Don't Miss this Rarest of All Opportunities

To get a human birth is an opportunity that one only very rarely gets in the evolutionary cycle, which spans 8,400,000 different types of species. Rarer still is to be a human being who seriously pursues the pathway of spiritual emancipation to gain release from the cycle of birth and death. And even rarer than that is the spiritual seeker who gets the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and thus is able to successfully gain release from the material existence. So if you find yourself in the category of someone who has been able to get the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, kindly do not throw this opportunity away. Take advantage of this rarest of all opportunities and make your life truly and permanently successful.

Teaching Krishna Bhakti at a Ma Kali Temple Solerino, Mauritius--16 December 2011

Sankarshan Das Teaching Krishna Bhakti at a Ma Kali Temple, Mauritius

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Why Did Sankara Spread Impersonalism?

Why did Sankara spread impersonalism?

D.P.

Answer: To Partially Re-Establish Vedic Culture

Sankaracharya was an incarnation of Lord Siva, who was ordered by his master, Lord Krishna, to propagate Mayavadi philosophy, impersonalism, for the purpose of defeating Buddhism and re-establishing Vedic culture in India. The historical reason for this was that after Krishna departed from this planet 5,000 years ago India gradually degraded to such an extent that the people were killing cows and justifying it by a gross misinterpretation of the Vedic scriptures. Therefore, being kind upon the poor cows, Krishna appeared in the form of Lord Buddha to stop the cow killing by teaching the principles of karma and non-violence along with a voidistic philosophy which denied the Vedas. Such emergency action saved the cows, but Vedic culture was for the time being forgotten. Therefore to restore Vedic culture Lord Krishna ordered Lord Siva to appear as Sankaracharya, who presented a compromised version of Vedic philosophy that was similar to Buddhism. The Buddhist conception of the highest truth is zero. And the impersonal conception of the highest truth is impersonal oneness. Philosophically they are very similar. Through expert grammatical word jugglery Sankaracharya twisted the Vedic teachings to make them appear impersonal so that the Buddhists would find it acceptable to adopt the Vedic culture and teachings. In this way Sankaracharya was successful in defeating Buddhism and re-establishing Vedic culture. But before leaving this world he renounced his earlier impersonal Vedic misinterpretation and instructed his followers to accept the ultimate Vedic conception, the personal conception of God:

bhaja govindaṁ bhaja govindaṁ
bhaja govindam mūḍha-mate
samprāpte sannihite kāle
na hi na hi rakṣati ḍukṛñ-karaṇe

"You intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not save you at the time of death."

Unfortunately his followers did not follow his final instruction. Instead they tenaciously clung to impersonalism because they felt gratified by the false impersonal conception that the living being is God.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But
Read more

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for
Read more