Colluding with Mayavadis to Preserve Vedic Culture?

[Guest guest]

Hari Bolo Vrindaban Prabhu!

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Sri Guru & Sri Gauranga.

Thank you for your long response to my request about not promoting the activities of Impersonalists. Although I was not privy to all of the details you shared with me, many of them I had some awareness of already via my own experiences as a devotee of over 30 years. One of the many reasons why it has taken me awhile to respond to you letter is because I have given deep thought to the many heartfelt comments and explanations you expressed with sincerity and conviction.

I would like to clarify a few points that are relevant to this conversation. I pray you will give them serious consideration with the same type of maturity you have demonstrated in the past. This is the type of inquiring and revealing of one's mind intimately that Rupa Gosvami advises devotees should do with each other as recommended in the Nectar of Instruction Text 4. .

Regarding Dr. Sharma I never actually met him, but that does not occlude me from sharing many of the sentiments you have expressed. I arrived to Engineer the Samadi construction in Vrindaban shortly after Dr. Sharma was pushed out. I fully acknowledge the sacrifices he made at Srila Prabhupada's request and I am appalled by the way he was treated by individuals his junior in age, wisdom, experience and educational dexterity. It is also evident that none of Srila Prabhupada's disciples could have possibly brought the rich cultural heritage that he had to the Vrindaban gurukula which you were obviously attracted to. On behalf of my foolish, ambitious, and often way too proud Godbrothers, I apologize to you for the injustices they perpetrated on one of your most inspiriting teachers.

As a matter of information only I will share that I too was politically exiled from Vrindaban in 1980 when I began to uncover the corruption that was going on with misuse of Samadhi Funds. Not too long after I began to speak out about it my office was barged in on and I was told, with a lot of unnecessary colorful four letter words, that I had ONE day to pack my bags and get out. I was informed that if I was still at the Krishna Balaram Mandir the next morning all my stuff would be tossed into the street and I would be forcibly removed. That's the thankyou I got for over two years of volunteer service in India!

Just prior to all that I also began to realize that there was something not right with the way the Gurukula was operating. I had no idea it was as bad as what we have all since learned, but I sensed something was amiss when I found out one day that the students could not write their parents without having their letters first read and censored by the teachers. When I heard that I offered to mail any letters that any gurukula kid gave me without question. I only actually did that a few times before I was given the big boot described above.

I offer these details to you so you will better understand that although I was never a GBC, Temple President, a predominant spokesperson, teacher or kirtan leader, I was entrusted with some very serious responsibilities and signed off on one of the biggest bank account that were held in the name of ISKCON. Over the years I did apparently earn the respect of my God brothers despite all the scandel and controversy that so many have fallen victom to. Consequently I had my own personal experiences surviving some of the stupidest things ISKCON leaders did over the years as we all stumbled, grew and attempted to carry out what we thought would best serve Srila Prabhupadas desires.

In my letter I wrote:

"Personally I feel the good stuff you send gets lost in all the political stuff that I have little interest in reading."

All I am saying here is that I find myself having to sort thru all the volumes of political stuff which I am not really intested in, in order to find the helpful Krishna Consciousess news I want to read but gets eclipsed by it. I am personally not that interested in contemporary political issues for the same reason Bhaktisiddhanta was unmoved by the political events of his day, which were by comparison much more severe considering the fact that India was subjugated to the British rule! I am sure you are aware of the fact that when Srila Prabhupada revealed to Bhaktisiddhanta that he had a desire to assist with Gandhi's Freedom movement against the British, Bhaktisiddhanta scoffed at such a useless endeavor! He made it clear that he felt the pursuit of political remedies was a waste of time for Gaudia Vaishnave devotees to get involved in. He never placed anything above the one consistent fact that Krishna is the supreme controller, and it is by His will things get done and change, not the will of the Indian Parliament, a new law, or any individual local politician.

