Official Ramakanta vs. IRM discussion thread

[Guest guest]

Dear Yaduraja Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP!

 

> Can you now please prove I have misrepresented Srila Prabhupada on the

> issue of siksa and diksa or withdraw your accusation.

 

Srila Prabhupada said:

 

"Diksa actually means initiating a disciple with transcendental knowledge by

which he becomes freed from all material contamination." (CC Madhya, 4.112,

purport)

 

You made the mistake of changing Srila Prabhupada's words. You changed

"means" to "the meaning is" and then you looked up "meaning" in the

dictionary. Then you changed Srila Prabhupada's statement to "the meaning of

diksa is imparting knowledge". Then you made yet another change and added

the word "very".

 

If you had looked up the dictionary meaning of "to mean", then you would

have learned that it also means "to bring, cause, or produce as a result"

(see www.dictionary.com ). So Srila Prabhupada's statement could also mean

"the result of diksa is that the disciple is initiated with transcendental

knowledge".

 

Just like when Srila Prabhupada said, "Good intelligence means going back

home, back to Godhead" (SB 4.30.10, purport), this does not mean the 'going

back home, back to Godhead' is the very definition of 'good intelligence'.

No, it is the result.

 

Or "rain means wet streets" does not mean "wet streets are the definition of

rain".

 

To find out whether Srila Prabhupada meant "imparting knowledge is the

definition of diksa" or "imparting knowledge is the result of diksa" we can

look at following statement:

 

"Diksa is the process by which one can awaken his transcendental knowledge

and vanquish all reactions caused by sinful activity. A person expert in the

study of the revealed scriptures knows this process as diksa." (CC Madhya,

15.108, purport)

 

Here Srila Prabhupada states that awakening of knowledge is the result of

diksa, not the definition of diksa.

 

So you have misrepresented Srila Prabhupada's statement on diksa. Q.E.D.

 

My advise again, if you don't know something perfectly, then simply repeat

Srila Prabhupada's words without any change.

 

ys Ramakanta dasa

[Kulapavana]

for thousand of years people within the Vedic culture knew perfectly well what diksha was. yet somehow this very, very simple issue is confusing many devotees in the lineage from Srila Prabhupada.

 

instead of splitting quotes and performing pseudo-intellectual word jugglery we should accept standard definitions as carried by the tradition. there is no need to reinvent the wheel while you travel in a fast moving vehicle.