114 Sri-Caitanya-caritamrta
TEXT 121
BWICAA BCLS SS “Afaetay-aty
am Gre’— afer Sia Bee faata vasa
vyasera sutrete kahe ‘parinama’-vada
‘vyasa bhranta’—bali’ tara uthaila vivada
SYNONYMS

vyasera—of Srila Vyasadeva; sutrete in the codes; kahe—describes; parinama—
transformation; vada—philosophy; vyasa—Srila Vyasadeva; bhranta—mistaken; bali’—
accusing him; tara—his; uthaila—raised; vivada—opposition.

TRANSLATION

“In his Vedanta-sitra Srila Vyasadeva has described that everything is but a trans-
formation of the energy of the Lord. Sankaracarya, however, has misled the world
by commenting that Vyasadeva was mistaken. Thus he has raised great opposition
to theism throughout the entire world.

PURPORT

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains, “In the Vedanta-sutra of Srila Vyasadeva it
is definitely stated that all cosmic manifestations result from transformations of
various energies of the Lord. Sankaracarya, however, not accepting the energy of
the Lord, thinks that it is the Lord who is transformed. He has taken many clear
statements from the Vedic literature and twisted them to try to prove that if the
Lord, or the Absolute Truth, were transformed, His oneness would be disturbed.
Thus he has accused Srila Vyasadeva of being mistaken. In developing his philosophy
of monism, therefore, he has established vivarta-vada, or the Mayavada theory of
illusion.”’

In the Brahma-sutra, Second Chapter, the first quote is as follows: tad ananyatvam
arambhana-sabdadibhyah. Commenting on this sutra in his Sariraka-bhasya,
Sankaracarya has introduced the statement vacarambhanam vikaro namadheyam
from the Chandogya Upanisad to try to prove that acceptance of the transforma-
tion of the energy of the Supreme Lord is faulty. He has tried to defy this trans-
formation of energy in a misguided way, which will be explained later. Since his con-
ception of God is impersonal, he does not believe that the entire cosmic manifesta-
tion is a transformation of the energies of the Lord, for as soon as one accepts the
various energies of the Absolute Truth, one must immediately accept the Absolute
Truth to be personal, not impersonal. A person can create many things by the trans-
formation of his energy. For example, a businessman transforms his energy by estab-
lishing many big factories or business organizations, yet he remainsa person although
his energy has been transformed into these many factories or business concerns. The
Mayavadi philosophers do not understand this simple fact. Their tiny brains and