You gave several examples of how the local government has tried to impose demonical policies on the youth such as removing the "taboo" about meat eating and injecting other polluting ideas popular in Kali yuga. I agree that these are issues that we need to be aware of and where possible, do what we can to disrupt the plans of Kali to further corrupt the roots of Vaishnava culture. The issue for each of us is where does that effort begin and when does it end?

Perhaps I misunderstood your letter, but it sounds like you are saying that the impersonalists may not agree with our conclusions about who the Supreme Personality of Godhead is, but they have been very effective in stopping the total loss of Vedic culture through political channels. If that is the case then good! When they do something that upholds real dharma, they are in essence doing service to Lord Krishna and we want to encourage that. This is similar to Dr. Sharma's willingness to help teach Vaishnavaism, even though it seems he personally leaned heavily towards impersonal conclusions. We can accept service to Krishna from anyone, but what all vaishnavas must be vigilant about is not getting involved in anything that decry's the personality of Godhead, which is exactly what the Mayavadies do with their bankrupt ideas about spiritual life, merging into the brahmana and silence. . . etc.

There is no conflict in engaging impresonalists to do service to Krishna. Offering service is the first step for all of us on the way to becoming Krishna Conscious. So anything you can do in that regard is excellent. Where all the acaryas draw the line is when the mayavadi wants to promote their ill founded understanding about the highest goals in life. Historically Vaishnavas have had ZERO tolerance for that! If they are striving to make sure that Mahabharata, Gita, Puranas and other Vedic scriptures remain a close part of India's heritage then we can endorse those types of causes from a distance. But we should never give the impression that we agree with their underlying philosophy that the highest truth is in realizing our destiny as a nondescript, impersonal part of one big cosmic vibrating Brahman and nothing more!

Just because I am not personally interested in scrutinizing all the political information you dispatch, that doesn't mean it is "Unworthy." I did not refer to it like that! That is the word you used. But to whatever degree the material you send out fails to uphold dharma then it does seem to slip into the "Useless" category that Bhaktisiddhanta was referring to. Our position is that Krishna is carrying out everything by His desire. He engaged Lord Shiva to perpetuate voidist philosophy in the role of Sankaracarya,. If He likes he can also engage the mundane politicians to either support or rip down Vedic culture. But it seems clear that our business is to purely teach the purpose of life the way we learned it from Srila Prabhupada and he had a zero tolerance for anything that appeared to favor the message of the Mayavadies. That was the primary reason I wrote to you in the first place.

By sending out announcements of their programs, you are tacitly endorsing their impersonal philosophy which, depending on the individual, either subtly or grossly is a serious offence to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In your zeal to be accepted, appreciated, and apparently affective, it seems your boundaries with the impersonalists have become a bit too loose and fuzzy. Everything I have been taught about Krishna Consciousnesses screams out that this is a very serious matter.

In your closing statement you make the following disparaging comment:

"Ironically there have been three sources of criticism of my efforts. Muslim fanatics, Nepal Maoists and Hare Krsnas."

The implication is obvious. But do you really wish to suggest that your senior Hare Krishna God brothers who dropped out of material life and gave everything they owned up to dedicate their lives to helping Srila Prabhpuada establish is mission, are as whacked as Muslim terrorists and the ruthless Nepal Communists? That is a very ugly comparison.

Yes many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples are uneducated eccentric hippies from the 60's, "Give Love, Peace & Happiness A Chance Brother!" In some cases they suffer from Borderline Personaily Disorder (BPD), delusions of Grandeur, paranoia, schitozphrenea, megalomania, misogynist desires, arrogance, pedophilia tendencies and numerous other psychological ailments. His disciples have done some of the stupidest things over the years and some even have criminal records for all sorts of things not limited to child abuse. Yes it is sad, unfortunate, embarrassing and a very big problem for people like you and me who are trying to raise the image of our movement from the "Wacky kids who wore bed sheets, played tambourines, and bugged the hell out of everyone at the airports" to the ones anointed with the mission, skills, responsibility and knowledge required to stall off the horrendous onslaught of Kali yuga for thousands of years by teaching Krishna Consciousness to a bunch of proud, ignorant fools.

