Overview of the Sixty-One Explanations

of the Ātmārāma Verse

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 24

Based on Translation and Purport by

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Inspired by: HG Dhruva Maharaja Dasa
Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Compiled by: Bhakta Pritam
SB 1.7.10
ātmārāmāś ca munayo
nirgranthā apy urukrame
kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim
ittham-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ

Synonyms:
ātma-ārāmāḥ — persons who take pleasure in being transcendentally situated in the service of
the Lord; ca — also; munayaḥ — great saintly persons who have completely rejected material
aspirations, fruitive activities and so forth; nirgranthāḥ — without interest in any material
desire; api — certainly; urukrame — unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, whose
activities are wonderful; kurvanti — do; ahaitukīm — causeless, or without material desires;
bhaktim — devotional service; ittham-bhūta — so wonderful as to attract the attention of the
self-satisfied; guṇaḥ — who has transcendental qualities; hariḥ — the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.

‘Those who are self-satisfied and unattracted by external material desires are also
attracted to the loving service of Śrī Krsna, whose qualities are transcendental and
whose activities are wonderful. Hari, the Personality of Godhead, is called Krsna
because He has such transcendentally attractive features.’
Meaning of each word in the ātmārāma verse

Ātmā Ātmārāma Muni Nirgrantha Nih

- Body One who enjoys these seven items: - One who is thoughtful - One who is liberated from the material knots of Used for a sense of
- Mind - Absolute Truth - One who is grave or silent ignorance ascertainment, gradation,
- Absolute Truth - Body - An ascetic - One who is devoid of all regulative principles enjoined in construction or forbidding
- Natural Characteristics - Mind - One who keeps great vows the Vedic literature
- Firmness - Endeavor - One in the renounced order - One who does not have knowledge
- A saint - One who is illiterate, lowborn, misbehaved, unregulated
Grantha
- Intelligence - Firmness
- Endeavor - Intelligence and devoid of respect for the Vedic literature Riches, Thesis, and
- Nature - One who is a capitalist, and to one who has no riches Composition

(CC Madhya 24.11-12) (CC Madhya 24.13) (CC Madhya 24.14-15) (CC Madhya 24.16-17) (CC Madhya 24.18)

Urukrama Uru Kurvanti Hetu Bhakti

- Very great
(as in ahaitukum)
- One whose krama [step] is great - They do something for others - Devotional Service of two types

- The Supreme Personality of - It is used in connection with Cause: a thing is done for some a) sādhana-bhakti, execution of
Godhead, who, by His external devotional service, which must motive. devotional service according to
potency, has perfectly created
Krama be executed for the satisfaction There can be three motives: the regulative principles
innumerable universes - Step of Krsna i. One may act to enjoy the b) prema-bhakti, ecstatic love of
- Throwing the foot forward result personally Godhead
- Power, Trembling, A Systematic ii. To achieve some material

Method, Argument, A forcible perfection

attack by stepping forward iii. To attain liberation

(CC Madhya 24.19-23) (CC Madhya 24.25) (CC Madhya 24.27-28) (CC Madhya 24.29-30)
Meaning of each word in the ātmārāma verse

Ittham-bhūta Guna Hari

- Full of transcendental bliss
- Quality
- The qualities of Krsna are
transcendentally situated and
are unlimited in quantity
- The Lord takes away all
inauspicious things from His
devotee
- He attracts the mind by ecstatic
love for God

(CC Madhya 24.35-36) (CC Madhya 24.41) (CC Madhya 59-60)

Ca Api
Is used to: Used in the sense of:

i. Possibility
i. To connect a word or sentence with a
ii. Question
previous word or sentence
iii. Doubt
ii. To give the sense of aggregation
iv. Censure
iii. To assist the meaning
v. Aggregation
iv. To give a collective understanding
vi. Appropriate application of
v. To suggest another effort or exertion
things
vi. To fulfill the meter of a verse
vii. Extravagance
vii. It is also used in the sense of certainty

(CC Madhya 24.67) (CC Madhya 24.69)

