20220328 The Māyāvāda Philosophy Considers the Lord to be Transformations of the Material Mode of Goodness and Equates the Jīva-tattva With the Supreme Brahman [Part 1]

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 28th, 2022 at New Pānihāṭi Dhāma Atlanta, USA.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

The Māyāvāda Philosophy Considers The Lord to be Transformations of the Material Mode of Goodness and Equates the Jīva-tattva With the Supreme Brahman, part three.

Under the section: How All the Residents of Vārāṇasī Became Vaiṣṇavas

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 7.113

tattvavastuke nirākāra evaṁ viṣṇudehādike māyika-vikāra balāi ‘māyāvāda’ :—

cid-ānanda—teṅho, tāṅra sthāna, parivāra
tāṅre kahe—prākṛta-sattvera vikāra

Translation: “The Supreme Personality of Godhead is full of spiritual potencies. Therefore His body, name, fame and entourage are all spiritual. The Māyāvādī philosopher, due to ignorance, says that these are all merely transformations of the material mode of goodness.

Purport: In the Seventh chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā the Supreme Personality of Godhead has classified His energies in two distinct divisions — namely, prākṛta and aprākṛta, or parā-prakṛti and aparā-prakṛti. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa the same distinction is made. The Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand these two prakṛtis, or natures — material and spiritual — but one who is actually intelligent can understand them. Considering the many varieties and activities in material nature, why should the Māyāvādī philosophers deny the spiritual varieties of the spiritual world?

The Bhāgavatam (10.2.32) says:

ye ’nye ’ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

The intelligence of those who think themselves liberated but have no information of the spiritual world is not yet clear. In this verse the term aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ refers to unclean intelligence. Due to unclean intelligence or a poor fund of knowledge, the Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand the distinction between material and spiritual varieties; therefore they cannot even think of spiritual varieties because they take it for granted that all variety is material.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, therefore, explains in this verse that Kṛṣṇa — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth — has a spiritual body that is distinct from material bodies, and thus His name, abode, entourage and qualities are all spiritual. The material mode of goodness has nothing to do with spiritual varieties. Māyāvādī philosophers, however, cannot clearly understand spiritual varieties; therefore they imagine a negation of the material world to be the spiritual world. The material qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance cannot act in the spiritual world, which is therefore called nirguṇa, as clearly indicated in the Bhagavad-gītā (trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna). The material world is a manifestation of the three modes of material nature, but one has to become free from these modes to come to the spiritual world, where their influence is completely absent. Now Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu will disassociate Lord Śiva from Māyāvāda philosophy in the following verse.

Jayapatākā Swami: Māyāvādīs think that all variety is material. Actually, the three modes of nature – ignorance, passion and goodness has nothing to do with the spiritual world. But since there is variety in the material world from that we can understand that there must be variety in the spiritual world. Unfortunately, mayavadis do not have this common sense. And to listen to the mayavadis, Lord Caitanya warned that one can get their spiritual life destroyed. So, the māyāvādī sannyasis think that to be a sannyāsī, is to achieve impersonal Brahman realization. They don’t know about any other type of realization. But we know that Lord Caitanya has instructed grhe thako … whether one is a gṛhastha or a vairagi, they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, the mayavadis have very little limited understanding of the Absolute Truth but the devotees have much clearer understanding. So that is why we are requesting everyone to become a devotee. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.114

ādeśapālaka śaṅkarera doṣa nā thākileo tadbhāṣya-śravaṇe jīvera sarvanāśa :—

tāṅra doṣa nāhi, teṅho ājñā-kārī dāsa
āra yei śune tāra haya sarva-nāśa

Translation: “Śaṅkarācārya, who is an incarnation of Lord Śiva, is faultless because he is a servant carrying out the orders of the Lord. But those who follow his Māyāvādī philosophy are doomed. They will lose all their advancement in spiritual knowledge.

Purport: Māyāvādī philosophers are very proud of exhibiting their Vedānta knowledge through grammatical jugglery, but in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa certifies that they are māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, bereft of real knowledge due to māyā. Māyā has two potencies with which to execute her two functions — the prakṣepātmikā-śakti, the power to throw the living entity into the ocean of material existence, and āvaraṇātmikā-śakti, the power to cover the knowledge of the living entity. The function of the the āvaraṇātmikā-śakti is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā by the word māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ.

Why the daivī-māyā, or illusory energy of Kṛṣṇa, takes away the knowledge of the Māyāvādī philosophers is also explained in the Bhagavad-gīta by the use of the words āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, which refer to a person who does not agree to the existence of the Lord. The Māyāvādīs, who are not in agreement with the existence of the Lord, can be classified in two groups, exemplified by the impersonalist Śaṅkarites of Vārāṇasī and the Buddhists of Saranātha. Both groups are Māyāvādīs, and Kṛṣṇa takes away their knowledge due to their atheistic philosophies. Neither group agrees to accept the existence of a personal God. The Buddhist philosophers clearly deny both the soul and God, and although the Śaṅkarites do not openly deny God, they say that the Absolute is nirākāra, or formless. Thus both the Buddhists and the Śaṅkarites are aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, or imperfect and unclean in their knowledge and intelligence.