"ISKCON's inability to ever become a functioning society is directly related to the artificial 'otherness' and 'sectarianism' that was created. Thus rather than the women and children being protected they were abused."

I am sure you can make a long list of apparently reasonable examples that illustrate how Srila Prahupada's disciples are really out of it, clueless, unprepared and perhaps completely incapable of changing a few of their own bad habits, what to speak of the world, and I would probably be inclined to agree with every example you cited. You could also point out how the opinions of senior devotees are watered down by political agendas, petty personal ambitions and an outdated myopic understanding of the world. There are hundreds of reasons why ISKCON Vaishnava's don't deserve to be respected if you want to go out looking for them. But that just isn't the way of a devotee. Srila prabhupada saw all our pathetically bad habits and when necessary, depending on the maturity of the individual, he might have pointed them out. But for the most part he simply encouraged what we could do right and felt thankful for whatever we could offer towards helping him with his mission.

If we forget this important point, we fall into the type of ruthless criticism that the RtVik community has mastered. They are like the crows who prowel the dumpsters looking for garbage to eat and they are simply thrilled when someone who has offered 20 years of selfless service falls down or has a mishap. Srila Prabhupada would cry when that happens... but the RtViks cheer and clamber for more!

Althouth they are so fond of tooting their own horn, and post themselves as the final authority and example for the rest of us, they are completely incapable of dancing around the most serious offence a devotee can commit: Vaishnava aparada. Their tactics suck and their own foibles are painfully obvious but they would rather talk about everyone else's problems. The sad reality is that because there is a thread of truth in what they say, many overlook the fact that those who make the loudest criticisms are often the ones with the sloppiest personal behavior, the most bad habits, and the worst interpersonal skills. They are also the first ones Krishna tosses into the outskirts of devotional service and in some cases because of their serious offenses, they are cast all the way back into the ocean of meaningless material activities.

Let us not forget what Krishna has to say in this regard:

"Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in My devotional service, he should be considered saintly because he is properly situated." -Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 9, "The King of Knowledge," Text 30.

What I mean by all this is that before you just lump the Hare Krishna's in with the Muslims and the Maoists, you might want to rethink your conclusions. Have you given adequate consideration to the very real possibility that maybe the reason why you get so much flack from senior Vaishnavas is because promoting the work of Mayavadies, even subtly or surreptitiously, really does fly directly into the face of everything Srila Prabhupad taught us!

In this regard it has become my personal realization that working together to defeat impersonalism is the one last common thread all the various fractions of Gaudia Vaishnava traditions have to bond an unify around! On every branch of Lord Caitany's Sankirtan tree are really brilliant devotees yet instead of turing that intelligent outward to stop all the impersonal nonsense that is driving everyone to hell, they fight argue, and make offenses to other great Vaishnava over petty denomination issues that are really insignificant in the greater scheme of things.

Where there is no argument among all the fractions of devotees, is in our shared mission to rid the world of impersonalism and voidism. Treading lightly around mayavadis, under the plea that they are helping to preserve Vedic culture, is like rehab center colluding with drug pushers to promote better public health in the community. It might appear to make sense to some, but it's realy only another example of very twisted logic.

Despite how much it may appear to you that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Ravi Shankar are doing good things that help establish Vedic culture, which in turn will help us establish Krishna Consciousness, that is not the opinion of great Vaishnavas who came before us. As much as I appreciate your sentiments, the fact is that impersonally philosophy has no root in the Vedas and to perpetuate it is to expedite the full onslaught of Kali yuga.

"The theory of Mayavadism, (The Non-dual Advaita Teachings) - though given a facade of great importance and claming itself to be derived from the Vedas, is in truth a non-Vedic theory O goddess (Paravati) It is I, who have propagated this concocted theory which is the root cause of the worlds destruction." - Mahadeva Siva speaking to Parvati (Padma Purana)

After reading your response I asked senior Vaishnas to help me better understand where your arguments have merit, and where they fall short. One of the comments I got was in regards to a personal exchange someone had with the Srila Prabhupada about the works of P.N.Oaks, the prolific author/historian who built his reputation on integrating Vedic understanding into many contemporary subjects. When asked about him, Srila Prabhupada was apparently quite unimpressed by his work. His comment was something like: "Vedic culture without Krishna is useless."

