Why does Srila Prabhupada criticize Mayavadis but not mlecchas who desecrate Deities?

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Hare Krishna Question Why does Srila Prabhupada Criticize Mayavadis But not Malikshas Who desecrate deities Answer Srila Prabhupada Does a report About Malikshas Desecrating deities In his Chaitanya Charita Amrit When say Aurangzeb Desecrated Vrindavan’s Many deities and the devotees had to take it to Jaipur And Srila Prabhupada recognizes That as a fact Which has to be considered And he also arranged For security in Mayapur He said even devotees can have guns Because that was the area close to the Bangladesh border And there could be Muslims who could attack So Srila Prabhupada is not Neglectful of the fact That The Malikshas were desecrating deities He reports it and he takes whatever Steps are adequate for Dealing with it At the same time Srila Prabhupada Focuses on Criticizing Mayavadis Based on the Audience that he is facing When Prabhupada Actually started preaching Prior to him many Many Hindu monks had gone to America And preached, Hindu teachers And most, almost all of them Had presented The impersonalistic Advaithic understanding of Hinduism Not only had they presented that understanding They had presented As if that is the standard Understanding of Hinduism And actually that there is a Devotional understanding Of the Vedic scriptures That was not known to The western world Till Srila Prabhupada went So every Acharya will Preach according to what is the prominent Obstacle that Is confronting the person At that particular time So The obstacle that was confronting A person, Srila Prabhupada At that time was the misconception of Mayavada And that’s why he countered that Now of course from the spiritual Point of view also we will see that Krishna does Critique Mayavada And Krishna does not even Refer to people who are Militias, because that is not his Audience, he is not Talking about people who desecrate deities or anything Like that, because he is speaking to Arjuna and he just mentions how bhakti Can elevate anyone, even the Papa Yonaya But he doesn’t go into talking about that So an Acharya’s message is spoken according To time, place, circumstances And Srila Prabhupada was aware of The dangers that are there For the Vedic culture and he spoke Accordingly.
Now when we look at these Two, with respect to Impersonalists I prefer to use the word Impersonalists or Mayavadis because the Mayavadi word becomes Is charged with so much value Judgment in the way we use it That often it’s difficult to Discuss it in a Discuss anything About it in a objective way So impersonalists Are concerned, we are We have Philosophically we have difference from them But culturally there is great similarity Now with respect to If we consider Mlecchas, again the word Is having a lot of value Judgment to it, so generally when people Use Mlecchas in this context It refers to Muslims and it refers To a lesser extent to Christians Who also, though they may not destroy These temples, they have done that Also but they may not do that physically They also strongly oppose Any form of image worship, they consider It to be idolatry, both these religions consider it that way So I will use the word impersonalists and iconoclasts To refer to these Not the value judgmental world, Mayavadis and Mlecchas So now with respect to iconoclasts Icon refers to Images and iconoclasts Are those who destroy images So iconoclasts With them we have culturally A huge difference And with respect to Impersonalists Philosophically we have a huge difference So what Should be emphasized at what time That will depend on the particular Spiritual teacher So Srila Prabhupada was introducing his Followers to the culture Of Krishna Consciousness And especially during the counterculture Period when people were rejecting the mainstream culture So for them to accept The culture of Krishna Consciousness was not very difficult Because it was so Dramatically new And Prabhupada presented in a Very exciting and challenging And spiritually satisfying way And they accepted it But what presented a much bigger obstacle for them Was the intellectual side Where they thought that ultimately we have to merge And everything is one So Prabhupada strongly critiqued that Now say in today’s preaching context If we consider Although most people Most say Hindus who are At least in India as well as in the western World Are comprised with primary Preaching audience Of a scorn Although there are scorners in the western world Who are trying to reach out to western Born people But still that has not been happening so much To the natives of those countries So now if you look at whom we are preaching to Is impersonalism A serious obstacle for them Most, majority of Hindus Are actually bhaktas As far as their practice is concerned And as far as their beliefs are concerned Most of them are actually nominally They may be nominally Impersonalist