HISTORIC DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE LEAGUE OF DEVOTEES SRILA PRABHUPADA ON THE MISSION OF THE LEAGUE OF DEVOTEES ...AND WHY I HAVE TAKEN ACTION AGAINST MAYAVADIS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NOT HAD PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE FULL-BLOWN IMPERSONALIST (MAYAVADI) AND VOIDIST TRADITIONS OF INDIA AND THE EAST, I CAN TELL YOU THAT THESE TRADITIONS ARE ULTIMATELY LOVELESS. BHAKTI YOGINS OPPOSE THEM BECAUSE THEY TEACH PEOPLE LOVELESS INDIFFERENCE NOT ONLY TOWARDS GOD, BUT TOWARDS HUMANS AND THE CREATION ITSELF. IF THE SELF AND CREATION IS ILLUSORY, THEN WHY NOT BE HEARTLESSLY DETACHED AND COLDLY INDIFFERENT ? THE REAL HOLY DETACHMENT OF THE SAINTS AND WORSHIPING THE ALL-PERVASIVE HOLY SPIRIT OR PARAMATMA OF THE LORD IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MAYAVADISM! OPPOSED TO MAYAVADA, ALL OF THE GREAT BHAKTI TRADITIONS TEACH THE REALITY OF THE SELF AND THE GOODNESS OR GOOD PURPOSE OF CREATION. SHAKTI OR SHEKINAH AS MOTHER NATURE IS BELOVED OF HER LORD! THEY TEACH THE ETERNALITY OF THE SELF / SOUL AND THAT THE SPECIFIC FORM OF SHAKTI OBSERVED / EXPERIENCED AS MATTER IS TEMPORARY BUT REAL, AND IS HOLY OR SPIRITUALIZED IN ITS PROPER AND NATURAL SERVICE TO THE LORD. IN FACT THE TOTALITY OF THE MATERIAL NATURE IS ONE FORM OF GODS OWN BELOVED SHAKTI / SHEKINAH, AND AS MOTHER DURGA (A FORM OF SRIMATI RADHARANI) SHE IS ETERNAL LIKE HER LORD ! SHE IS NOT EVIL IN ANY SENSE. THE GNOSTICS AND NEO-GNOSTIC OCCULTISTS IN THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT HAVE AGAIN RENDERED THEIR MATTERIAL WORLD AS ILLUSORY AND A MUNDANE DUALISM TO BE TRANSCENDED TO ACHIEVE SOME KIND OF GOD BEYOND GOD IN A VIA NEGATIVA NIHILISTIC ABYSS OF AN UTTERLY IMPERSONAL GODHEAD. AS IN ANCIENT TIMES, ARROGANT GNOSTIC KNOW-IT-ALL-ISM CAN TAKE THE FORM OF ANYTHING BUT PURE BHAKTI YOGA. THUS SUCH GNOSTIC IMPERSONALISTS CAN CONCOCT BOGUS SCRIPTURES, FEIGN MIRACLES AND SAINTLINESS WHILE EXPLOITING THE FAITHFUL, AND THEY CAN TEACH MUNDANE DUALISM, MONISM, PANTHEISM, POLYTHEISM, SHAPE-SHIFTING REPTILIAN ALIENS FROM PLANET X, OR ANY OTHER KIND OF NONSENSE. WORST OF ALL, THEY CAN IMPERSONATE DEVOTEES, TO EXPLOIT AND MISLEAD THEM! THUS IT IS MAYAVADI THINKING THAT HAS LED COUNTLESS SOULS ASTRAY. MANY OF THE ANTI-INCARNATION ICONOCLASTIC IMPERSONALISTS HAVE DIABOLIZED MATTER OR DENIED ITS EXISTENCE AS IN WESTERN GNOSTICISM. THE BHAKTI TRADITIONS OF JUDAISM AND CATHOLICISM OPPOSED SUCH GNOSTICISM, BECAUSE IT WAS MAYAVADISM. MAYAVADA THINKING ULTIMATELY LEADS TO COLD IMPERSONAL INDIFFERENCE AND BHAKTI YOGA ULTIMATELY LEADS TO CARING PERSONAL LOVE. SO I DO NOT OPPOSE MAYAVADA JUST TO EXERCISE SOME KIND OF THEOLOGICAL COMBATIVENESS. I DO IT TO SAVE SOULS FROM BECOMING HOPELESS PRISONERS IN THE HELLS OF VOIDIST AND IMPERSONAL LOVELESSNESS. AUTHENTIC LOVINGNESS IS THE UNDENIABLE SYMPTOM OF PERSONALISM. MANY PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE LOVABLENESS OF GOD ESS AS AN OMNIPRESENT PERSON AND/OR PERSONS. THUS ALTHOUGH THEY MAY NOT HAVE TRANSCENDENTAL BHAGAVAN REALIZATION, THEY DO HAVE IMMANENT OR OMNIPRESENT PARAMATMA OR HOLY SPIRIT REALIZATION AND ARE THREFORE NOT NOT NOT IMPERSONALISTS! THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE INDWELLING PERSON OF THE TRINITARIAN SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD! HE IS HARI, GOD-WHO-IS-LOVE IN THE HEART / HRID OF ALL BEINGS! VAISHNAVA DEVOTEES SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO LUMP-IN THE DEVOTEES OF PARAMATMA / THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE IMPERSONALIST ATHEISTS, WHO MAY DISPLAY SOME SUPERFICIAL SIMILARITIES WITH HOLY SPIRIT WORSHIPERS, WHEN THEY (THE IMPERSONALISTS) ARE FIRST TRYING TO RECRUIT UNSUSPECTING SOULS INTO THEIR COVERED FORMS OF ATHEISM. IN HIS 1958 LETTER BELOW WE SEE HOW SERIOUS SRILA PRABHUPADA WAS ABOUT CONFRONTING THE APPROPRIATION AND MISUSE OF THE VAISHNAVA SHASTRA SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM BY A MAYAVADI