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| EDITORIAL December 10, 1998 VNN2650 Let Vaishnavism Be Triumphant BY SOUMITRA DAS EDITORIAL, Dec 10 (VNN) — Guru Gauranga Jayatah Respected Vaishnavas: All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I offer my humble obeisance unto all the vaishnavas who are preaching Hari Nama all over the world and delivering the fallen souls like us from the material bondage of repeated birth and death. I offer my venerable respect unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada who, through his lucid and easy to understand commentary on Srimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is, and Srimad Bhagavatam rekindled in the hearts of the eternally conditioned soul like me the dormant Krishna Bhakti - which is the ultimate goal of human life. Had he not come to the west, not only the western people but also the Indians like us would have been unaware of the Krishna Bhakti. Even though those who haven't seen him face to face have gained enormous inspiration through reading his books. He is a brilliant star amongst the galaxy of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas succeeding His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Since 1965, the misconception of the true and principal teachings of Sanatan Dharma made a tremendous shift amongst not only the general Hindus but also the so called scholars of the Vedanta - who over the years repudiated the teachings of Lord Krishna. The conflict between the Advaitavadi [ Impersonalists ] and the Savisheshvadi [ Personalists ] kept on blazing since Sripada Shankaracharya preached his Mayavadi commentary to negate the personal form of the Lord. It is not known exactly how long this kind of conflict will go on, even though there is going to be a perceptible change in the ideas among the followers of Sripada Shankaracharya, as revealed by the following news article posted in an Indian Daily Newspaper "The Hindu". http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/981125/02/0225000f.htm Though Vaishnavism entails the principal and the primeval teachings of the Vedic Scriptures, unfortunately the mainstream followers of the so-called Hinduism are adherent to the impersonal philosophy. Though this impersonalist [ Mayavadi ] philosophy has no place anywhere in the Vedic scriptures, it was imaginarily fabricated and introduced in the Vedic systems by Sripada Shankaracharya - who, according to the Padma and Shiva Purana, is none other than Lord Shiva - to complete his mission deputed upon him by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word "Mayavad" is found in the Padma Purana where Lord Shiva, while conversing with his consort goddess Parvati says: mayavadam asat shastram pracchannam bauddham uchyate mayaiva vihitam devi kalau brahmana murtina brahmanas chaparam rupam nirgunam vakshyate mayaa sarvasya jagatohapasya mohanartham kalau yuge vedante tu maha shashtre mayavadam avaidikam mayaiva bakshyate devi jagatam nasha karanat "Devi, In order to delude demoniac atheists, in the Kali Yuga I will preach "Mayavad" philosophy which is nothing but the covered Buddhist phislophy and an impious imaginary concoction. By means of disseminating this philosophy, I will try to describe the Supreme Lord [ Parabrahman ] as without having any attribute and forms. I will delude the whole world by denying the personal form of the Lord and explaining this non-Vedic commentary based on "Mayavada" in the great Vedic scripture [ Vedanta ]." In another section of the same Padma Purana Lord Siva further says to goddess parvati: srnu devi pravakshyami tamasani yatha kramam yesham shravana-matrena patityam jnaninam api apartham shrutim vakyanam darshaya shloka garhitam karma svarupa tyajatvam atra cha pratipadyate sarva karma paribhramshan naishkarmam tatra chochyate paratma jivayor aikyam mayatra pratipadyate "O goddess Parvati, just listen to how I have disseminated this mayavada philosophy - which is in the mode of ignorance. As soon as a learned man hears this philosophy, he is bound to fall. Just listen to how I have distorted the meaning of the Vedas. I have misrepresented the meaning of the Vedas by imploring the mass to give up doing all kind of action with a view to rid of the bondage of the fruitive action. Throug this philosophy,I have brought the soul on par with the Super Soul." The reason why Lord Shiva did this can be found by his own statement in the Siva Purana: dvapar adau yuge bhutva kalaya manushadishu svagamai kalpitais tancha janan mad vimukhan kuru mancha gopaya yena shyat shristir eshotarotara. It is stated in the Padma Purana, and quoted in the Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila Ch.6:181-182), that Lord Siva was requested by the Lord to appear as a brahmana to deviate the human race from Him. The Supreme Lord instructs Lord Siva: "In order to make the general mass turn away from Me, incarnate in the Kali yuga at the end of Dvapara Yuga, delude them by imagining your own interpretation of the Vedas, imparting it unto them, hide my real identity in such a manner as to propagate a population bereft of the spiritual knowledge that people will become more interested in the advancement of the material civilization." The above mentioned verses vigorously dispel any kind of doubts about whether the impersonalist philosophy is the ultimate path given in the scriptures." Truly speaking, the tenets of no other World Religions than those found in the actual teachings of "SANATANA DHARMA" can describe the Supreme Lord in a very abstract manner. What most the followers of other faiths can do is to just speculate what the form of the Supreme Lord will be or just to deny categorically that the Lord has any kind of spiritual form different from the living entities. These