Are Academic Scholars like Snakes?

By Suhotra Maharaja





Part Three: The Eternal Enemy

When one forgets his identity in deep sleep, he becomes absorbed in dreams, and he may think himself a different person or may think himself lost. But actually his identity is intact. This concept of being lost is due to false ego, and it continues as long as one is not awakened to the sense of his existence as an eternal servitor of the Lord. The Mayavadi philosophers' concept of becoming one with the Supreme Lord is another symptom of being lost in false ego. One may falsely claim that he is the Supreme Lord, but actually he is not. This is the last snare of maya's influence upon the living entity.
--Srimad-Bhagavatam 3. 27. 15, purport

Devotee 1: One of our friends went to hear Chinmayananda, and he came back to the temple and he said, "Oh, he was speaking very nicely. "
Prabhupada: Hm.
Devotee 1: So one of our swamijis said, "What did he say?"
Prabhupada: Hm.
Devotee 1: "I do not know. "
Prabhupada: That is the disease.
Devotee 1: Yes.
Devotee 2: They just speak very big words so that the language looks very nice, but people don't understand a word what they are saying.
Prabhupada: (Prabhupada talks meaningless words, imitating the rascals; devotees laugh) They go on speaking like this. And people, "Oh, how amazing!" Simply give some grammatical form and talk all nonsense, people will appreciate. Jugglery. This is called jugglery. The Mayavadi panditas also do that.
--Morning walk, Hyderabad 24 April 1974

A mind steeped in Cartesian rationalism, certain that its university-certified powers of analysis are the only means to real knowledge. A mind zealous to unleash this knowledge upon its proper object, the external world, eradicating ignorance in every corner until that mind proudly ascends the shining throne of maitre et proprietaire de la nature (Descartes' own words: "master and proprietor of nature"). A mind without a shred of doubt about itself, without the slightest qualm about inner imperfections, mistakes, illusions, self-deceptions, nor about irrational monsters that at any moment may lunge from the murk of the subconscious to wrest control from reason's grasp.
Such is a mind lost in false ego.

A mind that, as it becomes inescapably evident its "knowledge" of the external world is but at assemblage of sensory and mental representations that may have nothing to do with reality at all, decides that if it can make no sense of the world, then there can be no sense in the world.
Such is a mind lost in false ego.

A mind that discovers an inverse, perverse absolute in senselessness: "I am absolutely free!" For even better than to become master and proprietor of nature is to become the irresponsible enjoyer of nature.
Such is a mind lost in false ego.

A mind that dresses up senselessness with misological rhetoric to appear as wisdom. A mind that, on the basis of that senseless wisdom, denies the existence of an absolute truth. A mind that uses the same misological rhetoric to deviously protect the one absolute it most cherishes: its own freedom.
Such is a mind lost in false ego.

A mind that fears no consequence of its actions due to the "knowledge" gained by rationalism that the field of activities (the world) is mere appearance with no substance; for in the end, the world will dissolve into the absolute senselessness of The Void.
Such is a mind lost in false ego.

Puffed-up Western rationalism is but an introductory phase of nirvisesa and sunyavadi philosophy, which is characterized by nonsensical relativistic talk. A Mayavadi, whether dressed like a Hindu sadhu or a Western scholar, is dangerous association for a devotee, especially when the Mayavadi comes to "discuss" topics of Sri Krsna and His philosophy.

So avaisnava-mukhodgirna puta-hari-kathamrtam, sravanam na kartavyam. And it is forbidden, "Don't hear. " Why? "Hari-kathamrta, krsna-katha, the message of God, the words of God, Bhagavad-gita? He may be anything, but the katha is the same; so what is the harm to hear from an avaisnava?"