ORGANIZATION. ... The League of Devotees is an organized effort to render this service to the human society without any pretentious conventions. We are publishing one paper of the name Back to Godhead to educate people in the right direction and I am sending herewith one pamphlet in which the opinions of several respectable gentlemen are inserted as to how they are being appreciated. It is our duty to defend the cause of Bhagavata either by request or by legal action according to necessity and I hope you will understand us in our most responsible task. Awaiting your early reply and thanking you in anticipation, Yours faithfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada Letter of August 5, 1958 FULL TEXT BELOW: Letter to a Mayavadi - Impersonalist Dear Sir, I beg to inform you that I am in receipt of your invitation letter in the matter of observing Bhagavata week through the secretary of Bombay spiritual centre. As I know what sort of Bhagavata week can be observed by the Mayavadins for misleading the innocent public and therefore I not only restrained myself from attending the function but also I advised many others not to attend for the very reason that the recitation of holy Bhagavata is being performed by men who have no access in this great scripture in which only the liberated persons, who are freed from all pretentious religiosities, can take part. The Mayavadins specially have no right to discuss Srimad-Bhagavatam Puranam for the only reason that they are aspiring after liberation (Moksa Vanohha). And Sripada Sankaracarya because He was the incarnation of Sankara, very carefully avoided to make any commentation on the holy Bhagavatam. Sripada Sankaracarya preached His Mayavada philosophy for bewidering the atheist class of men in order to confound them to become more and more atheist and thus suffer perpetually within the threefold miserable conditions of the material nature. But because He was great devotee at heart He dared not to commit sacrilege by unauthorized commentation on the Bhagavatam for He knew it well that a person who aspires after Mukti or merge ones identity in the impersonal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is debarred from the benefit of Srimad-Bhagavatam. If you read Srimad-Bhagavatam from the beginning (which is absolutely necessary for a serious student) you will find what is spoken there in the 2nd sloka of the 1st chapter of the 1st Canto. It is clearly stated there that mundane religiosities, economic development, sense gratification and ultimately a frustrated mans desire to merge in the impersonal feature of Godhead and all similar other things are completely thrown away from the transcendental literature of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Sripada Sridhara Swami the most authorized commentator on the Bhagavatam has said that by the prefix of PRA in the sloka the desire of liberation (Moksa Vanohha) is also stopped herewith. A person who is not a pure Vaisnava cannot understand Srimad-Bhagavatam. A mayavadi may pretend to become a so-called Vaisnava but because he cherishes at heart to merge into the Supreme, he is unable to develop the devotional cult which is a necessary qualification for understanding Srimad-Bhagavatam. And to qualify the Mayavadis and other common men who indulge in the mental speculative transactions, Srimad-Bhagavatam gives them instructions from the 1st to the 9th canto about the transcendental nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unfortunately the cheap and unscrupulous professional readers of the Bhagavata or the Mayavadi misleaders in the garb of a renouncer indulge in the highest topic of Srimad-Bhagavatam described in the Rasa Panca Adhya. A person who is compact in mundane thought of material enjoyment will certainly be indulging in playing with poison if anyone, devoid of transcendental realisation playfully deals with the transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna. Some friends who attended your