Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Madhya 24.318

kṛṣṇa-tulya bhāgavata — vibhu, sarvāśraya
prati-śloke prati-akṣare nānā artha kaya

SYNONYMS

kṛṣṇa-tulya bhāgavata — Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is identical with Kṛṣṇa; vibhu — the supreme; sarva-āśraya — the origin of everything, or that which controls everything; prati-śloke — in every verse; prati-akṣare — in every syllable; nānā artha kaya — there are varieties of imports.

TRANSLATION

“Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is as great as Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord and shelter of everything. In each and every verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in each and every syllable, there are various meanings.”

Perhaps this particular sentence uttered by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Supreme Lord Himself, whilst instructing Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda, may cast a fresh light on this debate, and hopefully resolve it to the satisfaction of all concerned. Indeed, when God Himself states that the actual meaning of each sloka is basically multi-layered, this kind of validates Narasingha Maharaja’s position, in the wide spectrum of opinions, as well as affords legitimacy to the methodology propounded by Bhaktivinoda Thakura in a couple of his works.

Maybe only the outspoken people are commenting in such a way on your articles. There are probably alot of silent and thoughtful people who are reticent to say anything in the public forum, but they are listening and benefiting from your opinions and wisdom. Hari Krishna

Also, I am not a young man but your old Godbrother. I remember you fondly when you used to preach here in Hawaii. Please do not leave this forum on account of me or this apparent misunderstanding!

“But I don’t think we should avoid discussing the ugly side effects of literalism under the plea that we are renounced from them.”

Was made by Amara das not Goura-vijaya das. My mistake.

Well young man… I disagree and probably in the same way that some of your members obviously do not like to discuss the ‘ugly’ side of homo sex, sex with animals and molesting children. These things belong in their own space and not in just any space.You obviously do not understand that some humans greatly distaiin such topics. I can think of three of my gurus that did and a host of other Vaishnavas also. What to speak of distain those topics, some of them could not even conveive of such animal behavior among humans, what to speak of discuss such topics in public. Such was their purity and their aloofness.

It seems some people on your forum cannot discuss philosophy without involving the anal-chakra — possibly they are covered tantrics and not really Vaishnavas? In any case, I will take my essays elsewhere in future. When there is no proper understanding of time, place and circumstance then there is little or no progress in any subject. And when culture degrades to the point that we can no longer respect the simple request of a particular sannyasi then where do we go from there?

Opinions are like noses… everyone has one. But the secret is that the longer your nose is around the better it gets and therefore Vaishnava culture does not fly opinions in the face of older Vaishnavas when they have specifically requested not to do so.

So, have it your way and I’ll continue on mine. All for the good.