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Library » Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta » Madhya-līlā » CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CC Madhya 18.108

Bengali

কিন্তু কাহোঁ ‘কৃষ্ণ’ দেখে, কাহোঁ ‘ভ্রম’ মানে ।
স্থাণু-পুরুষে যৈছে বিপরীত-জ্ঞানে ॥ ১০৮ ॥

Text

kintu kāhoṅ ‘kṛṣṇa’ dekhe, kāhoṅ ‘bhrama’ māne
sthāṇu-puruṣe yaiche viparīta-jñāne

Synonyms

kintu — but; kāhoṅ — where; kṛṣṇa — Kṛṣṇa; dekhe — one sees; kāhoṅ — where; bhrama māne — mistakes; sthāṇu-puruṣe — the dry tree and a person; yaiche — as; viparīta-jñāne — by understanding one to be the other.

Translation

“But where they are seeing Kṛṣṇa is their mistake. It is like considering a dry tree to be a person.”

Purport

The word sthāṇu means “a dry tree without leaves.” From a distance one may mistake such a tree for a person. This is called sthāṇu-puruṣa. Although Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was living in Vṛndāvana, the inhabitants considered Him an ordinary human being, and they mistook the fisherman to be Kṛṣṇa. Every human being is prone to make such mistakes. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was mistaken for an ordinary sannyāsī, the fisherman was mistaken for Kṛṣṇa, and the torchlight was mistaken for bright jewels on Kālīya’s hoods.