kind of misconception of the form of the Lord had gotten its roots from the impersonalist philosophy entailed by Sripada Shankaracharya, who had lots of contribution to the resurrection of the Vedic Religion from the hands of the Buddhist philosophy - which once took a heavy toll on the Vedic philosophy. Sripada Sankaracarya, by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, compromised between atheism and theism in order to delude the atheists and revert them to theism, and to do so he gave up the direct method of Vedic knowledge and tried to present a meaning which is indirect. It was with this purpose that he wrote his Sariraka-bhasya commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. Although Sripada Sankaracarya was attempting to cover the Supreme Lord by his Mayavadi philosophy, he was simply following the order of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, it should be understood that his teachings were a timely necessity but not a permanent fact. Sripada Shankaracharya's mission was to completely drive away from India Buddhism, propounded by Lord Buddhadeva. What Buddhadeva - regarded as one of the incarnation of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead - preached was the outright denial of the teachings of the Vedas just to bring back to the Vedic path the heretic obdurate Brahmins - who in the name of the Vedic rituals started slaughtering animals. Though Sripada Shankaracharya - who took as his life and soul the mission of preaching the impersonalist philosophy, which is not based on the Vedic philosophy - was through out his manifested life time a pure devotee of Lord Krishna and was even known to be quite often visualizing the pastimes of Lord Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan and and therefore instructed his followers before he departed from this earth to "worship Lord Govinda". His famous sermon is stated herein: bhaja govindam bhaja govindam bhaja govindam muda mate prabhu prapte sannihite kale na hi rakshati dukrincha karane "O the foolish! Worship Lord Govinda, Worship Lord Govinda, Worship Lord Govinda. At the time of death, neither your word jugglery nor your grammatical proficiency will enable you to escape it." The Shankarites have kept on twisting the meaning of some verses of the Upanishadas through word jugglery to suit their causes and have still kept on disowning the true philosophy of the Vedas. Even though some verses of different Upanishads like "Apani pado javano grhiita/ pashyato chakshu sa srnotya karmana/ sa vetti vedyam na cha tashyasti betta /tam ahur agram purusham mahantam" from the [ Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.19) ] appear to be supportive of the impersonalist philosophy, the fact that the Supreme Absolute truth is indeed a Person becomes radiantly clarified eventually by other verses of the same Upanishads like the verse "vedaham etam purusam mahantam" of the [ Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.8-9) ]. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no hands which are materially contaminated, but He has His hands and accepts whatever sacrifice is offered to Him. The Mayavadis don't want to accept the word "Purusham" as denoting the Superme Lord as a Person. Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada through out his commentary on the Vedic scriptures smashed the impersonalist philosophy, profusely quoting from the scriptures. In his purport on Text no. 7 of Chapter 7 of Bhagavad Gita As It Is he commented: There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person. That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-samhita: isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah; that is, the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Krishna, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge. These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.10): tato yad uttarataram tad arupam anamayam ya etad vidur amrtas te bhavanti athetare duhkham evapiyanti. "In the material world Brahma, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahma there is the Transcendence, who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world." The impersonalist puts more stress on the word arupam. But this arupam is not impersonal. It indicates the transcendental form of eternity, bliss and knowledge as described in the Brahma-samhita quoted above. Other verses in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.8-9) substantiate this as follows: vedaham etam purusam mahantam aditya-varnam tamasah parastat tam eva vidvan ati mrtyum eti nanyah pantha vidyate 'yanaya yasmat param naparam asti kincid yasman naniyo no jyayo 'sti kincit vrksa iva stabdho divi tisthaty ekas tenedam purnam purusena sarvam "I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person. "There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person, because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illumines the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His extensive energies." >From these verses one concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is all-pervading by His multi-energies, both material and spiritual. Sripada Shankaracharya asserted in his Gita Bhashya: narayanoha parah avyktoh avyktat sanatana Lord Narayana is transcendental to both manifested and unmnifested world. And in another portion of his Gita Bhashya, he further stated that that Lord Narayana is none other than the son of Devaki, Krishna. In the preface to his Gita Bhashay he said: sarvopanisado gavo dogdha gopala-nandanah partho vatsah su-dhir bhokta dugdham gitamrtam mahat "This Gitopanisad, Bhagavad-gita, the essence of all the Upanisads, is just like a cow, and Lord Krishna, who is famous as a cowherd boy, is milking this cow. Arjuna is just like a calf, and