34. Srimad-Bhagavatam

way back from Vrndavana, when He reached Varanasi, the Lord became
the guest of Sri Tapana Migra and Candragekhara, assisted by a Maharastra
brahmana. At that time Varanasi was headed by a great sannydsi of the
Mayavada school named Sripada Prakasananda Sarasvati. When the Lord
was at Varanasi, the people in general became more attracted to Lord
Caitanya Mahaprabhu on account of His mass sankirtana movement.
Wherever He visited, especially the Visvanatha temple, thousands of pil-
grims would follow Him. Some were attracted by His bodily features, and
others were attracted by His melodious songs glorifying the Lord.

The Mayavadi sannydsis designate themselves as Narayana. Varanasi is
still overflooded with many Mayavadi sannyasis. Some people who saw the
Lord in His sankirtana party considered Him to be actually Narayana, and
this report reached the camp of the great sannydsi Prakasananda.

In India there is always a kind of spiritual rivalry between the Mayavada
and Bhagavata schools, and thus when the news of the Lord reached
Prakasananda he knew that the Lord was a Vaisnava sannyasi, and there-
fore he minimized the value of the Lord before those who brought him the
news. He deprecated the activities of the Lord because of His preaching
the sankirtana movement, which was in his opinion nothing but religious
sentiment. Prakasananda was a profound student of the Vedanta, and he
advised his followers to give attention to the Vedanta and not to indulge
in sankirtana.

One devotee brahmana, who became a devotee of the Lord, did not like
the criticism of Prakagananda, and he went to the Lord to express his
regrets. He told the Lord that when he uttered the Lord’s name before the
sannydsi Prakasananda, the latter strongly criticized Him, although he
heard him uttering several times the name Caitanya. The brahmana was
astonished to see that the sannydsi PrakaSananda could not vibrate the
sound Krsna even once, although he uttered the name Caitanya several
times.

The Lord smilingly explained to the devotee brahmana why the
Mayavadi cannot utter the holy name of Krsna. “The Mayavadis are of-
fenders at the lotus feet of Krsna, although they utter always Brahman,
Atma, or Caitanya, etc. And because they are offenders at the lotus feet of
Krsna, they are actually unable to utter the holy name of Krsna. The name
Krsna and the Personality of Godhead Krsna are identical. There is no
difference in the absolute realm between the name, form or person of the
Absolute Truth because in the absolute realm everything is transcendental
bliss. There is no difference between the body and the soul for the Person-
ality of Godhead, Krsna. Thus He is different from the living entity who

is always different from his outward body. Because of Krsna’s transcen-
