How are scriptures preserved when the parampara is lost?
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Question from Pranav Prabhu. How is the Aparushayatva, the transcendental nature of the scriptures preserved during some ages when the Guru Parampara gets lost temporarily and at times when many deviations arise like the Asanpradaya which arose after the disappearance of Goswamis. Do these two happen because some people who are not qualified try to present the scriptures according to what they understood as pre-edit, to be the current ethos? Yes, it is true that the knowledge that is coming in the Parampara can get lost as Krishna himself anticipates and states in the Bhagavad Gita, by the power of time, and Krishna says the power of time is great, mahata, yoga nashtah parampara.
That knowledge, Prabhupada translates that as seems to be lost. So now the word that is used by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, yoga nashtah, it's an interesting word because nashtah means to destroy whereas Prabhupada translates it as lost and not only lost, seems to be lost. So now if we look at the word yoga over there, that helps us understand Prabhupada's translation better also.
Now what do we mean by the word yoga? Yoga is connection and that connection, Krishna is saying nashtah, it's destroyed. So now that means that the people who are supposed to be carrying that knowledge at that particular time and sharing that knowledge with the world, they no longer stay connected with Krishna in their own hearts, yoga nashtah. So because they are no longer connected with the Lord, so naturally that if their connection is lost, they are not so effectively able to connect people with the world, people with Krishna.
So therefore that is how the knowledge gets lost. When individuals are not connected deeply with Krishna and therefore they are unable to understand what is the essence of the spiritual knowledge and how it has to be shared with the world. So in the process of transmitting knowledge in the parampara, we can talk about two main connections.
One is the, we could call say the vertical connection and the other is the horizontal connection. So the vertical connection would be the connection through the parampara, through the spiritual master, the grand spiritual master and so on. So from where we receive the knowledge and the horizontal connection is the connection with the people with whom we are living.
So if we connect, if our connection with the internal is very strong but a connection with the people is not adequate, then our connection with the, vertical connection with the tradition enables us to be faithful, enables us to practice fidelity. Our connection with the contemporary audience, the horizontal connection enables us to practice sensitivity so that we know what the current language is and how things need to be presented, what the current thoughts are. So if we are practicing fidelity but not sensitivity, then we become fanatical and if we are practicing sensitivity but not fidelity, then we become sentimental in the name of being sensitive and we become disconnected.
So there has to be a balance between fidelity and sensitivity and the core to maintaining this balance is a third connection and that third connection is the internal connection with Krishna in our own hearts. So essentially the parampara is not preserved by verbatim repetition of the knowledge or expert word jugglery to catch the contemporary audience attention. It is actually parampara is preserved by the deep internal connection with Krishna and by becoming, by one's prayerful surrender and dedication, an instrument for Krishna to share his love and his message with the world.
So now to the extent we are internally connected with Krishna or to the extent the acharyas are internally connected with Krishna, to that extent they will be able to help others develop the connection and to that extent they will be able to preserve the parampara. So now this internal restoration of the connection with Krishna can happen in various ways. One is what is demonstrated in the Bhagavad Gita itself.
Krishna comes and restarts the parampara. So Krishna comes and interacts with some souls like he did with Arjuna and enables them to get the spiritual knowledge and then ask them to set up systems by which they can share the spiritual knowledge and the spiritual knowledge can be shared perpetually. The second is that Krishna sends some associate of his from the spiritual world.
This is what happened at the time of say Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Although Gaudiya Vaishnavism was there at his times and no doubt there were some Mahabhagavats, Paramhamsa Babajis, but the mainstream of Gaudiya Vaishnavism had either become corrupted into Sahajiyaism or had become corrupted into ritualism. So Sahajiyaism means one tries to prematurely intrude into the advanced feelings and ritualism means one gives undue importance to the external rituals.
For example the birth in a particular caste and things like that. So these were the deviations that were there at that time and Bhaktivinoda Thakur when he appeared by the Lord's arrangement he restored the parampara at that time. And of course Aishwarya Prabhupada said that a person can become a pure devotee in three ways.
One is the Nitya Siddha. He is eternally a pure devotee. He is a Kripa Siddha and he is a Sadhana Siddha.
So Prabhupada will give the example of somebody is born a millionaire or somebody while is living a normal life suddenly is by some relative or somebody beget a huge inheritance by which that person becomes a millionaire. Third is the person by his own painstaking labor gradually accumulates and becomes a millionaire. So similarly some souls are Nitya Siddha.
