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on speaking strongly in Çréla prabhupäda’s service         8

           Swamiji [Çréla Prabhupäda] particularly criticizes the Radhakrishnan
           commentary to the  Bhagavad-gétä  verse (9.34) in which Kåñëa
           tells Arjuna, “Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer
           obeisances, and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely
           you will come to Me.”
           Upon  this  verse,  Radhakrishnan  comments  that  it  is not  to  the
           personal Kåñëa that we have to surrender but to “the unborn,
           beginningless, eternal who speaks through Kåñëa.”
           “Just see!” Swamiji says when this verse and commentary are read at
           the evening class. “I told you Dr. Radhakrishnan was an impersonalist.
           This Mäyävädé philosophy is worse than atheism.”

           We  are  not  really  certain  what  “Mäyävädé”  means.  When  asked,
           Swamiji says that impersonalists are called Mäyävädés because they
           consider Kåñëa’s transcendental, eternal body to be mäyä, or illusion.
           “For them,” he says, “the impersonal Brahman is the Absolute Truth,
           and Kåñëa is subordinate to Brahman. But in Bhagavad-gétä Kåñëa
           says that He is the Supreme Absolute Truth and that the impersonal
           Brahman is subordinate to Him.”

           Surprising us all, Keith [later initiated as Kértanänanda] rallies to the
           defense of Dr. Radhakrishnan. “I think he’s right,” he says. “After all,
           Kåñëa is in all of us. So if we surrender to the unborn within us, then
           we attain the Absolute Truth.”

           To support his view, Keith quotes Çaìkara and Huang Po, Buddha
           and Christ, Spinoza and St. Paul. Swamiji just sits on the dais, and
           for the first time I notice him turn red. This is surprising, considering
           his golden complexion. When Keith pauses, Swamiji asks, “Are you
           finished?”
           Keith isn’t finished. He talks on about the Self and the One Mind,
           quoting liberally from various scriptures before winding down.
           “Are you finished?” Swamiji asks again.

           “Yes,” Keith says.
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