The Vaisnava protocol for discussion per Lord Caitanya's precepts-

[Airicky]

I saw this article on another site and felt it relevant for all of us here. Thank you Vishoka dasa for this information.

 

The Vaisnava protocol for discussion per Lord Caitanya's precepts-

 

Lord Caitanya's 5 step rules of engagement in debate, or Vaisnava

discussion.

 

1. Lord Caitanya taught us to have civil and structured discussion on

issues that define our Vaisnava community. Srila Prabhupada taught us to

have . for this purpose. Many pastimes of Lord Caitanya reveal

the point that He was always willing to discuss any philosophical issue

with other devotees. He never banned any kind of philosophical

discussion. Vaisnava history shows us that all Vaisnavas were always

willing to discuss or debate important issues, and they never refrained

from any debate, which was important to the lives of the Vaisnavas.

 

2. Lord Caitanya taught us to give all respect to one's opponent in

discussion, and never inflict insult or abuse to one's opponent. Lord

Caitanya demonstrated this teaching in His debate with Kesava Kasmiri by

praising the pundit's good points and qualities, and conducting the

entire debate without a hint of insult to his person.

 

3. Lord Caitanya taught us to give patient listening to the other person,

even for the length of 7 days, without rudeness and interruption. Lord

Caitanya showed us this patience in His pastime with Sarvabauma

Battacaraya. We must follow Lord Caitanya's precept and listen to what

other prabhus have to say in discussions, even for 7 days if that is the

situation.

 

4. Lord Caitanya taught us to make positive comments on what the other

person has said, commenting on his good points, before stating your

differences. The lord taught this point in His pastime with the

dig-vijaya pandit and others.

 

5. Lord Caitanya taught us to nicely reveal the illusion of the issue, to

state the truth in a palatable way, not hurting the person, letting him

save face, and so on. This He showed in His pastime with Kesava Kasmiri.

Some witnesses of the debate started to laugh as Lord Caitanya defeated

the pandit, and the Lord forbid them, saying the pandit was worthy of

respect.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, and a mistake is only a temporary illusion.

Everyone is victim to temporary illusions, at one time or another; only

Srila Prabhupada is free from illusions. Compassion for godbrothers means

to help each other out of these temporary illusions without causing

insult to anyone. No one is eternally condemned in our Vaisnava

philosophy, like we find in other philosophies of eternal hell fire

punishments.

 

Machiavellian philosophy means the exact opposite of Lord Caitanya's

rules of engagement for debate. Machiavellian tactics means to ruthlessly

assassinate the person's character, especially when one is unable to

defeat him on the philosophical level, and to destroy the person and his

group with propaganda instead of engaging in civil discussion. There are

two kinds of devotees in this regard, the sane and insane. The sane

devotee follows Lord Caitanya and His precepts, and the insane devotee

follows this Machiavellian philosophy and tactics. Most of us know that

Machiavellian philosophy was introduced into our society after Srila

Prabhupada left. If you are in Lord Caitanya's movement, but you don't

follow His precepts, then what are you doing in His movement? One cannot

claim to be a Gaudhiya Vaisnava devotee, and make a mockery of the Lord's

teachings. Decide where you stand, are you with the sane devotees, or

are you with the Machiavellians?

 

To have a structured Vaisnava discussion, means to illuminate the truth,

and dispel illusion, as is seen in Lord Caitanya's point number 5, by a

three-step process, known as - postulation, demonstration, and then

assertion. In short, we describe this as "PDA" or the process of

ascertaining the truth. We shall refer to this 3-point PDA procedure

sometimes in our discussions.

 

The first step is to postulate, which means to make your philosophical

claim on some issue. This does not mean that one concocts some idea

according to one's imagination. No, postulation means that one is ready

to back up his claim with substantiating evidence from sastra, so on.

 

The second step means to demonstrate your evidence with a complete

exposition on the evidence, from Srila Prabhupada's vani, from guru,

sastra and sadhu, which completes a full substantiation to your claim.

The absence of real facts from the sources of guru, sastra and sadhu,

means an unsubstantiated claim. Either you have a substantiated claim or

you have an unsubstantiated claim, either of which will be revealed by a

structured Vaisnava discussion. Sometimes evidence seems right, and later

proven wrong, or out of context. That's why the counter expositions from

opponents are valuable factors of the equation.

 

The third step, after a complete demonstration, is the assertion of your

conclusion, which is the most logical inference made from all the know

facts of the matter, which are brought to light by the structured process

of demonstration of substantiating evidence. Steps 1 and 3 appear to be

the same thing, so one may ask what is the point of saying the same thing

twice? The reason for making our postulation first is because we cannot

be so arrogant to assert that we automatically know the final truth.

First we must postulate our idea and prove it through a structured

exposition of the facts, and only after satisfaction of the evidence, and

taking rebuttals, so on, only then we can assert our final conclusion.

Opposite of this procedure is to an assertion without demonstration and

then impose arbitrary legislation.

 

A classic example of assertion and legislation is the resolution

statements of the gbc that the ritvik idea is a "dangerous philosophy."

This is legislated into their laws without one iota of demonstration of

evidence from higher authority. Srila Prabhupada and previous acharyas

never said this, sastra never said it, therefore it’s an unsubstantiated

claim, and only they are saying it.

 

By following the protocol given by Lord Caitanya, we are guaranteed to

come to the truth, by Lord Caitanya's and Srila Prabhupada's blessings.