32 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta [Madhya-lila, Ch. 7
alaukika vakya cesta tanra na bujhiyd
parihasa kariyachi tanre ‘vaisnava’ baliya
SYNONYMS

alaukika—uncommon; vakya—words; cesta—endeavor; tafhra—his; nd—
without; bujhiya—understanding; parihdsa—joking; kariyachi—l have done;
tanre—unto him; vaisnava—a devotee of the Lord; baliyd—as.

TRANSLATION

“1 could not realize when | first spoke with Ramananda Raya that his topics
and endeavors were all transcendentally uncommon. | made fun of him simply
because he was a Vaisnava.”

PURPORT

Anyone who is a not a Vaisnava or unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Lord
must be a materialist. A Vaisnava living according to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s
injunctions is certainly not on the materialistic platform. Caitanya means “spiritual
force.” All of $ri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's activities were carried out on the plat-
form of spiritual understanding; therefore only those who are on the spiritual plat-
form are able to understand the activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Mate-
rialistic persons who cannot are generally known as karmis or jfdnis. The jfanis
are mental speculators who simply try to understand what is spirit and what is
soul. Their process is neti neti: “This is not spirit, this is not Brahman.” The jAanis
are a little more advanced than the dull-headed karmis, who are simply interested
in sense gratification. Before becoming a Vaisnava, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was
a mental speculator (jAani), and being such, he always cut jokes with Vaisnavas. A
Vaisnava never agrees with the speculative system of the jfanis. Both the jAanis
and karmis depend on direct sense perception for their imperfect knowledge. The
karmis never agree to accept anything not directly perceived, and the jfAdnis put
forth only hypotheses. However, the Vaisnavas, the unalloyed devotees of the
Lord, do not follow the process of acquiring knowledge by direct sense percep-
tion or mental speculation. Because they are servants of the Supreme Lord, devo-
tees receive knowledge directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He
speaks it in Bhagavad-gitd, or sometimes as He imparts it from within as caitya-
guru. As stated in Bhagavad-gita:

tesdm satata-yuktandm
bhajatam priti-pdrvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tarn
yena mam upayanti te
