Sri Vaisnava Acharya Rules with Love

The Vaisnava acharya is always situated in his original spiritual nature. He is situated in permanent liberation, as said in Srimad Bhagavatam: Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies. Srimad Bhagavatam 2.10.6

Pure souls always come to the same conclusion

Sri Vaisnava Acharya is always in agreement with all other acharyas and self-realized souls, who are free from all contamination of material logic. Pure souls always come to the correct conclusion. Logic is of two kinds: pure [suddha] and mixed [misra]. Pure logic is present in the spirit soul in his original pure nature.

When the spirit soul is imprisoned in matter, his activities are mixed with material conceptions, he possesses mixed, or misra logic. [much of this is paraphrased from Srila Bhaktivinode’s Tattva Viveka.]

Materially contaminated souls always come to multifarious and wrong conclusions

Pure logic always arrives at the same conclusions, whereas mixed or material logic is full of the 4 defects, [mistakes, illusion, cheating, sensory inefficiency] and such conclusions are always faulty. Such imprisoned souls always generate a great host of mutually contradictory conclusions. A good example is radio or tv talk shows where everyone comes to different conclusions.

Reality, anti-reality, and reformation of the rebellious jiva souls

Sri Siksastakam gives the perfect examples of the 3 phases of reality, or thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In other words- ultimate reality, anti-reality, and reformation. Thesis is represented by the first verse of Sri Siksastakam, which explains the glories of Lord Sri Krishna and His Holy Name, “Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtam,” which is the original ultimate reality.

Sri Vaisnava Acharya comes from the spiritual world to give this supreme thesis to others.

Antithesis, antichrist, or anti-Krishna souls

Lord Caitanya says in His 2nd stanza, “but I am so unfortunate, I have no attraction to Your Holy Names.” This is representative of antithesis, anti-reality, having no attraction for spiritual life. The jiva souls are imprisoned in material bodies, and thus work with material senses, and execute their thoughts with material logic, thus they are rebellious to the thesis of Sri Krishna and Sri Vaisnava Acharya. Thus we conditioned souls are the antithesis, we are the antichrist, or anti-kristos, or anti-Krishna rebellious souls. The synthesis, or reformation is in the next verse, “Trinad api. become lower than the straw, more tolerant than the tree.”

Some jivas join the movement of the acharya

Some jivas become less rebellious, and somehow attain the position to serve the great acharyas. They join movements and try to sincerely follow such acharyas. Yet we see in history of how material logic tends to seep back into the equation. We think materially, because we’re basically selfish, as the principle of the material world is selfishness, with most people thinking “I and mine.” Everyone comes here to enjoy for himself. So naturally, although some followers of the acharya are very great souls, it is seen that they are not always 100% surrendered, and therefore the material logic will still linger in the equation. This is seen in history.

Some control with love, and some control with force and intimidation

Jayananda always controls us with love, as did Visnujana Swami and Srila Prabhupada and other great acharyas. This is Krishna’s philosophy. Krishna controls His devotees with love only. We have free will and must act out of love, not force.

Krishna never interferes with our free will. Surrender by force isn’t real surrender. The material world is the place where everyone tries to force others to fall under their control.

Control by force is found in religious movements

Sometimes we see material logic and material methods of force and intimidation within great religious movements. This happened in Christianity. The words of Jesus were perverted into abominations. He never taught to slaughter and eat animals. He never said that souls go to hell forever, he taught reincarnation. The early Christians were vegetarian, believed in reincarnation. But since the church hierarchy could not control the people with love, they had to use fear and intimidation, “you’re going to burn in hell forever, unless you do what we say!”

Sri Vaisnava Acharya’s clear broadcast and the antithesis radio static

The words of the pure acharya are like a clear broadcast on the radio. Interpretation of the acharya’s words, which is transformed into church doctrine, is like radio static and loss of reception. Thus we see that the radio static of the organized church doctrine became opposed to the character and teachings of Jesus. The followers of great acharyas are often great souls, yet due to the 2nd verse, or antithesis, they may not be fully surrendered to the words of the great acharya. By mixing material logic with spiritual logic, they come to many conclusions, and introduce deviant philosophies into the founder acharya’s movement.

What part of “thou shall not kill” is it they don’t understand?

Jesus said, “thou shall not kill” and the radio static of church doctrines say “kill innocent animals in slaughter houses and eat their flesh.” Sripad Sankaracharya said, “worship Govinda you fools, your word jugglery will not help at the time of death,” and his radio static church followers did not worship Govinda, but they chose to juggle words. Lord Buddha said, “Ahimsa” and some radio static Buddhists couldn’t care less, and they eat meat. Thus the tendency for antithesis is deep rooted in temporary liberated souls, even when they are trying to surrender to a great acharya. Just see how mixed logic ruins the mission of the acharyas! If the followers of Jesus would have been true to his words, if the Buddhists had been true, then imagine how many vegetarian stores and restaurants would be all over the world instead of McMurder outlets! See what twisting of the acharya’s words does to the history of the world.