They are born millionaires. Some others for some extraordinary reason they are given the mercy of the Lord directly and they become Kripa Siddha. That is like somebody getting an inheritance.
And third is that somebody by the slow steady sadhana also become purified and they also become pure devotees. So the third possibility is also there that by gradual painstaking effort one may by the practice of devotional service understand this is the essence and this is what is the difference. So now in general we don't have to go into the zone of whether somebody is a Sadhana Siddha or somebody is a Nitya Siddha especially in our current situation because it can lead us to unnecessarily over glorify some devotees and minify some other devotees.
Now we can try to see objectively how much a person is dedicated to Srila Prabhupada and how much is the person able to get others to Srila Prabhupada's lotus feet. So yes the deviations as you pointed out they can happen because some people may give undue importance to the contemporary trends or some people may give undue importance to the strict letter of the words without understanding their spirit. Both ways it's possible so you can err on the side of fidelity or we can err on the side of sensitivity too much.
So I have talked about this in my Vyasa Puja offering to Srila Prabhupada called the expert tightrope dancer. You can read that if you like and essentially we have to understand that Krishna is the preserver of the tradition of the parampara and it is Krishna's responsibility to ensure that spiritual knowledge is available for souls who want to connect with him. How Krishna will do that will vary according to time, place, circumstance.
He may do it personally, he may do it by sending an associate or he may use a sadhana siddha bhakta to also restore the parampara. So there are various ways in which Krishna can do it and essentially when we practice devotional service, when we are putting faith in the tradition, we are putting faith in Krishna because it is Krishna who is telling us to connect with a spiritual master who is coming in the parampara. So at some times it may happen that for some devotees because of certain incidents their faith may not be so strong and they may feel whether in parampara the knowledge is coming properly or not.
So at that time we need to recognize that actually it is Krishna who is giving the knowledge through the parampara. So we as devotees, sadhakas, we focus on practicing the process of devotional service that Krishna has given us through Shila Prabhupada and as we keep practicing it we will deepen our connection with Krishna and as we deepen our connection with Krishna, Shila Prabhupada would often use this verse, that if we try to serve Krishna sincerely, Krishna will give us the intelligence by which we will be able to render that, we will know how best to serve him. So does that mean our internal subjective feeling is the ultimate criteria for verification? It is not the singular criteria, it is one of the most important criteria especially if we are practicing spiritual life properly and we are also rooted in the scriptures properly.
Krishna is saying that the dhami buddhi yogam tam will happen when? So at our level if we are studying scriptures properly and if we are sincerely trying to render devotional service according to our capacity, we will be able to get the internal guidance from Krishna about how we should go ahead. So this also relates with your next question. While presenting the philosophy in a new genre, how to keep the reader fine, firmly rooted and faithful to Shila Prabhupada's books? Certainly when we are writing ourselves or speaking ourselves in a new way, first of all we should spend adequate time in studying Shila Prabhupada's books and assimilate the central points that he makes repeatedly and then we make sure that in our presentation those central points come out.
So they may not be in the same words, they may not be in the same sequence, they may may be presented differently but for example we are not the body, we are the soul, Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead. So basically Jeevi, Ishwara, Kaala, Karma, Prakruti. We may have to speak many other things to address people's misconceptions.
For example we may have to say counter misconceptions like the Darwin's theory of evolution and we may do that but all that is meant to help people understand the core five principles that are given say in the Bhagavad Gita which Baldevindabhushan says is the essence as Shila Prabhupada quotes in the introduction. So by regular study of Shila Prabhupada's books and not just a regular study but by vigilant observation of what are the essential points that Shila Prabhupada is conveying in his purpose and we try to make sure that our presentation contains those points and if you look at Shila Prabhupada's purpose, Shila Prabhupada had a consistent message to deliver. His purpose, Prabhupada doesn't try to impress the audience by exhibiting his knowledge of esoteric points from various scriptures or by using extraordinary word jugglery skills or anything like that.
Shila Prabhupada is like a doctor who wants to make sure that the patient understands what is the diagnosis and what is the prescription clearly and that's why Shila Prabhupada keeps his message simple and clear. It is not that Shila Prabhupada doesn't know deep points or Shila Prabhupada doesn't give deep points but Shila Prabhupada gives his presentation according to what the audience needs. So therefore he keeps his presentation simple and clear and he makes that presentation of the fundamental points of the diagnosis and the prescription repeated and emphatic in his purpose.
So if we study Shila Prabhupada's books with this understanding that Shila Prabhupada is giving the diagnosis and the prescription, what is wrong and what needs to be done to be corrected and we try to live that in our lives and share that with others and surely we will be able to present the essential message properly and another important thing is that over a period of time as devotees who are trying to represent not just Shila Prabhupada because Shila Prabhupada was representing a tradition so we are representing a tradition. So we also have to learn to understand the overall devotional tradition in which Shila Prabhupada came. That means not just reading the previous Acharya's books that is important but also understanding their lives and trying to understand how they presented Lord Chaitanya's, Lord Krishna's message.
So then that will help us to understand Shila Prabhupada's presentation deeper and better. I have again talked about this point in my Vyasa Puja offering also. So when we are aware of the broader tradition in which Shila Prabhupada is speaking then we will not get overly caught up in some specific statement which Shila Prabhupada makes which may actually be very controversial and in that sense high octane.
They have a high soundbite audibility and visibility. Visibility means they jump out on the purpose. Audibility means when we speak them they catch attention but they may not be the essence of Shila Prabhupada's message because they may not be the central message of the parampara.
So in general we have to understand the overall tradition that Shila Prabhupada was representing and when we understand that then we will be able to present what Shila Prabhupada has given us properly. So for us as representatives of the tradition who would like to present a tradition properly we have to have, we have to do a substantial amount of homework. First of all we should be very systematically and deeply rooted in Prabhupada's books by regularly reading them and trying to understand their central messages.
Secondly we need to be also aware of the broader tradition in which Shila Prabhupada is speaking to us. So especially the previous two Acharyas Bhakta Siddhanta Thakur and Bhakta Vinod Thakur because they were in the modern age and we know substantially about their historical context within which they were speaking. Now if we go back to the times of Baldevidya Bhushan and Bhakta Vinod Thakur, sorry and Vishwanath Chakra Thakur, we don't know much about the intellectual context in which they were preaching.
We know broadly that that was time when Islam was ruling and Mayawad was there in India and some things like that we know but what were the specific arguments of the various schools of thought that were prevalent at that time. We may not know that and even if we go out of our way to know that, those arguments are not what are being used today by anyone to challenge Krishna consciousness. That's why the Acharyas in the modern times they are very important for us and similarly we also need to study carefully how other devotees in our movement have presented Srila Prabhupada's message.
In fact if somebody, if those who want to present Srila Prabhupada's message intellectually, even more important than studying the previous Acharyas is to study the works of his conwriters. So Prabhupada's followers because Prabhupada's followers they have assimilated Prabhupada's message and they have also observed the contemporary scenario and by observing that contemporary scenario they have learned the diction in which things need to be presented, they have to some extent they understood the ethos of the current times. As I mentioned in my article on writing that every culture has its ethos, that is way of thinking, has its paradigm, that is the way of looking and has its diction or idiom, the way of speaking.
So especially if we have Srila Prabhupada's followers who have represented Prabhupada's message in the contemporary way, reading that is especially important for those who are presenting it, who want to present that message in contemporary terms. So of course this should not precede or be given more importance than Srila Prabhupada's books. Srila Prabhupada's books are our primary source of inspiration and education but as far as learning the specific techniques of how to present and how to reason, surely we can learn from the two generations of ISKCON writers that we have with us, ISKCON writers and ISKCON intellectuals and ISKCON speakers and in this way we can, as I said, by deepening our connection with Srila Prabhupada through prayerful study, by deepening our connection with the broader tradition by studying the lives and teachings of the previous Acharyas and by fine-tuning our understanding of the subtleties of presentation by studying the contemporary intellectuals' presentations and of course most important among this is also that we deepen our connection with Krishna so that we are aware that we are actually trying to represent Krishna.
We cannot say at our stage that Krishna is speaking through us but certainly it is not that Maya is speaking through us. We should not see spiritual life as one or zero. Certainly when we are trying to write some ideas may be divinely inspired, some ideas may be just our own intellectual inspiration and analysis and some ideas could actually be devious misconceptions that are coming from Maya but in general if we are practicing devotional service sincerely we will, just as we can observe the weeds that come in our heart, we can also observe the misconceptions that, the erroneous perceptions or conceptions that might creep into our presentations and for this purpose it's important to have a good circle of intellectually minded devotees around us who can give us sympathetic yet critical feedback to what we are doing.