What we have to do? We have to merge in, that’s their idea But it’s not that they are They are hardcore impersonalists Who say that The form of God is temporary And you have to go beyond the form They are very rarely offensive to the deities Or offensive to the form So some hardcore mayavadis They May be offensive to the deities in terms of saying that Actually The form is for the less intelligent You have to go beyond the form and some mayavadis are even To the extent that they say meditate on the form And you keep meditating on the form Meditating on the form. When do you understand that you attain samadhi? When the form breaks apart And crumbles to powder Then you have gone beyond the form to the formless So This could be an This is an offensive attitude towards the deities But most Hindus don’t have Even an inclined Christian attitude For most Hindus, they practice Hinduism more as a culture And not so much as a philosophy And if the philosophy Is presented in a rational way to them And they see how the personal Understanding is the higher understanding Of the Vedic scripture, it is the Confucian understanding, they accept it So As devotees who are trying to Do outreach of Krishna consciousness today We have to see what is the primary Obstacle facing people today It’s not that most people Are not stopped from practicing Bhakti because of their ideological Misconceptions. They have Other ideological Misconceptions about impersonal Specifically.
So Whatever is the obstacle At that particular time, just stopping people From practicing bhakti, that is what has to be countered So now today Most people actually They may They may find from the cultural point of view Oh, following the right principles, giving up This thing, that thing, that may be Difficult and demanding for them and then We need to convince them about that. So the preacher Has to focus on the needs Of the audience. Essence of preaching is Not that we have to criticize this one or that one Or whom we criticize or whom we don’t criticize The essence of preaching is that We attract people to Krishna.
Now Srila Prabhupada in his preaching Did not identify himself With the Hindu mainstream at all As much as possible Because Prabhupada was living in the Post-independence Context when India had been torn apart Because of communal riots At the time of independence and Post-partition and After that There was a Hindu right wing that was emerging And Srila Prabhupada Did not want his Transcendental preaching to get mixed up with Anything Political or Communal In terms of Vote bank politics So we see Bhaktsangh Thakur was so focused On the transcendental aspect that he did not even Value so much The independence movement So the point is that every Acharya will see what is the focus And share Krishna consciousness Accordingly So for Srila Prabhupada’s Preaching at that particular time The Mayavad was a major obstacle And he countered that And similarly Now if you see in India a lot of conversion Is happening and a huge Number of people are getting Converted to religions Which are implicitly or even Explicitly against duty worship And at such a time That The current Successors of Srila Prabhupada’s Movement The current leaders of ISKCON They may decide that okay we need to focus on this particular Strategy and then Ultimately our goal Is to establish the glories of Krishna And for that purpose it’s almost like A war has to be fought So we will according to the time and place Decide who are the allies and who are the Opponents and how to Come back so if the Broader culture of Krishna consciousness Is a culture Conducive to Krishna consciousness To duty worship, to respect For the Vedas, to caring for the cows Is preserved Then that will help us To eventually share Krishna Consciousness and so In that sense if you go to network with Other groups to protect the broader Vedic culture from The onslaught Of the Malikshas Conversionist agendas of the Malikshas Of the Iconoclasts Then that is certainly an intelligent Strategy which may be used So we have to understand that every Acharya Has the central Purpose of establishing the glories of Krishna And uses time Place circumstance to decide How to establish Those glories of Krishna Depending on what are the Opponents and the opposition At that particular time So in our present times Do we need to Criticize Mayavadis? We need to remove people’s Impersonal misconceptions And we have to do it in a proper way At a proper forum And we need to see what is the best way In which we can share Krishna consciousness With others and accordingly Do whatever is required. So we can consult Asina devotees and then decide How best to Do that. So what we should focus on Is not on whether we criticize Mayavadis or whether we criticize nature We have to see whether we are glorifying Krishna in a way that people are attracted To Krishna and whatever Way that happens.
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