212 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila, Ch. 11
PURPORT

This is a quotation from Sri Caitanya-candrodaya-nataka (8.23). Thus Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu enunciates the principles for a sannydasi renouncing the ma-
terial world for spiritual advancement. Spiritual advancement is not meant for
magic shows and jugglery but for crossing the material world and being trans-
ferred to the spiritual world. Param param jigamisoh means desiring to go to the
other side of the material world. There is a river called Vaitarani, and on one side
of this river is the material world, and on the other side is the spiritual world. Since
the Vaitarani River is compared to a great ocean, it is named bhava-sdagara, the
ocean of repeated birth and death. Spiritual life aims at stopping this repetition of
birth and death and entering into the spiritual world, where one can live eternally
cognizant and blissful.

Unfortunately, the general populace does not know anything about spiritual life
or the spiritual world. The spiritual world is mentioned in Bhagavad-gita (8.20):

paras tasmat tu bhavo ‘nyo
‘vyakto ‘vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhitesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
“Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this
manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated.
When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.”

Thus there is a spiritual nature beyond this material world, and that spiritual
nature exists eternally. Spiritual advancement means stopping material activities
and entering into spiritual activities. This is the process of bhakti-yoga. In the ma-
terial world, the via media for sense gratification is mainly a woman. One who is
seriously interested in spiritual life should strictly avoid women. A sannydsi should
never see a man or a woman for material benefit. In addition, talks with ma-
terialistic men and women are also dangerous, and they are compared to drinking
poison. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very strict on this point. He therefore
refused to see King Prataparudra, who was naturally always engaged in political
and economic affairs. The Lord even refused to see the King despite the request of
a personality like Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who was the Lord's intimate friend
and devotee.

TEXT 9
ACOA ALZ,— AST COMMA aa |
Statel-cags ater fee ScSirsa td i
