ ১৩২ ॥

svataḥ-pramāṇa veda — pramāṇa-śiromaṇi

lakṣaṇā karile svataḥ-pramāṇatā-hāni

Translation

“The self-evident Vedic literatures are the highest evidence of all, but if these literatures are interpreted, their self-evident nature is lost.

Understand it

Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.

1
The self-evident Vedic literatures are the highest evidence.
2
Interpreting Vedic evidence according to our own judgment makes its authority imperfect or useless. Such interpretation minimizes its value.
3
Quotations from Vedic literature are accepted as authoritative. We should not try to bring that authority under our own control.

Key points from the purport

We quote Vedic evidence to support our statements, but if we interpret it according to our own judgment, the authority of the Vedic literature is rendered imperfect or useless.
In other words, by interpreting the Vedic version one minimizes the value of Vedic evidence.
When one quotes from Vedic literature, it is understood that the quotations are authoritative.

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.

When might you be tempted to make a scriptural statement fit your own judgment?

Reread this translation and summarize what it says without adding a personal reinterpretation.

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