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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.