learned scholars and pure devotees are to drink the nectarean milk of Bhagavad-gita." In the last verse of his "Gita Dhyana" - a preface to his Gita Bhashya, he quoted a verse from the 12th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam: yam brahma varunendra rudra marut stunanvanti devair stavair vedair sango pado kramopanishadair gayanti. yam samaga dhyanavasthito tad gatena manasa pashyanti yam yogino yashyatmam na me vidu suraganah devaya tasmai namah. I offer my obeissance unto that Supreme Lord Who is worshiped and adored by Lord Brahma, lord Varuna, Lord Rudra, lord Maruta, Whose very name is recited in the Vedic hymns, Whom the yogis meditate upon and Whom the demigods don't know. Despite his such profound imploration to his disciples and his succeeding followers, they kept on sticking to the impersonalist philosophy. Now we see a perceptible shift towards the personalist philosophy by the Shankarites with the head of the Shankarites having already conducted a padayatra in Vrindavan with a view to relishing Krishna Prema. This kind of reverse and favorable trend of the Shankarites towards the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy may have been triggered by the world wide preaching of Hari Nama Sankirtana which was first introduced by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and was brought out of India to the foreign land by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a pure devotee of Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya and the foremost disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. The successful preaching of the Harinama may have influenced the Shankarites to look forward to the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy with profound introspection. The predicted Golden age in this Kali yuga which was inaugurated by Lord Chaitanya Himself was given a perfect shape by Srila Prabhupada, who fulfilled the prophesy of the Scriptures and Lord Chaitanya that the name of Lord Krishna would be spread in every town and village. With the passage of more time, we will see further changes of opinion about Gaudiya Vaishnavism by the Shankarites and their profound acclamation of it. According to the prediction of the previous Acharyas and the scriptures, the whole world will be filled with the devotees of Lord Sri Hari and the whole world will come under the flag of Sanatana Dharma in the next 10,000 years. kaler dasa-sahasraani madbhaktaah samti bhu-tale ekavarnaa bhavishyamti madbhakteshu gateshu ca Brahma-vaivarta Purana [srikrsnajanmakanda, uttara-arddhe: text 59] Translation For 10,000 years of kali such devotees of mine will fill the whole planet. After the departure of My devotees there will only be one varna [outcast]. The fact that Vaishnavas will purify the whole world is proved in the Padma Purana where it is stated sampradaya vihina ye mantraste nishphala matah atah kalau bhavishyanti chattvara sampradaya sri brahma rudra sanaka vaishnava kshiti pavana chattvaraste kalau bhava hy utkale purushottaman. If one receives a mantra from someone who has no links to any one of the four sampradayas, then that mantra will have no effect. Therefore there will arise four sampradayas [ Sri, Brahma, Rudra, Kumara ] who will purify the whole world. These four sampradayas will originate from the influence of Lord Purushottama in the region of Utkala. We know that these four sampradayas re the founding stone of the Bhakti yoga and purifying the living entities. These four Sampradayas were revitalized by four eminent personalities. Sri by Sripada Ramanajaacharya, Brahma by Sripada Madhavacharya, Rudra by Sripada Vishnujana Swami, Kumara by four Kumaras. Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Sampradaya is taking the leading role in propagating the message of Lord Krishna. Specially this Sampradaya has become blessed by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who took initiation from Srila Ishwarapuri. Forty-six years before the beginning of Kali-yuga, Visnucittha, one of the twelve great Vaisnava saints of the Sri Sampradaya predicted: "There will come a race which will tread the Earth with raised hands and vertical tilaka on their foreheads, who will chant the names of Hari; this will destroy the influence of Kali." (Divyaprabhanda 1:10). Sripada Ramanuja predicted: "The pure devotion to Sri Hari devoid of karma and jnana will grow and grow like a banyan tree covering the whole world, teaching everyone who takes shelter." (Prapannamrta tarpana - last chapter). Within a period of 33 years, ISKCON [ http://www.iskcon.org ] founded by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has spread the message of Lord Krishna in every continent. Once a period will come when not a single tract of land on earth will remain bereft of the message of Lord Krishna being preached and the Harinama being reverberated. What really generates this kind of great hope in our mind is the disclosure of a recent news [ http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9812/WD04-2618.html ] on VNN about the preaching of Lord Krishna's message in a country like Mayanmar where the most impossible thing is going to be made possible by the mercy of Lord Krishna and his pure devotee Srila Prabhupada. Let Vaishnavism triumph all over the world and deliver the conditioned souls like us and show transcendental path towards the sojourn of the living entities to Back home, Back to Godhead [http://www.webcom.com/~ara/col/books/CLAS/sb.html] [Goloka Vrindavana]. param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam [Glory to the Sri-krsna-sankirtana]. Hare Krishna. Sincerely yours Soumitra Das Your unworthy servant This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9812/ET10-2650.html
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