Get back to the words of the acharya, not fallible opinions of church doctrine

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to cooperate, and our past history of the last 27 years, have been rifts and fighting within the congregation and un-cooperation. Srila Prabhupada said that when great acharyas leave the planet, then chaos ensues. This follows the antithesis template, that due to mixed surrender to the words of the great acharya, and interpretation, based on mixed logic, transformed into church doctrines, it is seen that sometimes the followers create chaos in their guru’s mission.

We could have changed the world

We could have conquered the world. We could have followed Srila Prabhupada cent-per-cent and we could have made a great impact upon the world, at least. But we choose to fight over this non-sense ritvik issue, pumping it up with trumped up charges of being “evil” and “dangerous” and stunting the spiritual growth of new devotees, and displacing the service and energy of the older devotees. Instead of preaching the pure message of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada, instead of discerning the truth of what Srila Prabhupada said about ritviks through istagosthi, instead of opting for unity within diversity, we sapped our collective energy and fought over this mythical issue.

Understand the problem, and utilize the solution given in Sri Siksastakam

We should understand the reality of antithesis in Srila Prabhupada’s movement, and what are our solutions. The greatest antithesis is the phenomenon of hatred generated in the hearts of young Vaisnavas, due to the falsity of the concept of a deviant philosophy of the so-called ritviks, which is not seen in guru, sastra or sadhu. This is false politics, and Pralada’s teachings show us that such politics are devoid of Krishna consciousness. Why is this the greatest problem? Note here that I’m not trying to prove or disprove the ritvik position. I’m pointing out that the hatred and intimidation generated in the hearts of young devotees is the greatest disservice we could ever do to Srila Prabhupada’s movement. The solution is the 3rd verse, trinad api, lower than straw, respect all Vaisnavas.

Where is this found?

A great many great souls have joined the Krishna consciousness movement. But alas, material logic has crippled us. Where do they get this information that the so-called ritvik theory is deviant and evil? Think about it. Does this information come from the acharyas? I don’t recall any acharyas writing about the “evils” of the so-called ritviks. Does this information come from sastra? You know the word “ritvik” is in the Srimad Bhagavatam about 20 times, and I don’t recall the Srimad Bhagavatam giving any warning about a “dangerous” ritvik system. Do you? Did Srila Prabhupada say this? He used the word ritvik several times in letters and conversations, but he never warned us about some “dangerous” ritvik system. If there was ever something dangerous, he always warned us. What about the sadhus, well, HH Srila Sridhara Maharaja said something about the ritvik system. You know that Srila Prabhupada has said that SM had very high realizations, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said he was very learned. But we see that SM asked for a ritvik system for his Matha succession, and this I can point you to a website for confirmation of this fact, if you ask me to. So how can such a ritvik system be “devious” and “dangerous” if SM asked for such a system? Other Vedic authorities and sadhus have said the same thing.

Control them by fear

The Christian clergy used the threat of hell to control, and Iskcon used the hatred of ritviks to control. This is control out of intimidation and fear and hatred, not control out of love and understanding. This is not following the path of the great founder acharya, Srila Prabhupada. This is following the path of antithesis and selfishness, and mixed material logic.

Enter the temple of your heart and gaze upon Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna, and then look within your heart, and see if there’s hate or love for the so-called ritviks or for any devotee of this Krishna consciousness movement. If you see some hate, then look upon Their Lordships, see if They are smiling or frowning at you? Then love all devotees in Srila Prabhupada’s movement with all the unconditional love in your heart, take their hand and dance with them, cooperate in your heart, like Srila Prabhupada wanted, and look at your Lords, are They smiling now?

We’ve been duped by maya! We’ve been duped by mixed material logic and the antithesis factor. We must return full force, back to the acharya’s pure words! If we continue in this twisted path then world history will get the same effect as the perversion of the Jesus teachings. Trinad api, being lower than the straw, means being pliable putty in the hands of the founder acharya. We can change it all, we can return to the pure words of the acharya, synthesis, the solution, only if we become humble like the straw, tolerant like the tree. The 3rd verse represents sadhu sanga, or association of devotees, which is only possible when the 3rd verse is realized and practiced, and when we engage in free istaghosthi, which leads us to the truth of the founder acharya.

Your servant, Visoka dasa

Tags: acarya, acharya, Hare Krishna, india vedic, Prabhupada, spiritual master, Spiritual Master / Guru, Vedas