Māyāvādī Impersonalists: Pseudo Spiritual Masters The Māyāvādī spiritual masters and their followers proclaim that by surrendering to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa one can become Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself. Under the guise of glorifying the spiritual master, such Māyāvādī disciples declare the spiritual master to be Kṛṣṇa Himself. Thus they await the day that they can become ācārya in the disciplic succession and thus become Kṛṣṇa Himself. A bona fide spiritual master will reject such disciples. “Those who are under the spell of the material energy, instead of following the instructions of the disciplic succession, try to manufacture something of their own, and thereby step outside the sphere of Vedānta study. A bona fide spiritual master must always condemn such independent mental speculators. If the bona fide spiritual master directly points out the foolishness of a disciple, that should not be taken as otherwise.” (TLC, 169) We have already quoted the example in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in which Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, although the Supreme Lord Himself, covered His ears with His hands and shouted the name Viṣṇu loudly when His disciples called Him Kṛṣṇa. “Caitanya’s philosophy is: one should give up everything and worship God, Kṛṣṇa. The difference is that Kṛṣṇa, as the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, spoke the same words, indicating Himself, and the Māyāvādī philosophers misunderstood Him. Therefore Lord Caitanya indicated the same thing: one should not declare himself to be as good as Kṛṣṇa, but should worship Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord.” (TLC, 159) Actually a disciple who, out of sentiment or fanaticism, proclaims a bona fide spiritual master to be Kṛṣṇa Himself is committing the greatest injury to the spiritual master. The bona fide spiritual master instructs that one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa through the bona fide representative of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the pure devotee. He instructs that one cannot approach Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa directly. If the spiritual master is Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, as the Māyāvādī followers of the spiritual master may maintain, then these followers are actually approaching Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa directly. Thus they distort and twist the teachings of the spiritual master under the guise of glorifying him. The actual motive behind such false glorification should be understood as asuric. As stated before, none of the devotees declare themselves to be God, but “This blasphemy is declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation.” (Bhāg., Canto I, 123) The motives of the Māyāvādī are themselves asuric. Actually every conditioned soul is a Māyāvādī, otherwise the soul wouldn’t be conditioned. When Śrīla Prabhupāda first began lecturing in New York in 1966, he would often attack the Māyāvādī impersonalists in his talks, and not understanding this I joked with friend: “Māyāvādī? When was the last time you saw a Māyāvādī?’’ None of us could understand who Śrīla Prabhupāda was talking about; we all thought that the Māyāvādīs were a little group of philosophers in India against whom Śrīla Prabhupāda was waging theologic battle. But actually we were all Māyāvādīs. Now we are daily praying: namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāscātya-desa-tāriṇe. “Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.” The Māyāvādī, being envious of God, wants to be God. Therefore he is thrown by Lord Kṛṣṇa into the material world where he can try to lord it over material nature. “The impersonalist philosophers are in one sense like the enemies of the Lord because the out-and-out enemies of the Lord and the impersonalists are both allowed to enter only into the impersonal effulgence of the brahmajyoti. So it is to be understood that they are of similar classification. And actually the impersonalists are enemies of God because they cannot tolerate the unparallelled opulence of the Lord. They try always to place themselves on the same level with the Lord. That is due to their envious attitude. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has proclaimed the impersonalists to be offenders of the Lord.” (NOD, 123) The Māyāvādī spiritual master claims, “I am Kṛṣṇa. Just surrender to me and you can become Kṛṣṇa too.” Or the Māyāvādī disciples claim, “Our guru is Kṛṣṇa. Just surrender to him and you’ll become Kṛṣṇa too.” Or they claim, “We are all Kṛṣṇa. We have just forgotten, that’s all.” These impersonalists may set up their own Kṛṣṇa and proclaim that He is talking to them directly. “There are many so-called devotees who artificially think of Kṛṣṇa pastimes, which are known as aṣṭa-kālika-līlā. Sometimes one may artificially imitate these, pretending that Kṛṣṇa is talking with him in the form of a boy, or else one may pretend that Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa both have come to him and are talking with him. Such characteristics are sometimes exhibited by the impersonalist class of men, and they may captivate some innocent persons who have no knowledge in the science of devotional service. However, as soon as an experienced devotee sees all of these caricatures, he can immediately evaluate such rascaldom. If such a pretender is sometimes seen possessing imitative attachment to Kṛṣṇa that will not be accepted as real attachment.” (NOD, 143) Thus such Māyāvādī impersonalists who proclaim their spiritual master and themselves to be Kṛṣṇa simply propitiate their conditioning life after life. The impersonalists discourage direct discussion of Lord Kṛṣṇa and His pastimes. “Impersonalists do not directly derive the transcendental pleasure of association with the Lord by hearing of His pastimes. As such, the impersonalists cannot derive any relishable transcendental pleasure from the topics of the Bhagavad-gītā, in which the Lord is personally talking with Arjuna. The basic principle of their impersonal attitude does not allow them the transcendental pleasure which is relished by a devotee whose basic principle of understanding is the Supreme Person.” (NOD, 290–291) The Māyāvādī impersonalists who envy the Lord and who actually want to be the Lord are in reality not spiritualists at all, but materialists. “Because the impersonalists cannot appreciate the spiritual happiness of association and the exchange of loving affairs with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, their ultimate goal is to become one with the Lord. This concept is simply an extension of the material idea. In the material world, everyone is trying to be the topmost headman amongst all his fellow men or neighbors. Either communally, socially or nationally, everyone is competing to be greater than all others, in the material concept of life. This greatness can be extended to the unlimited, so that one actually wants to become one with the greatest of all, the Supreme Lord. This is also a material concept, although maybe a little more advanced.” (NOD, 32) It is also to be understood that the impersonalists are not really in a relationship with Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa at all, for “In relationship with Kṛṣṇa there is no question of impersonalism.” (NOD, 251)
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 23:52:40 +0000
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