26 Meanings of ātmārāma
Santa-bhaktas Others Those laboring under bodily conception

sagarbha-yogārurukṣu, a yogī One in the bodily conception

meditating upon the four-handed who worships his own body as
Sadhaka, the neophyte performer Mental speculators
Viṣṇu form and desiring yogic Brahman
perfection

nigarbha-yogārurukṣu, one who is Śārkarākṣa, those situated in

Those engaged in
brahma-maya, one absorbed in the trying for perfection in impersonal the gross bodily conception and
different types of
thought of impersonal Brahman meditation begin worshiping from the
endeavor
abdomen
sagarbha-yogārūḍha, one who has
prāpta-brahma-laya, one who has
been elevated to the platform of Those who are Mystic yogis who worship the
actually attained Brahman
yogic perfection by meditating on patient and sober Lord from the top of their heads
perfection
the Viṣṇu form

Those who are Tapasvīs, those who undergo

mumukṣu, one who desires nigarbha-yogārūḍha, an impersonal
intelligent and
ātmārāma liberation yogī on the platform of perfection
learned scholars
severe austerities and penances
to elevate themselves to the
higher planetary systems
sagarbha-prāpta-siddhi, one who Those who are
jīvan-mukta, one who is liberated has attained the perfectional stage intelligent but (20-23)
in this life by meditating on the Viṣṇu form
illiterate and foolish (CC Madhya 24.211-220)

prāpta-svarūpa, one who has nigarbha-prāpta-siddhi, one who

has attained perfection by Those who are Those who associate with devotees
attained his original constitutional conscious of their
position practicing impersonal meditation
eternal servitorship nirgrantha - one who is
to Krsna liberated from the material
nirgrantha-muni, a completely knots of ignorance.
liberated saint
nirgrantha - one who is
illiterate, lowborn, misbehaved,
unregulated and devoid of
respect for the Vedic literature.

nirgrantha - who is a hunter by

profession or who is very poor

(1-13) (14-19) (24-26)

(CC Madhya 24.161-164) (CC Madhya 24.210) (CC Madhya 24.16-18)
 Subtle Meaning
Gross Meaning Render
Associates who have Sadhakas devotional
Eternal service to Other Meanings
become perfect by
associates Mature Immature
devotional service

A servant of the Lord Munayah - great sages

A servant elevated by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
as His personal who render devotional
spiritual cultivation a servant as a servant
associate service to Lord Krsna

Regulative (59)
A friend by spiritual A mature devotee as An immature devotee
Devotional A personal friend (CC Madhya 24.301)
cultivation a friend as a friend
Service

urukrama, bhakti,
Parents and superior ahaitukī and kurvanti
Personal parents or devotees by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
similar superiors cultivation of a parent and superior as a father or superior
devotional service (60)
(CC Madhya 24.303-306)
A beloved wife or
female friend by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
ātmārāma A personal beloved
cultivation of a wife and beloved as a beloved
devotional service
Lord Krsna, His
expansions or
(27-30) (31-34) (35-38) (39-42) incarnations
A servant of the Lord
A servant elevated by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
as His personal (CC Madhya 24.285)
spiritual cultivation a servant as a servant
associate
Those who engage in
Lord Krsna’s service
A friend by spiritual A mature devotee as An immature devotee
Spontaneous A personal friend
cultivation a friend as a friend
Devotional Ksetrajña – living
Service entity, the enjoyer, the
chief, and material
Parents and superior
nature
Personal parents or devotees by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
similar superiors cultivation of a parent and superior as a father or superior
devotional service
(61)
A beloved wife or (CC Madhya 24.307)
female friend by A mature devotee as An immature devotee
35 more meanings of A personal beloved
cultivation of a wife and beloved as a beloved
devotional service
ātmārāma, thus (43-46) (47-50) (51-54) (55-58)
totaling 61 (CC Madhya 24.284 – 296)
Lord Caitanya’s concluding summary of the
61 meanings (CC Madhya 24.313)
“I may know; Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the son of Vyāsadeva, may know; and Vyāsadeva may
know or may not know Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. On the whole, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the
spotless Purāṇa, can be learned only through devotional service, not by material
intelligence, speculative methods or imaginary commentaries. ” (Spoken by Lord Siva)

Purport: Only one who has taken to devotional service can understand Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam, which is the spotless Purāna for a transcendentalist (paramahaṁsa)... One
who has developed pure Krsna consciousness and has served the pure devotee, the
spiritual master, can understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.