Introduction
27
of the  Vedas . Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has given more stress on the side word  tattvamasi  than on the primeval principle  omkāra .”
The Lord thus spoke on the  Vedānta-sūtra  and defied all the propaganda of the Māyāvāda school.* The Bhaṭṭācārya tried to defend himself and his Māyāvāda school by jugglery of logic and grammar, but the Lord was able to defeat him by His forceful arguments. He affirmed that we are all related with the Personality of Godhead eternally and that devotional service is our eternal function to exchange the dealings of our relations. And the result of such exchanges is to attain  premā  or love of Godhead. When love of Godhead is attained, love for all other beings automatically follows because the Lord is the sum total of all living beings.
The Lord said that but for these three items—namely, eternal relation with God, exchange of dealings with Him and the attainment of love for Him—all that is instructed in the  Vedas  is superfluous and concocted.
The Lord further added that the Māyāvāda philosophy taught by Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya is an imaginary explanation of the  Vedas , but it had to be taught by him (Śaṅkarācārya) because he was ordered to teach it by the Personality of Godhead. In the  Padma Purāṇa  it is stated that the Personality of Godhead ordered His Lordship Śiva to deviate the human race from Him (the Personality of Godhead.) The Personality of Godhead was to be so covered so that people would be encouraged to generate more and more population. His Lordship Śiva said to Devī: “In the Kali-yuga, I shall preach the Māyāvāda philosophy, which is nothing but clouded Buddhism, in the garb of a  brāhmaṇa .”
After hearing all these speeches of the Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Bhaṭṭācārya was struck with wonder and awe and regarded Him in dead silence. The Lord then encouraged him with assurance that there was no cause to wonder. “I say that  devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead is the highest goal of human life .” He then quoted a  śloka  from the  Bhāgavatam  and assured him that even the liberated souls who are absorbed in the spirit and spiritual realization also take to the devotional service of the Lord Hari because the Personality of Godhead has such transcendental qualities that He attracts the heart of the liberated soul too.
Then the Bhaṭṭācārya desired to listen to the explanation of the “ ātmārāma ”  śloka  from the  Bhāgavatam  (1.7.10). The Lord first of all asked Bhaṭṭācārya to explain it, and after that He would explain it. The Bhaṭṭācārya then scholarly explained the  śloka  with special reference to
*In our  Teachings of Lord Caitanya  we have more elaborately explained all these philosophical intricacies.  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  clarifies them all.