Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Madhya 15.135

'dāru-brahma'-rūpe — sākṣāt śrī-puruṣottama

bhāgīrathī hana sākṣāt 'jala-brahma'-sama

SYNONYMS

dāru-brahma-rūpe — in the form of Brahman as wood; sākṣāt — directly; śrī-puruṣottama — Lord Jagannātha; bhāgīrathī — the river Ganges; hana — is; sākṣāt — directly; jala-brahma-sama — the Supreme in the form of water.

TRANSLATION

"Lord Jagannātha is the Supreme Lord Himself in the form of wood, and the river Ganges is the Supreme Lord Himself in the form of water.

PURPORT

The Vedas enjoin, sarvaḿ khalv idaḿ brahma: everything is the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Brahman or Parambrahma. Parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis tathedam akhilaḿ jagat: everything is a manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Brahman. Since the energy and energetic are identical, actually everything is Kṛṣṇa, Parambrahma. In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.4) Lord Kṛṣṇa confirms this:

mayā tatam idaḿ sarvaḿ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaḿ teṣv avasthitaḥ

"By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them."

Kṛṣṇa is spread throughout the whole universe in His impersonal form. Since everything is a manifestation of the Lord's energy, the Lord can manifest Himself through any energy. In this age, the Lord is manifest through wood as Lord Jagannātha, and He is manifest through water as the river Ganges. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu ordered the two brothers — Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya and Vidyā-vācaspati — to worship Lord Jagannātha and the river Ganges.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness