How would your Lib-O-Meter rate Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita?

[Guest guest]

I took the liberty of sending excerpts from the debate that is currently

being carried on by Krsna Kirti Prabhu and Nayan Naranjana to GBC

istagoshti. What follows is a response from Krsna Kirti's GURU.

 

>

>From the Caitanya-caritamrita:

>

> prabhu kahe vedanta-sutra isvara vacana

> vyasa-rupe kaile yaha sri narayana

>

>"The Lord said, 'Vedanta philosophy consists of words spoken by the Supreme

>Personality of Godhead in the form of Vyasadev'" (CC Adi 7.106)

>

>And also:

>

>

>Actually the unique, distinguishing feature of shastra is that it

>has emanated directly from the Lord, "vyasa-rupa" (as quoted above).

>

>Although our shastra consists of words spoken by saintly persons like

>Narada, Manu, etc., their words were still compiled by Vyasadev. That

means

>the dividing line as to whether or not a saintly person's words are shastra

>is whether or not Vyasadev wrote about them.

>

>For Srila Prabhupada's words to be considered shastra, either Vyasadev

would

>have had to have recorded Srila Prabhupada's words, or at least directly

>approved of him

>or Srila Prabhupada would have to directly be Vyasa. But since Srila

>Prabhupada is not Vyasa,

>nor were his words recorded by Vyasa, Srila Prabhupda's words come in the

>category of a saintly person (sadhu), or one whose words are based on

>shastra.

 

It seems that an otherwise promising essay has run aground here. The

author quotes the CC, which technically isn't Shastra. Clearly we

accept the CC, CBhagavata etc as shastra. Also we accept

Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu as shastra. We also accept much of Srila

Prabhupada's teachings as shastras. Surely Srila Prabhupada's casual

remarks about World War II, or Indian concepts of nutrition etc are

not always shastra in the same sense that the Gita is.

With best wishes,

Hridayananda das Goswami