In fact without a friend circle of fellow intellectuals we will find our spiritual, our attempts at presenting the spiritual message to a new gender are not only often going off track but also sometimes leading to misconceptions within our own writing. So generally if a person is an intellectual and that person is living in a society of others who are not so intellectual, two things may happen. If the people around him are not very appreciative of the intellectual work that that person is doing then he will start feeling very lonely and isolated and that is not very desirable for the spiritual life because we want to have warm relationship with devotees and over time the people around him may become suspicious what is this person doing reading so many books and writing his own things.
On the other hand if the person is surrounded by people who are impressed by his writings then he will basically get his own fan club and every single thing that the person writes they start appreciating oh so good so good so good. So in general we can't expect the devotees around us, we can't expect everybody to be intellectual and what to speak of everybody being a intellectual capable of critical analysis of whether something is proper according to the tradition or not. Now we see in the past time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that when this Bengali Vaishnava wrote a composition glorifying Lord Jagannath and Lord Chaitanya and now actually all the Vaishnavas they glorified him.
Bhagwan Acharya, he was known to Bhagwan Acharya and all the Vaishnavas glorified him, it is described. Till Sarodana caught the Mayavadi misconception that was there. So now the associates of Lord Chaitanya are all considered to be a very exalted devotees, Nitya Siddhas or Mahabhagavats but even they were not able to catch the philosophical misconception.
But when Sarodana caught it then he understood oh what he is saying is right. So being able to point out philosophical misconceptions or not being able to point out philosophical misconceptions it is not just a matter of spiritual advancement, it is also a matter of having some specific intellectual and perceptual talents. Of course those are also a gift of Krishna.
So the point I am making is that just the appreciation of the general community of devotees is not necessarily the proof that something is something that is being spoken or presented is correct. So if we are intellectuals or surrounded by general community of devotees we may become impressed, we may be able to impress others and we may just have our own fan club who start saying oh what you're saying is very good, very good, very good. But we need so to avoid this pitfall we need to be connected with other intellectuals.
Generally other intellectuals will not be so naive and they will not have any obligation to flatter us. So I personally whenever I write any articles very frequently, most of the articles which are long and detailed I submit them to Back to Godhead for review and in the Back to Godhead we have several editors. I am the youngest in the Back to Godhead editing committee.
All the other editors are devotees who have spent at least, they are all Prabhupada disciples so that means they have spent at least 35 years in the movement, some of them are much more, 40 years, 42 years, 43 years like that and they review all the articles and the articles then I work on refining them as per their suggestions and then they are approved in their publishing Back to Godhead and even if they are not published in Back to Godhead I make sure that they are reviewed and then when they are publishing on my website they are proper accordingly. So I have benefited immensely from their reviews and as I have been submitting and reviewing articles for many years they invited me to join the review committee also. So apart from that I have several other devotee friends, senior devotees and equals who I know have specialized in specific subjects.
Some have specialized in scientific presentation of Krishna consciousness, some have specialized in say new age presentation of Krishna consciousness, others have specialized in say the overall study of Shastra. So I stay regularly in touch with these devotee friends and these Vaishnavas and when I have some specific concerns I contact them. In general intellectuals need other intellectuals although they may not always agree and although sometimes the critics can, the critical feedback can be painful because nobody likes to be pointed out that what they have done is presented is not correct but it is also very educating and illuminating and more important than in educating and illuminating it is protecting.
So our whole epistemology is Guru, Sadhu and Shastra. So we study the Shastra, we study so in my presentation what I was saying is that we study by studying the Shastra means we study the scriptures and study the previous Acharyas. For us our primary Guru is Shila Prabhupada, we study Prabhupada's books and by Sadhu we can refer not just to the previous Acharyas, we can refer to the current current advanced devotees also the current Acharyas and current Vaishnavas.
So by these three connections, by connection with Shila Prabhupada as the Guru, by our connection with the deep study of scripture and the previous Acharyas whom we could all who are exposed, written on scripture so whom we can put in Sadhu or we can put in Shastra also and if we want to put in Sadhu the current Vaishnavas who are of course exhibiting some qualities of Sadhu and they are Sadhus in that extent at least. So then by these three connections we stay protected in our own presentation of scriptures and then we can make presentations that are both faithful as well as sensitive and appealing to the contemporary audience. Thank you.