Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila Chapter 7 Verse 110

SYNONYMS

tāńhāra — of Śrī Śańkarācārya; nāhika — there is none; dosha — fault; īśvara — the Supreme Lord; ājñā — order; pāñā — receiving; gauna-artha — indirect meaning; karila — make; mukhya — direct; artha — meaning; ācchādiyā — covering.

TRANSLATION

"Śańkarācārya is not at fault, for it is under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that he has covered the real purpose of the Vedas.

PURPORT

The Vedic literature is to be considered a source of real knowledge, but if one does not take it as it is, one will be misled. For example, the Bhagavad-gītā is an important Vedic literature that has been taught for many years, but because it was commented upon by unscrupulous rascals, people derived no benefit from it, and no one came to the conclusion of Krishna consciousness. Since the purpose of the Bhagavad-gītā is now being presented as it is, however, within four or five short years thousands of people all over the world have become Krishna conscious. That is the difference between direct and indirect explanations of the Vedic literature. Therefore Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, mukhya-vrittye sei artha parama mahattva: "To teach the Vedic literature according to its direct meaning, without false commentary, is glorious." Unfortunately, Śrī Śańkarācārya, by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, compromised between atheism and theism in order to cheat the atheists and bring them to theism, and to do so he gave up the direct method of Vedic knowledge and tried to present a meaning which is indirect. It is with this purpose that he wrote his Śārīraka-bhāshya commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra.

One should not, therefore, attribute very much importance to the Śārīraka-bhāshya. In order to understand Vedānta philosophy, one must study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which begins with the words om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itarataś cārtheshv abhijñah sva-rāt: [SB 1.1.1] "I offer my obeisances unto Lord Śrī Krishna, son of Vasudeva, who is the Supreme All-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universes arise, in whom they dwell and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord, who is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations and yet is fully independent." (Bhāg. 1.1.1) Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the real commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra. Unfortunately, if one is attracted to Śrī Śańkarācārya's commentary, Śārīraka-bhāshya, his spiritual life is doomed.

One may argue that since Śańkarācārya is an incarnation of Lord Śiva, how is it that he cheated people in this way? The answer is that he did so on the order of his master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in the Padma Purāna, in the words of Lord Śiva himself:

māyāvādam asac chāstram pracchannam bauddham ucyate

mayaiva kalpitam devi kalau brāhmana-rūpinā

brahmanaś cāparam rūpam nirgunam vakshyate mayā

sarva-svam jagato 'py asya mohanārtham kalau yuge

vedānte tu mahā-śāstre māyāvādam avaidikam

mayaiva vakshyate devi jagatām nāśa-kāranāt

"The Māyāvāda philosophy," Lord Śiva informed his wife Pārvatī, "is impious [asac chāstra]. It is covered Buddhism. My dear Pārvatī, in Kali-yuga I assume the form of a brāhmana and teach this imagined Māyāvāda philosophy. In order to cheat the atheists, I describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be without form and without qualities. Similarly, in explaining Vedānta I describe the same Māyāvāda philosophy in order to mislead the entire population toward atheism by denying the personal form of the Lord." In the Śiva Purāna the Supreme Personality of Godhead told Lord Śiva:

dvāparādau yuge bhūtvā kalayā mānushādishu

svāgamaih kalpitais tvam ca janān mad-vimukhān kuru

"In Kali-yuga, mislead the people in general by propounding imaginary meanings for the Vedas to bewilder them." These are the descriptions of the Purānas.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thākura comments that mukhya-vritti ("the direct meaning") is abhidhā-vritti, or the meaning that one can understand immediately from the statements of dictionaries, whereas gauna-vritti ("the indirect meaning") is a meaning that one imagines without consulting the dictionary. For example, one politician has said that Kurukshetra refers to the body, but in the dictionary there is no such definition. Therefore this imaginary meaning is gauna-vritti, whereas the direct meaning found in the dictionary is mukhya-vritti or abhidhā-vritti. This is the distinction between the two. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends that one understand the Vedic literature in terms of abhidhā-vritti, and the gauna-vritti He rejects. Sometimes, however, as a matter of necessity, the Vedic literature is described in terms of the lakshanā-vritti or gauna-vritti, but one should not accept such explanations as permanent truths.

The purpose of the discussions in the Upanishads and Vedānta-sūtra is to philosophically establish the personal feature of the Absolute Truth. The impersonalists, however, in order to establish their philosophy, accept these discussions in terms of lakshanā-vritti, or indirect meanings. Thus instead of being tattva-vāda, or in search of the Absolute Truth, they become Māyāvāda, or illusioned by the material energy. When Śrī Vishnu Svāmī, one of the four ācāryas of the Vaishnava cult, presented his thesis on the subject matter of śuddhādvaita-vāda, immediately the Māyāvādīs took advantage of this philosophy and tried to establish their advaita-vāda or kevalādvaita-vāda. To defeat this kevalādvaita-vāda, Śrī Rāmānujācārya presented his philosophy as viśishtādvaita-vāda, and Śrī Madhvācārya presented his philosophy of tattva-vāda, both of which are stumbling blocks to the Māyāvādīs because they defeat their philosophy in scrupulous detail. Students of Vedic philosophy know very well how strongly Śrī Rāmānujācārya's viśishtādvaita-vāda and Śrī Madhvācārya's tattva-vāda contest the impersonal Māyāvāda philosophy. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, however, accepted the direct meaning of the Vedānta philosophy and thus defeated the Māyāvāda philosophy immediately. He opined in this connection that anyone who follows the principles of the Śārīraka-bhāshya is doomed. This is confirmed in the Padma Purāna, where Lord Śiva tells Pārvatī:

śrinu devi pravakshyāmi tāmasāni yathā-kramam

yeshām śravana-mātrena pātityam jñāninām api

apārtham śruti-vākyānām darśayal loka-garhitam

karma-svarūpa-tyājyatvam atra ca pratipādyate

sarva-karma-paribhramśān naishkarmyam tatra cocyate

parātma-jīvayor aikyam mayātra pratipādyate

"My dear wife, hear my explanations of how I have spread ignorance through Māyāvāda philosophy. Simply by hearing it, even an advanced scholar will fall down. In this philosophy, which is certainly very inauspicious for people in general, I have misrepresented the real meaning of the Vedas and recommended that one give up all activities in order to achieve freedom from karma. In this Māyāvāda philosophy I have described the jīvātmā and Paramātmā to be one and the same." How the Māyāvāda philosophy was condemned by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His followers is described in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmrita, Antya-līlā, Second Chapter, verses 94 through 99, where Svarūpa-dāmodara Gosvāmī says that anyone who is eager to understand the Māyāvāda philosophy must be considered insane. This especially applies to a Vaishnava who reads the Śārīraka-bhāshya and considers himself to be one with God. The Māyāvādī philosophers have presented their arguments in such attractive, flowery language that hearing Māyāvāda philosophy may sometimes change the mind of even a mahā-bhāgavata, or very advanced devotee. An actual Vaishnava cannot tolerate any philosophy that claims God and the living being to be one and the same.

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