Bhagavata week have told me how the pastimes of Lord Krishna was being wrongly interpreted in your organization on the pretext of saving Krishna from being an immoral personality. To save these foolish audiences in future Maharaja Pariksit had already asked Sripada Sukadeva Goswami to clear the Rasaleela activities of Lord Sri Krishna. The transcendental nature of Rasa Lila does not require to be apologised by any Mayavadi or mundane moralist. The Lila is what it is. Srila Vyasadeva never desired that in future the real purpose of the Rasa Lila had to be explained by some mundane scholar with poor fund of knowledge. It does not require to be changed a bit but the only thing required in this connection is to qualify oneself in the matter of undergoing a strict spiritual training to realise the same transcendentally from the right sources. In order to keep the Rasalila activities of the Lord intact Srila Sukadeva Goswami has already explained the matter in the Bhagavata 10th canto chapter 33 and slokas 29 to 39. I shall request you to go through them with special reference to the slokas Nos. 30,34 and 39. In the sloka No.30 it is forbidden that a mundane person should not indulge in hearing Rasalila or one should not hear Rasalila from a mundane person. In your organization both the audience and the lecturer are mundane persons and their indulgence in the matter of Rasalila out of sheer foolishness will result in imitating Rudra who swallowed up an ocean of poison. There is nothing immorality in the transcendental activities of the lord neither it requires to be defended by any immoral man because simply by remembering the holy name of Krishna or by serving His lotus feet one can at once become a liberated person. (Bhag. 10.33.34) Besides that the result of reading or hearing the Rasalila in the devotional mood is stated (Bhag. 30.33.39) to become culminated in complete disappearance of the devotees lust disease in the heart. Persons who are not pure devotees and must have therefore an impure heart full with dirty things of mundane affairs will not only try to defend Rasalila by interpretations or decry the dealings but also shall be ruined as by drinking poison a man goes to hell. I shall request you therefore not to mislead the people in general under the garb of religiosity and indulge in the transcendental pastimes of the Lord known by the name Rasa Panca Adhya. This society stands to rectify all these anomalies in the name of religion and I shall ask your good sense to join hands with us to stop all these nonsense. Indias culture of spiritual value has an unique position and it has to be learnt by the human society in right earnest from the right sources. As an Indian and a man of good sense with practical business-brain you should not at least indulge in such organization under the influence of unauthorized person. Instead of indulging in the organization of such unauthorized persons you may kindly learn the science from the authority and make your life enlightened and attain success of the boon of human form of life. The League of Devotees is an organized effort to render this service to the human society without any pretentious conventions. We are publishing one paper of the name Back to Godhead to educate people in the right direction and I am sending herewith one pamphlet in which the opinions of several respectable gentlemen are inserted as to how they are being appreciated. It is our duty to defend the cause of Bhagavata either by request or by legal action according to necessity and I hope you will understand us in our most responsible task. Awaiting your early reply and thanking you in anticipation, Yours faithfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada Letter of August 5, 1958 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Understanding the Supreme yoga-philosophy © 2003 All rights reserved --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 18:14:02 +0000
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