Back To Prabhupada, Issue 79, 2024, Interactive
"I have just received BTP 78. I have been preaching about the first mistake and the statement from The Science of Self Realization, Chapter 4, which you quote in the Editorial titled "The First Mistake". The response to my preaching was from the SB, 8.23.16. Could you please reply to it as I couldn't. Thank you.
Your humble servant,"
- Ananta-sesa Dasa, New South Wales, Australia
In BTP 78's Editorial, "The First Mistake", we made the point that, without Srila Prabhupada's position first being correctly established in ISKCON, both in theory and in practice, everything else will fail. A point which we quoted being supported by senior ISKCON India leader HG Rasaraja Dasa. To substantiate this point, we quoted Srila Prabhupada stating the following:
"If you miss one point, there is a mistake in your calculation. Regardless of what you add or subtract after that, the mistake is already in the calculation, and everything that follows will also be faulty."
(The Science of Self-Realization (SSR), Chapter 4)
It has been claimed that Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.23.16 somehow counteracts the above quote. Let us examine if this is indeed the case.
1) SB 8.23.16 states the following:
"There may be discrepancies in pronouncing the mantras and observing the regulative principles, and, moreover, there may be discrepancies in regard to time, place, person and paraphernalia. But when Your Lordship's holy name is chanted, everything becomes faultless."
These statements are made by Sukracarya. To understand what they mean and how they may relate to Srila Prabhupada's statement from SSR in question, we obviously need to consult Srila Prabhupada's purport for this verse to get his explanation. However, we can very confidently state right at the outset, that whatever Srila Prabhupada states in the purport will only complement his statement from SSR quoted above, rather than oppose it – because, unlike ISKCON's present leaders, Srila Prabhupada does not contradict his teachings.
2) In the purport, Srila Prabhupada offers the following explanation:
"In Kali-yuga the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies cannot be performed as perfectly as before. Therefore Srila Jiva Gosvami has recommended that although one should take care to follow all the principles in every kind of spiritual activity, especially in worship of the Deity, there is still a chance of discrepancies, and one should compensate for this by chanting the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." (All emphases in article added.)
Thus, Srila Prabhupada's purport to Sukracarya's statements makes three points:
i) One should follow spiritual principles.
ii) While following them, there can be "discrepancies".
iii) These discrepancies can be compensated for by chanting Hare Krsna.
3) However, the quote from SSR being challenged does not speak about a discrepancy which occurs in the performance of a spiritual principle. It speaks about what occurs if one does not follow any spiritual principles at all! Below we provide the rest of the quote from which the statement from SSR that we quoted is taken. The "[...]" shows where the quote we used in the Editorial is located, and we have thus provided the statements made before and after the part we quoted:
"So if the Christians want to love God, they must stop killing animals. [...] We cannot simply accept that part of the scripture we like, and reject what we don't like, and still expect to get the result."
Hence, it can be seen that the statement from SSR quoted by us is illustrated by Christians not following the principle of "Thou Shalt Not Kill". Srila Prabhupada thus states that one must follow scriptural injunctions rather than reject them.
Therefore, in summary:
a) The SSR quote speaks about not following spiritual principles at all, and how, if spiritual principles are not followed at all, then everything afterwards will be on the wrong track.
b) The SB quote speaks about actually executing spiritual principles, and any discrepancies that may occur during the execution.
Therefore, the two quotes are not in conflict as they deal with different situations. Hence, these facts above are more than sufficient to deal with any challenge made to the SSR quote from someone quoting SB 8.23.16.
4) However, we can make an additional point. The purport to SB 8.23.16, which we quoted above, then goes on to state that:
"In our Krsna consciousness movement we therefore give special stress to the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra in all activities."
And, part of this special stress given to chanting in Srila Prabhupada's Krsna consciousness movement, is that one must avoid making offences whilst chanting:
"bhakti-yoga process must be carried out by avoiding the ten offenses one can commit while chanting the maha-mantra"
(SB, 4.24.59, purport)
And the worst possible of these offences that one can commit whilst chanting is to disobey the spiritual master:
"The most grievous type of vaisnava-paradha is called gurv-aparadha, which refers to offenses at the lotus feet of the spiritual master. In the chanting of the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this gurv-aparadha is considered the most grievous offense."
(SB, 4.21.37, purport)
We thus end up with the SB quote actually supporting, rather than just not opposing, the point we made in our Editorial via the use of the SSR quote, because:
a) The SSR quote speaks about not following spiritual principles, and there is no spiritual principle more fundamental than accepting and obeying the bona fide spiritual master, without which one cannot even approach Lord Krsna.
b) The SB quote speaks about the purificatory power of chanting the holy name. Which Srila Prabhupada teaches requires that one avoid making offences, the chief of which is disobeying the spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. And one huge disobedience to Srila Prabhupada is to disobey his order that he is ISKCON's diksa guru (see article on page 5). Which was the very point that we used the SSR quote to make in the editorial of BTP 78!
Thus, these two quotes from Srila Prabhupada are in harmony and complement each other perfectly.
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