Indeed! Real Vedic culture revolves around Krishna and to remove Him from the center is like removing the wick from the center of a candle. When that occurs both become completely useless. For the most part that is the way we should understand the activities of the Mayavadies. We don't need more young Americans spending their prime years learning how to hop with their legs crossed at Maharishi University. We need people to start restoring their lost relationship with the Supreme Lord and Ravi Shankara not only doesn't teach that, but he is the antitheist of that very objective. Instead of surrendering to the message of Bhagavad Gita and Vedic Sastra, he fuels the false egos of his followers with so much self pride and contempt for God, that they consider the concept of a personal God and the need for sacred scriptures to be the epitome of spiritual immaturity!

Ultimately you have the freedom to do whatever you feel is most appropriate to help establish Krishna in the hearts of everyone. But despite how endearing your letter reads, your reasons fail to convince me why you should continue to support and promote those who teach everything Srila Prabhupada wanted to eliminate. That is why I repeat my request that you please exercise better discretion in regards to what you promote.

I see no harm in acknowledging the efforts of the Shivites if they rescue a temple from being turned over to the government for secular use. That would be an example of how they are indirectly doing some noteworthy service by protecting the domicile of one of Lord Krishna's most famous devotees. This would be an ideal opportunity to applaud their efforts and build our friendship based on those types of mutually appreciated endeavors.

But if the same Shivites are holding a mela where they will speak offensively about the personal conclusions Srila Prabhupada so patiently nurtured us to find in the message of Bhagavad Gita, they why in the world would you want to promote such an offensive gathering? To tactfully avoid that is the sign of a really smart Vaishnava Diplomat. You seem to have the skills necessary to do that once you become philosophically convinced why it is appropriate and important to do so. I am simply requesting that you please rethink you publishing standards based on the material I have shared with you herein.

Do not fall under the illusion that we need the help of those who teach mayavadi atheism for anything. Remember we have Krishna on our side, just like Arjuna did and he prevailed despite the fact that Duroyodana had all of Krishna's armies, elephants, weapons and military accoutrements. Our victory is not based on the cooperation or blessings of the "RSS and Swami Dayananda Saraswati. " Vaishnavas place all their faith in the words of Sanjay spoke in the closing verse of the Bhagavad-Gita,

"Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all Mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme Archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, morality and extraordinary power. That is my opinion." -Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 18 "Conclusion the perfection of Renunciation," Text 78.

I suspect I don't need to send you the attached collection of quotes and references which reveal how emphatic Srila Prabhupada was about flushing out the Mayavadies for the purpose of exterminating them. Time and Time again he stated that we should NEVER compromise with the impersonalists for ANY REASON. Perhaps if you give it a read every now and then you will better appreciate why so many devotees are apparently objecting to your tacit collusion with the very people Vaishnavas understand are some of the most demonic fools on the face of the earth. These are not my words, they are the words of none other then His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

<<MayavadiQuotes.doc>>

So my challenge to you is to somehow keep cultivating all these impersonalists by praising or acknowledging them when they actually do something worthy of that type of attention. But at the same time become more cautious about inviting innocent readers of your blog to their programs where they could very easily get sucked into the vortex of impersonal rhetoric and the arrogance of completely dismissing the message of Bhagavad-Gita because these rascals teach that it is just a book written by a " .. yogi whose history is very vague..."!

You shared many experiences with me which I greatly appreciated. That helped me better understand your view of things and your hearts intent. In that regard I would also like to share with you one of many personal examples I have encountered in my preaching work in Ojai, which could be properly referred to as "New Varnasi" because of all the impersonalism that is prevalent on every corner, church and salon in this small western town of just 40,000 people.

