20210823 Love of Kṛṣna Floods Everyone Except the Māyāvādīs of Kāśī Part 4

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 23rd August 2021 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Continuing with the compilation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book, chapter entitled:

Love of Kṛṣṇa floods everyone except the Māyāvādīs of Kāśī Part 4

Under the Section: The Lord Travels to Vṛndāvana

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 31-32

ahaituka-kṛpāsindhura tāhādera uddhārera cinta:—

tāhā dekhi’ mahāprabhu karena cintana
jagat ḍubāite āmi kariluṅ yatana

keha keha eḍāila, pratijñā ha-ila bhaṅga
tā-sabā ḍubaite pātiba kichu raṅga

Translation: Seeing that the Māyāvādīs and others were fleeing, Lord Caitanya thought, “I wanted everyone to be immersed in this inundation of love of Godhead, but some of them have escaped. Therefore I shall devise a trick to drown them also.”

Purport: Here is an important point. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to invent a way to capture the Māyāvādīs and others who did not take interest in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. This is the symptom of an ācārya. An ācārya who comes for the service of the Lord cannot be expected to conform to a stereotype, for he must find the ways and means by which Kṛṣṇa consciousness may be spread. Sometimes jealous persons criticize the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement because it engages equally both boys and girls in distributing love of Godhead. Not knowing that boys and girls in countries like Europe and America mix very freely, these fools and rascals criticize the boys and girls in Kṛṣṇa consciousness for intermingling. But these rascals should consider that one cannot suddenly change a community’s social customs. However, since both the boys and the girls are being trained to become preachers, those girls are not ordinary girls but are as good as their brothers who are preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, to engage both boys and girls in fully transcendental activities is a policy intended to spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. These jealous fools who criticize the intermingling of boys and girls will simply have to be satisfied with their own foolishness because they cannot think of how to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness by adopting ways and means that are favorable for this purpose. Their stereotyped methods will never help spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, what we are doing is perfect by the grace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, for it is He who proposed to invent a way to capture those who strayed from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda as an Ācārya, he invented different ways to capture the conditioned souls. In the West, he saw that the culture was such that boys and girls intermingle, so he engaged the girls to become preachers and, in this way, Kṛṣṇa consciousness could spread in the society. Whether one is a boy or whether one is girl, by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, they can achieve Kṛṣṇa bhakti and according to the śāstra they can go back to Godhead. So, the ācārya, he cannot be stereotyped, he has to think how to deliver the people in each country, in each time, place and circumstance.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.33

patita vacita jīvera uddāra-janya sannyāsa-grahaṇa:—

eta bali’ mane kichu kariyā vicāra
sannyāsa-āśrama prabhu kailā aṅgīkāra

Translation: Thus the Lord accepted the sannyāsa order of life after full consideration.

Purport: There was no need for Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to accept sannyāsa, for He is God Himself and therefore has nothing to do with the material bodily concept of life. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not identify Himself with any of the eight varṇas and āśramas, namely, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. He identified Himself as the Supreme Spirit. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, or for that matter any pure devotee, never identifies with these social and spiritual divisions of life, for a devotee is always transcendental to these different gradations of society. Nevertheless, Lord Caitanya decided to accept sannyāsa on the grounds that when He became a sannyāsī everyone would show Him respect and in that way be favored. Although there was actually no need for Him to accept sannyāsa, He did so for the benefit of those who might think Him an ordinary human being. The main purpose of His accepting sannyāsa was to deliver the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs. This will be evident later in this chapter.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained the term “Māyāvādī” as follows: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to the material conception of life. A Māyāvādī is one who considers the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa to be made of māyā and who also considers the abode of the Lord and the process of approaching Him, devotional service, to be māyā. The Māyāvādī considers all the paraphernalia of devotional service to be māyā.” Māyā refers to material existence, which is characterized by the reactions of fruitive activities. Māyāvādīs consider devotional service to be among such fruitive activities. According to them, when Bhāgavatas (devotees) are purified by philosophical speculation, they will come to the real point of liberation. Those who speculate in this way regarding devotional service are called kutārkikas (false logicians), and those who consider devotional service to be fruitive activity are called karma-niṣṭhas. Those who criticize devotional service are called nindakas (blasphemers). Similarly, nondevotees who consider devotional activities to be material are called pāṣaṇḍīs, and scholars with a similar viewpoint are called adhama paḍuyās.

The kutārkikas, nindakas, pāṣaṇḍīs and adhama paḍuyās all avoided the benefit of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement of developing love of Godhead. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu felt compassion for them, and it is for this reason that He decided to accept the sannyāsa order, for by seeing Him as a sannyāsī they would offer Him respects. The sannyāsa order is still respected in India. Indeed, the very dress of a sannyāsī still commands respect from the Indian public. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted sannyāsa to facilitate preaching His devotional cult, although otherwise He had no need to accept the fourth order of spiritual life.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya simply accepted sannyāsa as a method to deliver people who would otherwise avoid Him, and by being a sannyāsī,at least these types of people might offer Him respect, and in this way He was using the ācārya principle of how to deliver all the people. All the devotees in the present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should also think how to develop and how to apply this principle and how to deliver all the blasphemers and the criticizers and false logicians and materialistic students.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.34

cabbiśa vatsara chilā gṛhastha-āśrame
pañca-viṁśati varṣe kaila yati-dharme

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu remained in householder life for twenty-four years, and on the verge of His twenty-fifth year He accepted the sannyāsa order.

