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Study a Verse

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

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Antya-līlā · 20 chapters

How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Say the verse. Read the transliteration aloud, slowly.
  2. 2Read the word meanings. Go through each word and its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation. Ask: what is happening here, and who is it about?
  4. 4Read the purport slowly. Read it twice. Don't rush.
  5. 5See Lord Caitanya as Kṛṣṇa. Remember who is acting in the pastime.
  6. 6Take one thing into your day. Note one point and one practice.
Read the full guide: how to read Caitanya Caritamrta ›

Śrī Caitanya Caritamrta · Text Antya 5.88

শ্রীচৈতন্যলীলা এই — অমৃতের সিন্ধু ।

ত্রিজগৎ ভাসাইতে পারে যার এক বিন্দু ॥ ৮৮ ॥

śrī-caitanya-līlā ei — amṛtera sindhu

trijagat bhāsāite pāre yāra eka bindu

Translation

The activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are just like an ocean of nectar. Even a drop of this ocean can inundate all the three worlds.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
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Understand it

Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.

An Ocean of Mercy for Everyone

  1. 1

    The activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu are like an ocean of nectar. Even one drop can inundate all three worlds.

  2. 2

    Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa and Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī represented His mercy. Through them, the power of that mercy to flood the three worlds was exhibited.

  3. 3

    The purport describes the same mercy as overflooding the world through the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. It calls the movement nondifferent from the Lord's pastimes because the same principles and actions are faithfully continued.

Key points from the purport
  • To inundate the three worlds with nectar is the purpose of the pastimes of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
  • How this could be possible was exhibited by Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and later by Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa and Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī, who all represented the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
  • The present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is nondifferent from the pastimes performed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He was personally present, for the same principles are being followed and the same actions performed without fail.

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

Humility and discernment. The Lord directs a seeker to Rāmānanda and clarifies genuine spiritual qualification.

The mood of Antya 5 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Further reading

Antya 5: How Pradyumna Miśra Received Instructions from Rāmānanda Rāya

From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

A brāhmaṇa from Bengal composed a drama about the activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and went to Jagannātha Purī to show it to the associates of the Lord. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, heard the drama, he discerned a tinge of Māyāvāda philosophy and pointed it out to the author.
Read the whole chapter summaryBack to this verse in Antya 5
2

Word for word

Learn the words of the verse.

  1. śrī-caitanya-līlātranscendental activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu
  2. eithese
  3. amṛtera sindhuthe ocean of nectar
  4. tri-jagatthe three worlds
  5. bhāsāiteto inundate
  6. pāreis able
  7. yāraof which
  8. eka binduone drop
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Key ideas in this verse

The themes of love and mercy this verse speaks of.

  • Kṛpā & transformation · Mercy changes a life

    Transformative encounters with grace, from scholars and travelers to renunciants and householders. · In the Prema Atlas

    In this verse: “mercy”

Concept links are an editorial study map; only the verse is the text itself.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does the image of one drop flooding three worlds teach me about the power of the Lord's mercy?

Practice

Share this verse's image of the ocean of nectar with someone who would welcome hearing it.

Live this todayAn Ocean of Mercy for EveryoneThis verse's lesson: one practice and one question for today

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

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