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Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
(1) In commenting on the forty-second verse of the  Vedānta-sūtra , Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya has claimed that Śaṅkarṣaṇa is  jīva , the ordinary living entity, but there is no evidence in any Vedic scripture that devotees of the Lord have ever said that Śaṅkarṣaṇa is an ordinary living entity. He is an infallible plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Viṣṇu category, and He is beyond the creation of material nature. He is the original source of the living entities. The  Upaniṣads  declare,  nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām : “He is the supreme living entity among all the living entities.” Therefore He is  vibhu-caitanya , the greatest. He is directly the cause of the cosmic manifestation and the infinitesimal living beings. He is the infinite living entity, and ordinary living entities are infinitesimal. Therefore He is never to be considered an ordinary living being, for that would be against the conclusion of the authorized scriptures. The living entities are also beyond the limitations of birth and death. This is the version of the  Vedas , and it is accepted by those who follow scriptural injunctions and who have actually descended in the disciplinary succession.
(2) In answer to Śaṅkarācārya’s commentary on the forty-third verse, it must be said that the original Viṣṇu of all the Viṣṇu categories, which are distributed in several ways, is Mūla Śaṅkarṣaṇa.  Mūla  means “the original.” Śaṅkarṣaṇa is also Viṣṇu, but from Him all other Viṣṇus expand. This is confirmed in the  Brahma-saṁhitā , wherein it is said that just as a flame transferred from another flame acts like the original, so the Viṣṇus who emanate from Mūla Śaṅkarṣaṇa are as good as the original Viṣṇu. One should worship that Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, who thus expands Himself.
(3) In reply to the commentary of Śaṅkarācārya on the forty-fourth verse, it may be said that no pure devotees strictly following the principles of  Pañcarātra  will ever accept the statement that all the expansions of Viṣṇu are different identities, for this idea is completely false. Even Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya, in his commentary on the forty-second verse, has accepted that the Personality of Godhead can automatically expand Himself variously. Therefore his commentary on the forty-second verse and his commentary on the forty-fourth verse are contradictory. It is a defect of Māyāvāda commentaries that they make one statement in one place and a contradictory statement in another place as a tactic to refute the  Bhāgavata  school. Thus Māyāvāda’s commentators do not even follow regulative principles. It should be noted that the  Bhāgavata  school accepts the quadruple forms of Nārāyaṇa, but that does not mean that it accepts many Gods. Devotees know perfectly well that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. They are never pantheists, worshipers of many Gods, for this is against the injunction of the  Vedas . Devotees completely believe, with strong faith, that Nārāyaṇa is transcendental and has inconceivable proprietorship of various transcendental potencies. We therefore recommend that scholars consult the  Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta  of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, where these ideas are explicitly stated. Śrīpād Śaṅkarācārya has tried to prove that Vāsudeva, Śaṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha expand through cause and effect. He has compared Them with earth and earthen pots. That is completely ignorant, however, for there is no such thing as cause and effect in Their ex-