An Open Letter to All - Part-II

[T Swaminarayan]

"Bhaskar Y.R." wrote:

 "Whatever there was in what he wrote"

Dear Bhaskar,

Whatever you have posted in your two open letters to the learned list members is very much welcome. In fact I would request the List Owners, Shri Jaldhar, Anand and others who can, if they wished, to block these messages,not to do so but show usual constraint and lend their ears to the rest of the messages that the BHAKTA OF LORD KRISHNA has to say in this forum!

 Go ahead Bhaskar,your enthusiasm to belittle other's convictions is commendable but, before you post your next message  and claim authority for that statement in the Shastras,kindly substantiate what you wish to state. Hope you do know that BHAGAVATAM IS A PURANAM  and anything stated in that cannot be taken as an INJUNCTION from VEDIC SCRIPTURES.

May Lord Krishna give you the SANMATI required before you can start your sermon to the mortals in the Vedanta List !

Hari Om !

Swaminarayan.

Dear Learned Members of Advaita-L,

I am whole heartedly grateful to U all for the interest U have shown to my mesg.
Really fresh air breezing around me after hearing scholaric replies from my
learned friends of advaita philosophy. Eventhough some of the Advaita-L members
raising objections against this, i could not resist myself but to continue to
share my thoughts with U :

01. Ramanuja-Madhva-Chaitanya Vijaya :

It is not that because the Vaishnavacharyas attacked the mayavada philosophy,
they did not respect Sripada Shankaracharya. All great Vaishnavacharyas like
Madhvacharya, Ramanujacharya, Vishnuswami, Nimbarka and in the end, Lord
Chaitanya, had always offered the respects due to Sripada Shankaracharya, for
all of Them knew that Acharya Shankara was 'svayam Shankara' - Lord Shiva
Himself. All of these Vaishnavacharyas took specific interest in defeating the
mayavada philosophy that Acharya Shankara propounded. Srila Madhvacharya
defeated His first opponent, Vasudeva Pandita when He was eleven years old. He
also defeated so many other monist philosophers like Vidyasankara Swami (who was
in the direct succession of the Shankara sampradaya), Sobahna Bhatta, Swami
Sastri, Trivikramacharya and so many other such prominent Sankarites. Srila
Madhvacharya wrote thirty nine books to establish that Vaishnava philosophy was
the true Vedic religion. He exposed the weaknesses of the monist philosophers in
many of His works, and none of His opponents were able to defeat Him. Acharya
Shankara's followers have time and again been defeated by the Vaishnavas, and
even prominent Sankarites have thus taken up Vaishnavism, but still there are so
many ignorant people who consider that impersonal liberation is the highest
truth of all. They still continue to say that God has no form, He is an
all-pervading impersonal energy, He is zero, He has no name, He has no
qualities, His ncarnations are products of maya, and so on. In South India, it
had been a tradition to hold public debates among the followers of Srila
Ramanujacharya and Sripada Shankaracharya. 95% of the times, the followers of
Ramanujacharya have emerged victorious and made the mayavadis eat dust. But
these philsophers are incorrigible, since they are just breeding another edition
of atheism, and we all know what kind of argumnets an atheist can propose. There
are also many instances when Lord Chaitanya defeated several followers of Adi
Shankara, who later on became His followers. One such very prominent mayavadi
was Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. These debates and the argments that ensued are
mentioned in Chaitanya Charitamrita - Adi Lila. During such debates, it has
always been Sariraka Bhasya (the commetaries of Adi Shankara) vs Bhagavata
Dharma (the Vedic principles as propounded by the Shastras).

02. About Loop holes in Monism :

The mayavadis generally take only the complicated and abstract Scriptures to
prove their points, since these Scriptures like the Vedanta-sutras can be
tailor-made to suit any kind of explanation. Sripada Shankaracharya refrained
from touching Srimad Bhagavatam to explain mayavada philosophy, since it would
have been a direct offence to the Lotus Feet of the Lord. He did not touch
Srimad Bhagavatam because he knew that the natural commentary of the
Vedanta-sutras would be difficult for him to surpass (Srimad Bhagavatam is a
commentary of Vedanta-sutras by Srila Vyasa Deva). He, thus did not dare to
write a commentary on Bhagavatam.

