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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 Madhya 20.356
‘স্বরূপ’-লক্ষণ, আর ‘তটস্থ-লক্ষণ’ ।
এই দুই লক্ষণে ‘বস্তু’ জানে মুনিগণ ॥ ৩৫৬ ॥
‘svarūpa’-lakṣaṇa, āra ‘taṭastha-lakṣaṇa’
ei dui lakṣaṇe ‘vastu’ jāne muni-gaṇa
“By two symptoms — personal characteristics and marginal characteristics — the great sages can understand an object.
Read this verse on Vedabase.ioThis verse has no purport; its meaning is explained by the verses around it.
Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.
The great sages can understand an object through its characteristics.
Personal characteristics are one kind of symptom they consider.
Marginal characteristics are the other kind. The teaching names both kinds as means of understanding.
Humility and restored identity. A seeker relinquishes status, asks fundamental questions, and receives sambandha knowledge.
The mood of Madhya 20 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:
He also described the incarnations of God within the material world, incarnations such as the puruṣa-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, guṇa-avatāras and śaktyāveśa-avatāras. The Lord also discussed the divisions of Kṛṣṇa’s different ages, such as bālya and paugaṇḍa, and the different pastimes of the different ages.Read the whole chapter summaryBack to this verse in Madhya 20
Learn the words of the verse.
Take one thing from this verse into your day.
Am I attentive to both kinds of characteristics named in this teaching?
Write two headings in your study notes: “Personal characteristics” and “Marginal characteristics.”
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.
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