The most prominent Māyāvādī scholar, Sadānanda Yogīndra, has written a book called Vedānta-sāra, in which he expounds the philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya, and all the followers of Śaṅkara’s philosophy attribute great importance to his statements. In this Vedānta-sāra Sadānanda Yogīndra defines Brahman as sac-cid-ānanda combined with knowledge and without duality, and he defines ignorance (jaḍa) as knowledge distinct from that of sat and asat. This is almost inconceivable, but it is a product of the three material qualities. Thus he considers anything other than pure knowledge to be material. The center of ignorance is considered to be sometimes all-pervading and sometimes individual. Thus according to his opinion both the all-pervading Viṣṇu and the individual living entities are products of ignorance.

In simple language, it is the opinion of Sadānanda Yogīndra that since everything is nirākāra (formless), the conception of Viṣṇu and the conception of the individual soul are both products of ignorance. He also explains that the viśuddha-sattva conception of the Vaiṣṇavas is nothing but pradhāna, or the chief principle of creation. He maintains that when all-pervading knowledge is contaminated by the viśuddha-sattva, which consists of a transformation of the quality of goodness, there arises the conception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the omnipotent, omniscient supreme ruler, the Supersoul, the cause of all causes, the supreme īśvara, etc. According to Sadānanda Yogīndra, because īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is the reservoir of all ignorance, He may be called sarva-jña, or omniscient, but one who denies the existence of the omnipotent Supreme Personality of Godhead is more than īśvara, or the Lord. His conclusion, therefore, is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead (īśvara) is a transformation of material ignorance and that the living entity (jīva) is covered by ignorance. Thus he describes both collective and individual existence in darkness. According to Māyāvādī philosophers, the Vaiṣṇava conception of the Lord as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and of the jīva, or individual soul, as His eternal servant is a manifestation of ignorance. If we accept the judgment of Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, however, the Māyāvādīs are to be considered māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, or bereft of all knowledge, because they do not recognize the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or they claim that His existence is a product of the material conception (māyā). These are characteristics of asuras, or demons.

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His discourses with Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, said:

jīvera nistāra lāgi’ sūtra kaila vyāsa
māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa

Vyāsadeva composed the Vedānta-sūtra to deliver the conditioned souls from this material world, but Śaṅkarācārya, by presenting the Vedānta-sūtra in his own way, has clearly done a great disservice to human society, for one who follows his Māyāvāda philosophy is doomed. In the Vedānta-sūtra, devotional service is clearly indicated, but the Māyāvādī philosophers refuse to accept the spiritual body of the Supreme Absolute Person and refuse to accept that the living entity has an individual existence separate from that of the Supreme Lord. Thus they have created atheistic havoc all over the world, for such a conclusion is against the very nature of the transcendental process of pure devotional service. The Māyāvādī philosophers’ unrealizable ambition to become one with the Supreme through denying the existence of the Personality of Godhead results in a most calamitous misrepresentation of spiritual knowledge, and one who follows this philosophy is doomed to remain perpetually in this material world. Therefore the Māyāvādīs are called aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, or unclean in knowledge. Because they are unclean in knowledge, all their austerities and penances end in frustration. Thus although they may be honored at first as very learned scholars, ultimately they descend to physical activities of politics, social work, etc. Instead of becoming one with the Supreme Lord, they again become one with these material activities.

This is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.32):

In actuality the Māyāvādī philosophers very strictly follow the austerities and penances of spiritual life and in this way are elevated to the impersonal Brahman platform, but due to their negligence of the lotus feet of the Lord they again fall down to material existence.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the Māyāvādīs are offending the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And the result they fall down again and you see the Buddhists don’t believe in the soul and don’t believe in God. Defeating the Buddhist path Sankarācārya preached covered Buddhism where he did not deny the existence of the soul but he said that the soul was virtually supreme. As a result, he brought the Buddhists back but he spread the Māyāvādī misconception. So the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas they all preached against these Māyāvādīs. The Śrī-sampradāya, Śrī Ramanujācārya, he preached against it. Madhvācārya preached against it and Lord Caitanya in His philosophy, He also preached against it. So, the Māyāvādīs would greet each other as Nārāyaṇa. They thought that all are meant to become God. But this is very offensive. So the devotees, they understand that the Lord, He has transcendental activities. And they are very much attracted to the transcendental activities of the Lord. But the Māyāvādīs they think that any quality must be material. Therefore, they mislead themselves and they mislead others.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.115

