7.14

eka mahaprabhu, ara prabhu duijana

dui prabhu seve mahaprabhura carana

SYNONYMS

eka mahaprabhu—one Mahaprabhu, or the supreme predominator; ara prabhu duijana—and the other two (Nityananda and Advaita) are two prabhus (masters); dui prabhu—the two prabhus (Nityananda and Advaita Gosani); seve—serve; mahaprabhura—of the supreme predominator, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu; carana—the lotus feet.

One of Them is Mahaprabhu, and the other two are prabhus.

These two prabhus serve the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu.

PURPORT

Although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Advaita Prabhu all belong to the same Visnu category, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is nevertheless accepted as the Supreme, and the other two prabhus engage in His transcendental loving service to teach ordinary living entities that every one of us is subordinate to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

In another place in Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 5.142) it is said, ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya: the only supreme master is Krsna, and all others, both visnu-tattva and jiva-tattva, engage in the service of the Lord.

Both the visnu-tattva (as Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita) and the jiva-tattva (srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda) engage in the service of the Lord, but one must distinguish between the visnu-tattva servitors and the jiva-tattva servitors.

The jiva-tattva servitor, the spiritual master, is actually the servitor God.

As explained in previous verses, in the absolute world there are no such differences, yet one must observe these differences in order to distinguish the Supreme from His subordinates.