Think Globally and Act Locally for Krishna

Srila Prabhupada has given us the mission of delivering the whole world from suffering and ignorance by awakening the dormant Krishna consciousness within the hearts of all. Therefore we must fully embrace this world deliverance mission as our very life and soul. While maintaining this broad global vision, at the same time we must focus on our daily devotional activities as well as giving Krishna consciousness to everyone we meet. In this way by acting locally and thinking globally we will gradually attain our goal of delivering the entire world.

Harinam Sankirtan in New York City

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How Was Vedic Culture Restored in India?

I understand that after Lord Buddha denied the Vedas in 600 B.C., teaching that everything is void, there was a series of acharyas who gradually restored the complete understanding of the Vedic teachings. Who were those acharyas and what did they teach?

Thank you,
Y.S.

Answer: By a Series of Vaisnava Acharyas

Even though Lord Buddha was Krishna Himself, when He appeared in 600 B.C. in order to stop cow killing, he denied the Vedas and instead taught the principles of karma and non-violence. He did this because the people at that time were so degraded that they were misinterpreting the Vedas to justify cow killing. When the emperor Ashok adopted Buddhism, all of India became Buddhist, and Vedic culture become completely non-existent.

Many centuries later in 788 A.D. Sankaracarya appeared. He was none other than Lord Siva himself who was ordered by Lord Krishna to take birth as a brahmana, defeat Buddhism, and re-establish Vedic culture in India. To do this he taught a philosophy which is very similar to Buddhism. While Buddha denied the Vedas and taught that everything is zero, Sankaracarya reintroduced the Vedas in a twisted way through word jugglery establishing that everything is one. In this way he was able to attract the Buddhists back to an acceptance of the Vedas. In other words, Buddha taught that there is no God and Sankara attracted the atheists by teaching them that they are God. Sankara's philosophy is known as advaita-vedanta (nondualistic Vedanta).

Then many centuries later in 1017 A.D. came the great acharya Ramanuja. He taught the philosophy known as visistadvaita (qualified non-dualism), that there is a difference between the Parabrahman (Supreme Brahman) and the jivas (eternally fragmental souls).

After Ramanuja in 1230 A.D. came Madhvacarya. He taught a type of Vedanta philosophy called suddha-dvaita (pure dualism) which even more emphatically than Ramanuja argued against the monistic philosophy of Sankara.

The philosophical conclusion was taught by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself, appearing in 1486 A.D. in the guise of His own devotee. Lord Caitanya's philosophy completed the progression from Buddhistic atheism to devotional theism. Ramanuja had agreed with Sankara that the Absolute is one, but had disagreed by affirming individual variety within that oneness. Madhva emphasized the eternal duality of the Supreme and the jiva even after liberation. Lord Caitanya, in conclusion, specified that the Supreme and the jivas are inconceivably, simultaneously one and different (acintya-bheda-abheda). In this way He thoroughly and most profoundly defeated Sankara's philosophy.

Sankaracarya gave the thesis of oneness. Madhvacarya gave the antithesis of duality. And Lord Caitanya gave the synthesis of simultaneous oneness and difference.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari