224 Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

(3) historical understanding, and (4) sound understanding. Out of these four
kinds of understanding, to receive knowledge by sound understanding, the
understanding from the Vedic Scriptures (which are the sound representation
of the Absolute Truth), is the best. The traditional Vedic students accept
this sound understanding as the best.

For example, the stool and bone of any living entity is considered the
most impure thing by the Vedic literature; but, at the same time, the Vedic
literature asserts that cow dung and the conch shell are the purest of all. Ap-
parently these statements are contradictory, but because cow dung and the
conch shell have been called pure in the Vedic literature, although they are
the stool and bone of living entities, they are accepted as pure without any
argument. They cannot be changed by our mundane arguments added to the
statements of the Vedas. If we want to understand the statements by indirect
interpretation under some hypothesis, then we challenge the evidential quality
of the Vedic statement. In other words, Vedic statements cannot be accepted
by our imperfect interpretation; they must be accepted as they are. Other-
wise there is no authority in the Vedic statement.

According to Lord Chaitanya, persons who try to always find some
interpretation of the Vedic statements are not at all intelligent. They mislead
their followers by some innovation of their own interpretation. In India
there is a class who are known as Aryasamajist, who say that they accept only
the original Vedas and no other Vedic literature. But their purpose is only
to make their own interpretation, and according to Lord Chaitanya such
interpretation is not accepted. Neither are they Vedic. Lord Chaitanya then
said that the Vedic statements of the Upanishads are just like sunlight; as in
the sunlight everything is clear and very distinct, so the statements in the
Vedas are distinct and clear. The Mayavadi philosophers cover the sunlight
with the cloud of their misinterpretation.

He then said that all Vedic statements of the Upanishads aim at the truth,
known as Brahman. The meaning of the word Brahman is “the greatest,”
and when you speak of the greatest we must immediately understand that
greatest means the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Source of all emana-
tions. Unless the greatest is filled with six opulences it cannot be the greatest;
therefore the greatest, with the fullness of six opulences, means the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. In other words, the Supreme Brahman is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad Gita also, in the Tenth Chapter,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, is accepted as the Supreme
