Are there any brahmavadis in the world today?

Podcast

Are there any Brahmavadis in the world today? Where do they live? What is their sadhana? How do they walk? How do they walk? See generally it is very difficult to know people’s conception externally even if somebody is externally belonging to an organization that is we could say Mayavadi but is it necessary that all the people in that organization will also be having Mayavadi as I said Brahmavad means people are attracted to the impersonal manifestation they have their idea of oneness and they want to go into the oneness and they have not been explained the personal aspect in philosophical terms so they have no attraction to it either they are not met devotees or they are not met learned devotees who can explain in philosophical terms so that’s why that bhakti towards the personal aspect has not come so in my understanding most people whom we deal with it is safe to most people who are spiritualist and talk about oneness it is safe to start with the idea that they are Brahmavadis no need to presume that they are Mayavadis so there are of course some people who are offensive to the lord also but most of their followers they are not philosophical so we could say that there are Mayavadis and people under Mayavad influence and people under Mayavad influence are usually not Mayavadis they are just Brahmavadis they have the idea of oneness that’s all so see for most people when they come to a spiritual path philosophy is not what brings them to the spiritual path it is a culture it is a sense of community it is a sense of continuity with tradition it is a sense of belonging it is a sense of peace of mind there are so many things other things actually which bring people to a spiritual organization a spiritual movement to make a spiritual path so even if people are following a particular spiritual path which we could say is Mayavadi their philosophy is not the major reason why they are following it so for them to come to Krishna also even if they have some philosophical conception I am talking from a practical experiential perspective philosophy is very rarely an obstacle for people to come to Krishna there are some but it is very rare so even if their philosophy is wrong wrong philosophy is not as much as an obstacle as our telling them that their philosophy is wrong so what happens is you tell them this is wrong but you know such a famous teacher says this and you say that is wrong how can you say they are wrong so best is for most people we can present philosophy in a non confrontational way just present the personal philosophy and people see most Indians if you are talking mostly about Indians most Indians are more interested in worship than the object of worship that means many people will come to the temple and pray with such folded hands, closed eyes moving their head with such sincerity I don’t pray like this to Krishna and when going back you will ask who is there on the altar so the point is that it’s like somebody who is out in the cold and they have a torn tattered piece of cloth and we want to give them a very thick soft comforter which will protect them from the cold much better but if we tell them just put aside that cloth and we try to pull that cloth away from them they will hold on to that cloth as if it’s their life because that is the only thing protecting them from cold right now so instead of trying to pull away that cloth just put the comforter on them and once they start experiencing the comfort hey this is so good and they themselves think actually that torn tattered sheet I don’t need it just put it aside so what is this compared to is that people there is world in rajas and tamas and the modes of passion and ignorance cause a lot of agitation to people’s minds and even if people experience some sattva they might just come to a place and just close their eyes and do some deep breathing just recite some om or whatever they do something and they experience some peace and that’s what they consider spiritual so although that I mean hardly philosophy philosophy doesn’t make sense whatever but they have come there because they have got the experience so it’s like from the cold of rajas and tamas whatever little spirituality they have done that is like the tattered thin sheet that is giving them protection and so it may be wrong it’s torn it’s tattered but it’s giving them some experience of sattva when we try to pull it away so as I said their wrong philosophy doesn’t obstruct them as much as ours calling their philosophy wrong give up this sheet no just give our philosophy to them give them an opportunity to experience krishna not just our philosophy but the whole krishna culture the krishna relationships, the krishna worship and many people actually make a seamless transition so most people don’t go to any spiritual path because of the philosophy, philosophy is one aspect no doubt but it is not a very prominent aspect so even if somebody’s philosophy even if we say people are brahmavadis or mayavadis or whatever just don’t worry about what they are focus on connecting them with krishna when prabhupada went to america actually there was a big interest in indian spirituality and that interest in indian spirituality at that time was because of many other spiritual teachers who had gone in the past now most of them were impersonalists but people people just interested in indian spirituality they had some impersonal conceptions but they were open to indian spirituality so similarly even if somebody is mayavadi or whatever often that makes them at least at a practical level favorable to krishna at ideological or philosophical level if they are at that level they may be unfavorable but most people are not at that level so we just we can assume that most people are like at the brahmavad level and treat them accordingly and many of them will come towards bhakti ok yeah