The impersonalists give elaborate explanations which no interpreter can
understand, full of word jugglery (which Acharya Shankara himself condemned in
his Bhaja Govindam hymn), even for a straight forward aphorism like 'aham
brahmasmi', which means 'I am pure spirt'. One of the favouite misconceptions of
these mayavadis is giving an explanation to the same aphorism as 'I am Brahman'.
Even if this is the case, then their poor fund of knowledge is clearly exposed
here, since they don't even know that there is the Parabrahman (Supreme Brahman
- God or Krishna), the Jivabrahman (living entity) and the Mahadbrahman
(material spirit). They think that Brahman refers only to Parabrahman and forget
that everything is ultimately manifestations of spirit (brahman), but there
still is variegatedness. These are the explanations given in the Scriptures,and
due to their lack of proper understanding, and with their improper, imperfect
and incomplete knowledge, they propose theories, which ultimately help in
misleading and deluding people. This is why the Vaishnavacharyas have condemened
the mayavada bhashyas (commentaries) so much that, Lord Chaitanya said
"mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva nasa" - "one who listens to the mayavadi
commentaries is doomed and ready for total destruction". This fact is revealed
and accepted even by Lord Shiva in the Padma Purana, which was explained in the
first part of this article. Lord Shiva says "mayavadam asac-chastram" or
"mayavada is impious, untrue Shastra".

The mayavadi explanation that the Supreme is temporarily covered by illusion and
undergoing sufferings in the form of humans and animals is immature philosophy,
without the proper understanding of the Scriptures. The Supreme would never
suffer or be influenced by maya. Lord Krishna says that the external illusory
energy maya is subordinate to Him. If it is so possible that the Supreme can
temporarily or permanently come under the influence of the illusory energy, then
maya becomes more powerful than the Supreme. Then the Supreme is no more the
Supreme. If we are Gods, why are we undergoing so much of miseries? Then isn't
it that maya is greater than the Absolute Truth?
There are some more, who claim that the advent of the Supreme in the form of a
jiva is also a lila, and actually the jiva is enjoying. This is another
nonsensical theory. The animals also don't know that they are suffering. So,
what is the difference between the animals and such pretenders? These people are
completely in the mode of ignorance or tamo guna, just like the animals.

03. About other Deities worship :

The philosophy of these monist mayavadis that any form could be worshipped as
the Supreme Lord was not accepted by the Vaishnavacharyas, based on solid
references from the Shastras. That any form like that of Lord Vishnu's or Lord
Shiva's or Lord Ganesha's or Goddess Durga's or Sun God's or Karthikeya's could
be worshipped, is full of misinterpretations and ignorance. The Lord clearly
states in the Bhagavad Gita that His personal form has to be worshipped. One
explanation that the mayavadi would give for this would be that, incarnations
themselves are products of illusion. They forget that maya, or illusion is a
subordinate, material, external energy of the Lord, and the Lord clearly says
that He is never influenced by the three modes of material nature namely, sattva
(goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). The theory that the demigods
don't exist is all nonsense. The Shastras give ample evidences to prove the
existence of all the thirty three million demigods as personalities. The Supreme
Lord is also a personality and all of Them have their own individual identities.
The main drawback of these atheistic monists is that they try to map the
material realities onto the spiritual realm. They don't understand that the
whole material cosmos is true but temporary, and not an illusion. It is actually
the jiva which is under illusion that he is the lord and master of all that he
surveys. This is the reason why we've been put in this material world - for
reforming our ideas, that we cannot exist independent of the Lord.

It is to be noted that, the majority of the mayavadi followers of Acharya
Shankara are worshippers of Lord Shiva, even though he recommended that one
worship the Supreme Lord Krishna (bhaja govindam bhaja govindam govindam bhaja
mudha-mathe: you intellectual fools and rascals, worship the Supreme Lord
Govinda). He also said "krshnasthu bhagavan svayam: Lord Krishna is Bhagavan,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead". There is an incident narrated in the Srimad
Bhagavatam, where Lord Shiva is cursed by Bhrgu Muni in the court of Daksha
that, one who worships lord Shiva would become an atheist or a nasthika, or a
person who doesn't follow the Vedic Scriptural injunctions.
Bhrgu Muni's curse goes as follows,
bhava-vrata-dhara ye ca
ye ca tan samanuvratah
pasandinas te bhavantu
sac-chastra-paripanthinah
"One who takes a vow to satisfy Lord Shiva or who follows such principles will
certainly become an atheist and be diverted from transcendental scriptural
injunctions."
Here the following words are very significant, pasandinah (atheists) and
sat-shastra-paripanthinah (diverted transcendental scriptural injunctions). It
is not difficult to find that staunch worshippers of Lord Shiva to be mayavadi
atheists. Such things do not deride or belittle the position of Lord Shiva. He
is described in the Shastras as a great Vaishnava and an expansion of Lord
Krishna, but His followers are usually mayavadis. Srila Prabhupada confirms the
position of Lord Shiva as follows: "... it is very difficult for an ordinary
person to contach him (Lord Shiva). However, Lord Shiva does descend on a
special occasion when he is ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead". It
is a great offence to equate Lord Shiva to the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
Lord Krishna, which the former Himself would accept. Lord Shiva is Mahadeva or
the greatest of all devas (demigods).