Purport: There are four orders of spiritual life, namely, brahmācārya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa, and in each of these āśramas there are four divisions. The divisions of the brahmācārya-āśrama are sāvitrya, prājāpatya, brāhma and bṛhat, and the divisions of the gṛhasthāśrama are vārtā (professionals), sañcaya (accumulators), śālīna (those who do not ask anything from anyone) and śiloñchana (those who collect grains from the paddy fields). Similarly, the divisions of the vānaprastha-āśrama are vaikhānasa, vālakhilya, auḍumbara and pheṇapa, and the divisions of sannyāsa are kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, haṁsa and niṣkriya. There are two kinds of sannyāsīs, who are called dhīras and narottamas, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.13.26-27). At the end of the month of January in the year 1432 śakābda (A.D. 1510), Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted the sannyāsa order from Keśava Bhāratī, who belonged to the Śaṅkara-sampradāya.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Caitanya Mahāprabhu has accepted this sannyāsa order to deliver the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, otherwise Lord Caitanya, He didn’t need to accept any specific order as He was transcendental, similarly pure devotees of Lord Caitanya are transcendental to all these orders. They may observe one or another in order to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.35

paḍuyā, pāṣaṇdī, tarka-nindakādi vañcita dalera uddāra:—

sannyāsa kariyā prabhu kailā ākarṣaṇa
yateka pālāñāchila tārkikādigaṇa

Translation: After accepting the sannyāsa order, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu attracted the attention of all those who had evaded Him, beginning with the logicians.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the materialistic students were criticizing Lord Caitanya for being a gṛhastha and acting against them. Lord Caitanya took the sannyāsa order and then they respected Him.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.36

paḍuyā, pāṣaṇḍī, karmī, nindakādi yata
tārā āsi’ prabhu-pāya haya avanata

Translation: Thus, the students, infidels, fruitive workers and critics all came to surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, in those days sannyāsīs were especially respected, even today sannyāsīs are somewhat respected in India. And so all those who were opposed to His movement of love of Godhead, when He accepted the sannyāsa order, they became respectful.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.37

tāhādera aparādha-mocana evaṁ bhakti-lābha:—

aparādha kṣamāila, ḍubila prema-jale
kebā eḍāibe prabhura prema-mahājāle

Translation: Lord Caitanya excused them all, and they merged into the ocean of devotional service, for no one can escape the unique loving network of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Purport: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was an ideal ācārya. An ācārya is an ideal teacher who knows the purport of the revealed scriptures, behaves exactly according to their injunctions and teaches his students to adopt these principles also. As an ideal ācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu devised ways to capture all kinds of atheists and materialists. Every ācārya has a specific means of propagating his spiritual movement with the aim of bringing men to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, the method of one ācārya may be different from that of another, but the ultimate goal is never neglected. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends: An ācārya should devise a means by which people may somehow or other come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. First they should become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and all the prescribed rules and regulations may later gradually be introduced. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we follow this policy of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. For example, since boys and girls in the Western countries freely intermingle, special concessions regarding their customs and habits are necessary to bring them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The ācārya must devise a means to bring them to devotional service. Therefore, although I am a sannyāsī I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples. 

Jayapatākā Swami: The Europeans and Americans boys and girls freely intermingle but Śrīla Prabhupāda recommended that if they want to freely intermingle they should be married, and so this was his arrangement and he participated in these marriages.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.38

sakala jīvera uddārera janya upāyāviṣkāra:—

sabā nistārite prabhu kṛpā-avatāra
sabā nistārite kare cāturī apāra

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in order to deliver all the fallen souls. Therefore He devised many methods to liberate them from the clutches of māyā.

Purport: It is the concern of the ācārya to show mercy to the fallen souls. In this connection, deśa-kāla-pātra (the place, the time and the object) should be taken into consideration. Since the European and American boys and girls in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement preach together, less intelligent men criticize that they are mingling without restriction. In Europe and America boys and girls mingle unrestrictedly and have equal rights; therefore it is not possible to completely separate the men from the women. However, we are thoroughly instructing both men and women how to preach, and actually they are preaching wonderfully. Of course, we very strictly prohibit illicit sex. Boys and girls who are not married are not allowed to sleep together or live together, and there are separate arrangements for boys and girls in every temple. Gṛhasthas live outside the temple, for in the temple we do not allow even husband and wife to live together. The results of this are wonderful. Both men and women are preaching the gospel of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Kṛṣṇa with redoubled strength. In this verse the words sabā nistārite kare cāturī apāra indicate that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu wanted to deliver one and all. Therefore it is a principle that a preacher must strictly follow the rules and regulations laid down in the śāstras yet at the same time devise a means by which the preaching work to reclaim the fallen may go on with full force.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the four regulative principles to be followed which destroy the good qualities of a human being are – to avoid the illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and meat eating, so Śrīla Prabhupāda would stress these things but he would devise a system to engage all the boys and girls in preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 7.39