māyādhīśa viṣṇuke māyika-jñānai pāṣaṇḍatā :—

prākṛta kariyā māne viṣṇu-kalevara
viṣṇu-nindā āra nāhi ihāra upara

Translation: “One who considers the transcendental body of Lord Viṣṇu to be made of material nature is the greatest offender at the lotus feet of the Lord. There is no greater blasphemy against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Purport: Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī explains that the variegated personal feature of the Absolute Truth is the viṣṇu-tattva and that the material energy, which creates this cosmic manifestation, is the energy of Lord Viṣṇu. The creative force is merely the energy of the Lord, but the foolish conclude that because the Lord has distributed Himself in an impersonal form He has no separate existence. The impersonal Brahman, however, cannot possess energies, nor do the Vedic literatures state that māyā (the illusory energy) is covered by another māyā. There are hundreds and thousands of references, however, to viṣṇu-māyā (parāsya śaktiḥ), or the energy of Lord Viṣṇu. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14) Kṛṣṇa refers to mama māyā (“My energy”). Māyā is controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; it is not that He is covered by māyā. Therefore Lord Viṣṇu cannot be a product of the material energy. In the beginning of the Vedānta-sūtra it is said, janmādy asya yataḥ, indicating that the material energy is also an emanation of the Supreme Brahman. How then could He be covered by the material energy? If that were possible, material energy would be greater than the Supreme Brahman. Even these simple arguments, however, cannot be understood by the Māyāvādī philosophers, and therefore the term māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, which is applied to them in the Bhagavad-gītā, is extremely appropriate. Anyone who thinks that Lord Viṣṇu is a product of the material energy, as explained by Sadānanda Yogīndra, should immediately be understood to be insane, for his knowledge has been stolen by the illusory energy.

Lord Viṣṇu cannot be placed within the category of the demigods. Those who are actually bewildered by the Māyāvāda philosophy and are still in the darkness of ignorance consider Lord Viṣṇu to be a demigod, in defiance of the Ṛg-vedic mantra oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam (“Viṣṇu is always in a superior position”). This mantra is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat — there is no truth superior to Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu. Thus only those whose knowledge has been bewildered consider Lord Viṣṇu to be a demigod and therefore suggest that one may worship either Lord Viṣṇu, the goddess Kālī (Durgā) or whomever one likes and achieve the same result. This is an ignorant conclusion that is not accepted in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.25), which distinctly says, yānti deva-vratā devān . . . yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām: The worshipers of the demigods will be promoted to the respective planets of the demigods, but devotees of the Supreme Lord will go back home, back to Godhead. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains very clearly in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14) that His material energy is very difficult to overcome: daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā. Māyā’s influence is so strong that even learned scholars and spiritualists are also covered by māyā and think themselves to be as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually, however, to free oneself from the influence of māyā one must surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as Kṛṣṇa also states in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14): mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te. It is to be concluded, therefore, that Lord Viṣṇu does not belong to this material creation but to the spiritual world. To misconceive Lord Viṣṇu to have a material body or to equate Him with the demigods is the most offensive blasphemy against Lord Viṣṇu, and offenders against the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu cannot advance in spiritual knowledge. They are called māyayāpahṛta-jñāna, or those whose knowledge has been stolen by the influence of illusion.

One who thinks that there is a difference between Lord Viṣṇu’s body and His soul dwells in the darkest region of ignorance. There is no difference between Lord Viṣṇu’s body and Viṣṇu’s soul, for they are advaya-jñāna, one knowledge. In this world there is a difference between the material body and the spiritual soul, but in the spiritual world everything is spiritual and there are no such differences. The greatest offense of the Māyāvādī philosophers is to consider Lord Viṣṇu and the living entities to be one and the same. In this connection the Padma Purāṇa states, arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ . . . yasya vā nārakī saḥ: “One who considers the arcā-mūrti, the worshipable Deity of Lord Viṣṇu, to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, and a Vaiṣṇava to belong to a particular caste or creed is possessed of hellish intelligence.” One who follows such conclusions is doomed.

Jayapatākā Swami: After Lord Caitanya went to Vṛndāvana He came back and He taught Rūpa Gosvāmī in Prayaga. Then He taught Sanātana Gosvāmī in Banaras. This section we are reading from actually was placed in the Ādi-līlā because Kṛṣṇadasa Kavirāja thought it was so important. So he put it first. We are already in Madhya-līlā but we came back and are reading this section of Ādi-līlā because this preaching to Māyāvādīs was placed in Ādi-līlā to give the true chronology we are now presenting it. We are compiling from various books on Lord Caitanya, like the Kṛṣṇa Book, we will have the Caitanya Book. But this section is from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Otherwise, there are about nine or ten books and so they present different books in different pastimes. All the details of the same pastime. And somehow the pastimes, some details are given in the Caitanya-bhāgavata, some in the Caitanya-maṅgala and some in other books. So this section is from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. After this section, Lord Caitanya made all the Māyāvādīs Vaisnavas

And there two other books which will comment upon it. Anyway we see that in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Kṛṣṇa is transcendental and He appears in different forms. The Māyāvādīs, they are thinking that Kṛṣṇa’s body is material. But actually Kṛṣṇa and His soul are non-different. In the material world we have different body and different soul. But in the spiritual world there is no such difference. So now we will start from verse 116. Any questions? Who here is a disciple of Bhakti Caru Swami? So, because he was very dear to me, I pray every day for the well-being of his disciples. Of course, I also pray for all of my disciples, and I pray also for Bhakti Tīrtha Swami disciples. He asked me to pray and Bhakti Caru Swami left suddenly so he didn’t have time to ask. But I considered it my duty.