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Bhakti is for the ignorant (yeah, right...)
One of the prejudices I find quite amusing among the mayavadi school
of thought is the idea that bhakti is for less intelligent people,
people "whose heart is more developed that their brains" as one
Advaitin swami put it. In light of this, some of Lord Caitanya's
pastimes seem relevant.
These story are told in the introduction to the Bhagavatam, first
Canto, translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila
Prabhupada.
--------------------------------
When the Lord traveled to Puri, He agreed to take lessons on Vedanta
from the learned Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, the chief pandit of the
King of Orissa and a follower of the Sankara (mayavadi) school of
thought. While sitting together in the temple of Jaganath Puri, the
Lord heard the Bhattacarya's lessons for seven days continuously
without interrupting. The Lord posed Himself as a foolish student,
but at the end of the lecture He revealed that He already was
learned in the scriptures. He said that although He understood their
meaning, it was very difficult to follow the explanations of someone
who was giving an interpretation contrary to the actual meaning. The
meaning of the Vedanta-sutra was already clear, and no
interpretation was necessary. In this way, the Lord criticized those
who refused to take the direct meaning of the Vedanta-sutra but
simply gave their own interpretations. To give one's own
interpretation on the Vedic literature is to imply that one is a
greater scholar than Srila Vyasadeva; this is simply foolish. The
Lord then proceeded to smash every single point the Bhattacarya
brought up. The Bhattacarya was struck with wonder at the Lord's
scholarship, and he asked Him to give an explanation of the atmarama
sloka in the Bhagavatam (1.7.10). The Lord first asked the
Bhattacarya to explain it, which he did in nine different ways. The
Lord heard each explanation and proceeded to explain the sloka in 64
different ways. After hearing Lord Caitanya's explanation, the
Bhattacarya, who was the most renowned scholar of logic at the time,
completely lost interest in the mayavadi philosophy and fell down at
the Lord's lotus feet. He composed almost 100 slokas praising Lord
Caitanya, and thanking Him for teaching devotional service to the
fallen souls.
----
Once, when Lord Caitanya was travelling from Vrindavana, He passed
through the city of Varanasi. Everywhere the Lord went, He was
always chanting the holy names of Krishna and urging others to take
part in the sankirtan (congregational chanting and dancing to the
holy name). Varanasi was no exception.
At this time, however, Varanasi was dominated by scholars of the
mayavadi line of thought. These scholars were led by a sannyasi
named Sripada Prakasananda Sarasvati. When Lord Caitanya came
through the city with His travelling sankirtan, many of
Prakasananda's disciples, attracted by the transcendental sound of
the holy name, joined Him.
When Prakasananda Sarasvati received the report that his disciples
were abandoning him for the sankirtan, he began to deprecate the
activities of the sankirtan, saying that the students should instead
read Vedanta-sutra. One brahmana who later became a Vaishnava did
not like this criticism of sankirtan movement. He immediately went
to Lord Caitanya and gave Him this news.
The brahmana told Maha-Prabhu that when he mentioned His name to
Prakasananda, the latter was for some reason was unable to utter the
holy name of Krishna. Lord Caitanya simply smiled and explained to
the brahmana that the holy names of Krishna, along with His
qualities, forms, and pastimes are nondifferent from Krishna
Himself. He explained, "The Mayavadis are offenders at the lotus
feet of Krishna, although they utter always brahma, atma, or
caitanya, etc. And because they are offenders at the lotus feet of
Krishna, they are actually unable to utter the holy name of Krishna"
Lord Caitanya further explained that the transcendental pastimes of
Sri Krishna are a greater source of bliss than that of impersonal
Brahman realization. This was why the mayavadis of Varanasi had so
quickly taken to the sankirtan movement.
After this, a meeting was arranged between Lord Caitanya and
Prakasananda, in which the latter asked why the Lord was indulging
in sankirtan. The duty of a sannyasi, according to Prakasananda, was
to simply read the Vedanta-sutra. Lord Caitanya replied that He had
taken to sankirtan because He was a great fool, and that the holy
name of Krishna gave Him great pleasure. He said that His spiritual
master had directed Him to simply chant the holy names rather than
playing with Vedanta philosophy.
"So on the order of My spiritual master, I chant the holy name of
Hari, and I am now mad after this holy name. Whenever I utter the
holy name I forget Myself completely, and sometimes I laugh, cry and
dance like a madman. I thought that I had actually gone mad by this
process of chanting, and therefore I asked My spiritual master about
it. He informed Me that this was the real effect of chanting the
holy name, which produces a transcendental emotion that is a rare
manifestation. It is the sign of love of God, which is the ultimate
end of life. Love of God is transcendental to liberation [mukti],
and thus it is called the fifth stage of spiritual realization,
above the stage of liberation. By chanting the holy name of Krishna
one attains the stage of love of God, and it was good that
fortunately I was favored witht he blessing."
Of course, Praksananda knew that the Lord was actually a very
learned scholar. He therefore asked whether it was okay to study
Vedanta and chant the holy name at the same time. Caitanya
Maha-Prabhu then replied that the Vedanta-sutra was all about
Krishna, and that the interpretations given by mayavadis which try
to separate Krishna from the scripture were blasphemous. He then
proceeded to refute all of the Mayavadi interpretations of
Vedanta-sutra, and in so doing He convinced all present that the
Vaishnava philosophy was more in line with the Vedanta-sutra. The
mayavadi sannyasis then converted to the Vaishnava faith, and the
city of Varanasi became overwhelmed with the transcendental sound of
the sankirtan movement.
The activities of great personalities like Lord Caitanya don't seem
to fit very nicely with the mayavadi view that bhakti is for "people
whose hearts are more developed than their brains." Many great
mayavadi scholars like Sripada Prakasananda Sarasvati tried to match
Lord Caitanya in intellectual debate, only to be completely
defeated. Lord Caitanya was the greatest devotee of Krishna and also
the greatest Vedanta scholar and logician. No one could successfully
challenge Him with their mundane, impersonalist speculations.
When confronted with such mayavadi prejudices, I find it refreshing
to meditate on this pastime, which proves that logic and scripture
are on the side of devotees of the Lord.
Hare Krishna!
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- H. Krishna Susarla - "Religion without philosophy is sentiment, or -
- susarla@rice.edu - sometimes fanaticism, while philosophy without -
- Rice University - religion is mental speculation." -
- Class of 1995 - -- Swami Srila Prabhupada -
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, was impersonal before and
have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge,
they do not know My higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme."
- Bhagavad-Gita 7.24