 

On one occasion one of Ojai's self declared "luminary" disciples of Radhasoami (Radha Swami) really took issue with me about my AVA newsletter article entitled: "Derailed By Silent Meditation." He accused me of "...not having a clue..." about what I was talking about. I patiently escorted him thru the arguments that are undisputed from Bhagavad Gita and how Arjuna rejected this path of silent meditation. I was careful to be as polite and un-assumptive as possible with the hope that he would appreciate the higher message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu: "In the age of Kail, Chanting is the recommended meditation." The more I politely held my ground the more frivolous and sentimental his arguments got in a desperate attempt to support his claim that silent meditation a few minutes a day was the highest spiritual truth we could attain. But his position continued to get more embarrassing as he clutched at straws in an attempt to defeat me. After three email exchanges, all he could do to defend his silly ideas was to send me the following total cop out, cheap, garbage, nonsense which was engrained into his psychi over 25 years ago by his impersonalist guru, which of course he continues to believe to this day is the absolute truth! Read it slowly to let it sink in:

"The gita is just a epic of a greater work written by a supposedly yogi who's history is very vague. 'Admittedly it is a great feat of literature. However it is still a tale written from the mind of some unknown writer. Krishna never lived in reality. He was a character in a play. As far a silence of the mind goes, Jesus said that we have to dig deep to tap the living river of life. It can't be perceived by the scattered mind, however it always the giving life and light to the body and mind, with out which they could not exist. They say that all we need to do is to go back to our child like state, or nature and reunite consciously with our essence. Simple, but impossible if your not told the truth. We must speak only the truth." - Local Ojai Self Appointed Pundit Disciple of a Indian Mayavadi Guru July 2005

After receiving this I knew I was dealing with someone who was very poorly informed, way to proud to let go of his misconceptions, and extremely conditioned by 25 years of the false and misleading teachings he became accustomed to falling back on. So I stopped writing to him based on the Gita instruction not to disturb the minds of the less intelligent. (Bg. 3.26) The full correspondence is available for you to read if you are interested in seeing just how dastardly these envious fools can get.

I hope you will give these thoughts the type of serious consideration they deserve. In Ojai I see the fall out of what happens when people get entangled with all these bogus teachers. I know people who are disciples of all these gurus and their followers are all very helplessly lost: Guru Mahesha Yogi, Ramanan Maharshi, Meyer Babbha, Nim Karolie Babba, Prem Rat (GuruMaharaji), Ravi Shankar, Nistragadatta Swami, Ojo (RajaNisha), Amaji, Ragavandra Iyer, Madam Blavanski, Krishnamurti, RamaKrishna, Anni Besant, Kali Ma, Sai Babba, Ganeshan, Guru Nanac, Sri Aurobindo, Vivekananda, Francis Luciel, Amber, Gungaji, and a whole new generation of cheap self-made prophets. You could argue that they are promoting Vedic culture but that would be a very controversial debated. What is not controversial is the fact that they are clearly peddling spiritual suicide and no devotee who really understood this important point would agree to be part of anyone, or anything that did that.

The point is that once the image of these guru and their teachings are burned onto the subconscious brain of the innocent, it's almost impossible for them to become free from that influence. If by some miracle they do break free, then they are often so stilted and disgusted they will never surrender to anyone ever again... especially a Vaishnava teaching Bhagavad gita. These are some real world examples of why Lord Caitanya so strongly condemned the process of hearing the impersonal philosophy espoused by Sankaracaraya.

"Sankaracarya, who is an incarnation of Lord Siva is faultless because he is a servant carrying out the orders of the Lord. But those who follow his Mayavadi philosophy are doomed. They will lose all their advancement in spiritual knowledge." - Adi Lila Chapter 7, Text 114.

I offer these comments to you with great respect for your otherwise excellent work and dedication to Lord Caitanyas Sankirtan movement,

I remain humbally yours in the service of Lord Krishna,

 

Mayesvara dasa