kāśīra Māyāvādī vyatita sakala mānavera uddāra:-

tabe nija bhakta kaila yata mleccha ādi
sabe eḍāila mātra kāśīra māyāvādī

Translation: All were converted into devotees of Lord Caitanya, even the mlecchas and yavanas. Only the impersonalist followers of Śaṅkarācārya evaded Him.

Purport: In this verse it is clearly indicated that although Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu converted Muslims and other mlecchas into devotees, the impersonalist followers of Śaṅkarācārya could not be converted. After accepting the renounced order of life, Caitanya Mahāprabhu converted many karma-niṣṭhas who were addicted to fruitive activities, many great logicians like Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, nindakas (blasphemers) like Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, pāṣaṇḍīs (nondevotees) like Jagāi and Mādhāi, and adhama paḍuyās (degraded students) like Mukunda and his friends. All of them gradually became devotees of the Lord, even the Pāṭhāns (Muslims), but the worst offenders, the impersonalists, were extremely difficult to convert, for they very tactfully escaped the devices of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. In describing the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained that persons who are bewildered by empiric knowledge or direct sensual perception, and who thus consider that even this limited material world can be gauged by their material estimations, conclude that anything that one can discern by direct sense perception is but māyā, or illusion. They maintain that although the Absolute Truth is beyond the range of sense perception, it includes no spiritual variety or enjoyment. According to the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, the spiritual world is simply void. They do not believe in the Personality of the Absolute Truth or in His varieties of activities in the spiritual world. Although they have their own arguments, which are not very strong, they have no conception of the variegated activities of the Absolute Truth. These impersonalists, who are followers of Śaṅkarācārya, are generally known as Kāśīra Māyāvādīs (impersonalists residing in Vārāṇasī). Near Vārāṇasī there is another group of impersonalists, who are known as Saranātha Māyāvādīs. Outside the city of Vārāṇasī is a place known as Saranātha, where there is a big Buddhist stūpa. Many followers of Buddhist philosophy live there, and they are known as Saranātha Māyāvādīs. The impersonalists of Saranātha differ from those of Vārāṇasī, for the Vārāṇasī impersonalists propagate the idea that the impersonal Brahman is truth whereas material varieties are false, but the Saranātha impersonalists do not even believe that the Absolute Truth, or Brahman, can be understood as the opposite of māyā, or illusion. According to their vision, materialism is the only manifestation of the Absolute Truth. Factually both the Kāśīra and the Saranātha Māyāvādīs, as well as any other philosophers who have no knowledge of the spirit soul, are advocates of utter materialism. None of them have clear knowledge regarding the Absolute or the spiritual world. Philosophers like the Saranātha Māyāvādīs who do not believe in the spiritual existence of the Absolute Truth but consider material varieties to be everything do not believe that there are two kinds of nature, inferior (material) and superior (spiritual), as described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Actually, neither the Vārāṇasī nor Saranātha Māyāvādīs accept the principles of the Bhagavad-gītā, due to a poor fund of knowledge. Since these impersonalists who do not have perfect spiritual knowledge cannot understand the principles of bhakti-yoga, they must be classified among the non-devotees who are against the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We sometimes feel inconvenienced by the hindrances offered by these impersonalists, but we do not care about their so-called philosophy, for we are propagating our own philosophy as presented in Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and getting successful results. Theorizing as if devotional service were subject to their mental speculation, both kinds of Māyāvādī impersonalists conclude that the subject matter of bhakti-yoga is a creation of māyā and that Kṛṣṇa, devotional service and the devotee are also māyā. Therefore, as stated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī: “All the Māyāvādīs are offenders to Lord Kṛṣṇa.” It is not possible for them to understand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement; (Cc. Madhya 17.129) It is not possible for them to understand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement; therefore we do not value their philosophical conclusions. However expert such quarrelsome impersonalists are in putting forward their so-called logic, we defeat them in every respect and go forward with our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Their imaginative mental speculation cannot deter the progress of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is completely spiritual and is never under the control of such Māyāvādīs.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya advised that we should not listen to the Māyāvādī, impersonalists, voidist philosophers, since they will simply create confusion in the mind. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he never compromised in presenting the Absolute Truth is sentient and personal but these impersonalist they don’t accept that. So, that’s why hearing them is very dangerous, one can get bewildered. Lord Caitanya He devised a scheme to deliver these Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, but first He went to Vṛndāvana.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Love of Kṛṣna Floods Everyone Except the Māyāvādīs of Kāśī Part 4

Under the Section: The Lord Travels to Vṛndāvana