04. Monists are the foremost offenders of Lord Krishna:

Since the mayavadis spread such ignorance which is full of atheism, they are the
greatest enemies of the Supreme Lord. Anyone who considers himself to be equal
to the Supreme Lord should immediately be vanquished. It is to reform this
nonsense idea that we've been sent to this material world, and even here if one
doesn't accept his constitutional position as an eternal servitor of the Lord,
then he deserves to be sent to hell, and he can remain and suffer there for
millions of years thinking that he is God.

The mayavadis, as the foremost enemies of Lord Krishna, are surely committing
spiritual suicide. They will continue to think that they are supreme and thus
continue to rot in this material cosmos for millions of years, unless the Lord
out of His causeless mercy, chooses to deliver them. It is the Lord's mercy that
He satisfies all the desires of the living entites. Even if i desire to become
Lord Brahma, the Lord will take me through all the processes of tapasya, through
many many lifetimes, until i attain what i desired for. So, a devotee is usually
never inclined to desire for anything material. He neither desires for spiritual
progress. He just prays to the Lord to keep him forever, cognisant of the fact
that he is a servant of the Supreme Lord, even if he continues to live in this
material world. So, when the monist impersonalists desire to become one with
God, the Lord gives a provision even there, by letting them merge with the
Brahman effulgence. This kavalya mukti is poison for the devotees since for him,
an existence without the association of the Lord is unimaginable. When there is
an option to experience unlimited bliss by personally associating with the Lord
in Goloka Vrindavana, why would a devotee want to float in the Brahmajyoti in
the unmanifested state, for millions of years without any association, and again
fall down to this material world seeking association? Even svarupya mukti, or
entering the Vaikuntha planets after attaining a form like Lord Narayana, is not
very palatable for a true devotee. He will never compromise for anyhing less
than personally associating with the Lord by entering Goloka Vrindavana.
Svarupena vyavasthitah muktir uchyate: liberation situated in the spiritual form
is the highest form of liberation.

Srila Prabhupada says that the Sankarite philosopher's theory that we have to
imagine a shape of God is more dangerous than denial of the existence of God.
Thus that mayavadis are more dangerous than the Buddhists. Lord Buddha preached
nastika, or atheism by denying the authority of the Vedas. One who does not
accept the authority of the Vedas is to be considered an atheist. By denying the
authority of the Vedas, the mayavadis are also proving themselves as atheists.
One of the most common statement that one can hear from a mayavadi is something
like, 'why do you want to restrict yourself with the Vedas?', or 'you've got to
transcend what the Scriptures say', or 'you are God, you don't have to follow
the Vedas'. Oh!, is it? If everyone is God, then for what purpose was the Vedas
meant? This philosophy that we are one with God is for the ignorant fools who
don't know the ecstasy that one can derive by being a servant of the Lord. The
Kumaras (sons of Lord Brahma) were initially mayavadis, but later understood the
position of Lord Krishna and began to experience infinite transcendental ecstasy
and bliss, by constantly meditating upon the sat-cit-ananda form of the Lord. An
intelligent man, who is well cognisant of the fact that the mayavadis will rot
in the material cosmos until they clear their consciousness, would take to
Krishna Consciousness.
One of the main reasons why the Vaishnavacharyas, as the real guardians of the
Vedic Scriptures, condemned the mayavadis was, because of their rejection of the
Vedic Scriptures. Though they take the Vedic Scriptures to explain their
nonsensical theories about the Supreme Absolute Truth, they nevertheless do not
follow the exact teachings imparted by the Scriptures. Just like how any
material apparatus comes with a manual for the user to handle the apparatus more
expertly, the Supreme Lord gave us the Vedic Scriptures as a user manual to
handle our lives in a much better manner, and in the end go back to Him, back to
Godhead. Unless one follows the injunctions of the Vedic Scriptures, his pathway
to hell is clear, just like how if anyone tries to handle an electric apparatus
whimsically, without following the instructions in the user manual, he would end
up receiving an electric shock.
The Lord emphasises the authority of the Vedic Scriptures in many places
in the Bhagavad Gita. He says:
atma-sambhavitah stabdha
dhana-mana-madanvitah
yajante nama-yajnais te
dambhenavidhi-purvakam
"Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they
sometimes proudly perform sacrifices in name only, without following any rules
or regulations."
yah sastra-vidhim utsrjya
vartate kama-karatah
na sa siddhim avapnoti
na sukham na param gatim
"He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims
attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination."
tasmac chastram pramanam te
karyakarya-vyavasthitau
jnatva sastra-vidhanoktam
karma kartum iharhasi
"One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the
regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should
act so that he may gradually be elevated."

