Taking a statement on face value could be foolish

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All

glories to our diksa- and siksa-spiritual masters following Srila

Prabhupada.

 

Some pro-rtviks claim that we have to take the July 9 letter on "face

value". But it could be totally foolish to take a final order of an acarya

on "face value," especially if it totally contradicts the totality of his

teachings.

 

Consider the final instruction of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami to Pariksit

Maharaja. The Mayavadis who study the Srimad Bhagavatam jump in on it and

argue like the rtviks (one might say that the rtviks are arguing like the

Mayavadis).

 

Here are Texts 11-12 from the Fifth Chapter, "Sukadeva Gosvami's Final

Instructions to Maharaja Pariksit," Twelfth Canto:

 

<start>

aham brahma param dhama

brahmaham paramam padam

evam samiksya catmanam

atmany adhaya niskale

 

dasantam taksakam pade

lelihanam visananaih

na draksyasi sariram ca

visvam ca prthag atmanah

 

aham—I; brahma—the Absolute Truth; param—supreme; dhama—the abode;

brahma—the Absolute Truth; aham—I; paramam—the supreme; padam—destination;

evam—thus; samiksya—considering; ca—and; atmanam—yourself; atmani—in the

Supreme Self; adhaya—placing; niskale—which is free from material

designation; dasantam—biting; taksakam—Taksaka; pade—upon your foot;

lelihanam—the snake, licking his lips; visa-ananaih—with his mouth full of

poison; na draksyasi—you will not even notice; sariram—your body; ca—and;

visvam—the entire material world; ca—and; prthak—separate; atmanah—from the

self.

 

TRANSLATION

You should consider, "I am nondifferent from the Absolute Truth, the supreme

abode, and that Absolute Truth, the supreme destination, is nondifferent

from me." Thus resigning yourself to the Supreme Soul, who is free from all

material misidentifications, you will not even notice the snake-bird Taksaka

when he approaches with his poison-filled fangs and bites your foot. Nor

will you see your dying body or the material world around you, because you

will have realized yourself to be separate from them.

<end>

 

So here Srila Sukadeva Gosvami finally tells Maharaja Pariksit that he

should consider that he is Param Brahman, Param Dhama (remember the verse in

the Gita spoken by Arjuna to Lord Krsna: param brahma param dhama...). This

is a serious instruction. And it is the final instruction of Srila Sukadeva

Gosvami to Pariksit Maharaja.

 

As I said before, the Mayavadis argue that "ultimately" this is the final

instruction of Sukadeva Gosvami and this should be accepted on face value.

"There is no need to interpret this statement since it is so explicit.It

explicitly tells us that actually we are param brahman. Just take it on face

value."

 

But such a view totally contradicts the totality of the teaching of the

Srimad Bhagavatam.

* It contradicts the samadhi of Srila Vyasadeva which led him to first

compose the Bhagavatam on the basis of which he taught Sukadeva Gosvami the

Bhagavatam.

* It contradicts the teachings imparted to him by Narada Muni on the

transcendence of the Personality of Godhead (Narada Muni preached to

Vyasadeva and then told him to sit on samadhi before writing Bhagavatam).

* It contradicts the teaching of Suta Gosvami who was one of the students of

Sukadeva Gosvami. (Suta Gosvami makes it clear right in the Third Chapter of

the First Canto that the form of the Supreme Lord is transcendental and

eternal.)

* It even contradicts the final teaching of the Bhagavatam which prefers

devotional service life after life in favor of liberation. (There are many

similar verses decrying liberation in the Bhagavatam.)

 

Therefore, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura states, "...some of the sages

present while Sukadeva was instructing King Pariksit were impersonalist

philosophers. Thus the word *samena* indicates that in the previous chapter

Sukadeva Gosvami had spoken the philosophy of self-realization in a way

pleasing to such intellectual yogis." (quoted in SB 12.6.1, purport)

 

Now coming to the post-samadhi rtvik doctrine, the rtviks want us to take

the letter issued on July 9, 1977 on face value. But we have to be careful

to consider the totality of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. Otherwise we would

be like the foolish Mayavadis who base their imaginative Mayavada doctrine

on the basis of the so-called Final Instruction of Sukadeva Gosvami.

 

Writing by the mercy of my Guru Maharaja and the Vaisnavas, I beg to remain,

 

Your servant

VGD