Adi-lila, Chapter 5 405
PURPORT

Sripad Sankaracarya has misleadingly explained the quadruple from (catur-vyaha)
in his interpretation of the forty-second aphorism of the Second Khanda of Chapter
Two of the Veddnta-sittras (utpatty-asambhavat). In verses forty-one through forty-
seven of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Srila Krspadasa Kaviraja Gosvamt answers Sripad
Sarikaracarya’s misleading objections to the personal feature of the Absolute Truth.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, is not like a material
object that can be known by experimental knowledge or sense perception. In the
Narada-paficaratra this fact has been explained by Narayana Himself to Lord Siva.
But Sankaracarya, the incarnation of Siva, under the order of Narayana, his master,
had to mislead the monists, who favor ultimate extinction. In the conditioned
stage of existence, all living entities have four basic defects, of which one is the
cheating propensity. Sankaracarya has carried this cheating propensity to the ex-
treme to mislead the monists.

Actually, the quadruple forms explained in the Vedic literature cannot be under-
stood by the speculation of a conditioned soul. The quadruple forms should there-
fore be accepted just as they are described. The authority of the Vedas is such that
even if one does not understand something by his limited perception, he should
accept the Vedic injunction and not create interpretations to suit his imperfect
understanding. In his Sdriraka-bhdsya, however, Sankaracarya has increased the mis-
understanding of the monists.

The quadruple forms have a spiritual existence that can be realized in vdsudeva-
sattva ($uddha-sattva), or unqualified goodness, which accompanies complete ab-
sorption in the understanding of Vasudeva. The quadruple forms, who are full of
the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are the enjoyers of the
internal potency. Thinking the absolute Personality of Godhead to be poverty-
stricken or to have no potency—or, in other words, to be impotent—is simply
rascaldom. This rascaldom is the profession of the conditioned soul, and it increases
his bewilderment. One who cannot understand the distinctions between the spiri-
tual world and material world has no qualification to examine or know the situation
of the transcendental quadruple forms. In his commentaries on the Second Khanda
of the Vedanta-sitra, Chapter Two, verses 42-45, His Holiness Sripad Sankaracarya
has made a futile attempt to nullify the existence of these quadruple forms in the
spiritual world.

Sankaracarya says (verse 42) that devotees think the Supreme Personality of
Godhead Vasudeva, Sri Krsna, to be one, to be free from material qualities and to
have a transcendental body full of bliss and eternal existence. He is the ultimate
goal of the devotees, who believe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands
Himself into four other eternal transcendental forms—Vasudeva, Sankarsana,
Pradyumna and Aniruddha. From Vasudeva, who is the primary expansion, come
Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha in that order. Another name of Vasudeva
is Paramatma, another name of Sarikarsana is fiva (the living entity), another name
of Pradyumna is mind, and another name of Aniruddha is ahankdra (false ego).
Among these expansions, Vasudeva is considered the origin of material nature.