05. About other Spiritual Paths & Gurus

There are many bogus gurus and so-called swamis, who claim to be incarnations,
but urge their followers to discard the Vedic injunctions. These rascals are
demons of the first order, and are embodiments of tamo guna. They preach that by
practising some gymnastics and meditation and fooling other people, one can
become God. If one studies the Vedic Scriptures very scrutinizingly, one will be
able to find out the real Truth, what the position of the jiva is, as opposed to
that of the Supreme Lord. It is not very difficult to predict the future of such
bogus swamis and that of their foolish followers.
The Lord Himself has said in the Bhagavad Gita,
tan aham dvisatah kruran
samsaresu naradhaman
ksioamy ajashram asubhan
asurisv eva yonisu
"Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I
perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac
species of life."
This statement, the Lord says immediately after the verdict He gives on the
authority of the Shastras. So, it is to be known that such so-called swamis and
gurus are all great misleaders and demons, and one should be very careful not to
associate with such people or the followers of such people. Deluded by their
senses, being influenced by rajo guna or the mode of passion, people who are
foolish follow these bogus swamis and gurus, who proclaim themselves to be
incarnations without any reference to the Scriptures. There cannot be any
incarnation without a reference in the Scriptures. Also, an incarnation of the
Lord, never calls Himself an incarnation, as said in the Vedic Shastras. The
Srimad Bhagavatam gives detailed descriptions of the avataras. Only foolish
people, who are under the influence of the lower modes of material nature, would
let such impersonators cheat them. Intelligent people would live by what the
Shastras prescribe as the ways of life. It is a fact that nobody is equal to or
greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, knowledge about
which can be obtained from the Vedic Scriptures and the Lord's bonafide
representative in the form of a Spiritual Master.
In the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna tells Lord Krishna,
pitasi lokasya caracarasya
tvam asya pujyas ca gurur gariyan
na tvat-samo 'sty abhyadhikah kuto 'nyo
loka-traye 'py apratima-prabhava
"You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, of the moving and the
nonmoving. You are its worshipable chief, the supreme spiritual master. No one
is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You. How then could there be anyone
greater than You within the three worlds, O Lord of immeasurable power?"
The theory that the imperonalist mayavadis propogate, that Lord Krishna is not
the Supreme Lord is all nonsense, much against the conclusion of the Shastras.
In fact, Lord Krishna is the only purusha (enjoyer) or male within the whole
creation and all the other atmas are prakriti (enjoyed) or female.
The Lord says in the Bhagavad Gita,
bhoktaram yajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santim rcchati
"A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary
of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods,
and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from
the pangs of material miseries."

Without proper understanding of what the Vedic Scriptures proclaim and why Adi
Sankara had to incarnate, they claim saying, "whatever way you express your
faith, that way is a valid spiritual path". Some say that all paths lead to the
same goal. These are all nonsense. Even the hippies were seeking spiritual
elevation through the forbidden waters of LSD, peyote, marijuana and
unrestricted sex. Demigod worshippers like Ramakrishna and Vivekananda used to
eat meat and intoxicate themselves with 'ganja', claiming such practices to be
bonafide ones. Even now, a disciple in Ramakrishna ashram offers 'hookah' to his
guru in order to please him. ( Here I think ISCKON is crossing their limits -
But its a fact and this is what they are teaching & i have to say this though I
have full respect in my deep heart about those noble personalities) There are
no references such as these anywhere in the Shastras. Hope the mayavadis
understand that what they claim is cent percent ridiculous. Driven by their
imperfect senses, they claim that all paths lead to the same goal. There are

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