Sanatana Gosvami gives the example: sarpocchistha-payo yatha. Sarpocchista-payo yatha. Sarpocchistha. . . Just like milk, everyone knows, a very nice food, most nutritious food, but if it is touched by the life of a serpent, immediately spoiled. Immediately. Another place, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva nasa. If we hear Mayavadi-bhasya, commentaries by the Mayavadis, those who do not accept the Personality of Godhead. . . They are called Mayavadis. Mayavadi means they see everything maya. Even Krsna is maya. That is called Mayavadi.
--Bhagavad-gita lecture in Ahmedabad, 14 December 1972

Mayavadi philosophy is dangerous because its influence spreads in tandem with the eternal enemy of the soul, lust.

svagamaih kalpitais tvam ca
janan mad-vimukhan kuru
mam ca gopaya yena syat
srstir esottarottara

Addressing Lord Siva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead said, "Please make the general populace averse to Me by imagining your own interpretation of the Vedas. Also, cover Me in such a way that peopIe will take more interest in advancing material civilization just to propagate a population bereft of spiritual knowledge. "
--Padma-Purana as quoted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu,
C. c. Madhya 6. 181

The phrase, "advancing material civilization just to propagate a population bereft of spiritual knowledge", neatly summarizes modern Western culture. The bodily comforts, the sensual excitants, the mental titillations and diversions provided for by science and technology are stimuli for lust. There's just no denying it: in modern civilization, science and technology are more the servants of sexuality than any other human interest. Thus the largest Internet enterprise by far is pornography. The population born out of such artificially stimulated, wildly exaggerated lust is varnasankara, a herd of beasts in human form with practically no inclination to spiritual knowledge.

Predominant in the mentality of such a culture of widespread sense gratification is aversion to the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By such service, the fangs of the serpents of the lusty senses are broken. Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 5. 1. 17:

The sense organs are certainly our greatest enemies, and they are therefore compared to venomous serpents. However, if a venomous serpent is bereft of its poison fangs, it is no longer fearful. Similarly, if the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, there is no need to fear their activities. The devotees in the Krsna consciousness movement move within this material world, but because their senses are fully engaged in the service of the Lord, they are always aloof from the material world. They are always living in a transcendental position.

Mayavadi philosophy, whether in Hindu, Buddhist or Western garb, denies that God is a person. Hence He has no senses. The raison d'ętre of engaging our senses in the service of the Lord is that by His mercy we come in contact with His transcendental senses. This is so very evident in Deity worship, for example. By contacting the spiritual senses of the Lord, our material senses, dangerous as serpents, are purified. Their fangs of lust are broken, and we may live in a transcendental position even while carrying on in the material body. But when the heart is darkened by the Mayavadi contamination, service to the Lord is dampened while the fires of sensuality are stoked.

Mayavadi philosophy stimulates lust in another way:

Sukadeva Gosvami concludes this episode of rasa-lila by pointing out that if a person hears from the right source of the pastimes of Krsna, who is Visnu Himself, and the gopis, who are expansions of His energy, then he will be relieved of the most dangerous type of disease, namely lust. If one actually hears rasa-lila, he will become completely freed from the lusty desire of sex life and elevated to the highest level of spiritual understanding. Generally, because they hear from Mayavadis and they themselves are Mayavadis, people become more and more implicated in sex life. The conditioned soul should hear the rasa-lila dance from an authorized spiritual master and be trained by him so that he can understand the whole situation; thus one can be elevated to the highest standard of spiritual life, otherwise one will be implicated. Material lust is a kind of heart disease, and to cure the material heart disease of the conditioned soul, it is recommended that one should hear, but not from the impersonalist rascals.
--Krsna, Chapter Thirty-two

The history of Gaudiya Vaisnavism in India has seen the rise of many apasampradayas like the Auls, Bauls, Ativadis, Smartas, Sahajiyas, Kartabhajas and so on. All of them are in some way compromised with Mayavadi philosophy. In and around ISKCON in recent decades, different schools of thought and practice have been springing up. The taint of Mayavada can be seen in many; and apropos to the theme of this essay, many--most, I would say--are tainted in particular by the Western scholarly version of Mayavada.

Krsna consciousness is not aimed at the end of knowledge in the Cartesian sense. It is aimed at the end of lust, which in turn spells the end of a most profound, inward and deep ignorance that a Cartesian is simply not equipped to deal with. Those who are unwilling to relinquish the Cartesian bias are invited by Srila Prabhupada to follow their path wholeheartedly: give up Krsna consciousness, do your business, earn money and enjoy.