Page 23 - Viveka Satakam - Eng
P. 23
xxi
About the Author
māyāvādī who was inimical towards Lord Viṣṇu and the
Vaiṣṇavas is an abominable Vaiṣṇava offense which will
lead one to hell.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya, chapter 25 and Ādi,
7.62 onwards) we find narrations about the māyāvādī
Prakāśānanda. How a person who was a māyāvādī
between the Śaka year of 1425 and 1430 (1503-1508
AD) could have gone to the South and become a Śrī
Vaiṣṇava in 1433 (1511 AD), and then again become a
māyāvādī in Kāśī in 1435 (1513 AD) cannot be understood.
Therefore, the attempt to establish that Prakāśānanda
and Prabodhānanda are the same person is a sign of
utter ignorance. Consequently, this tendency to ruin
historical facts in such a way causes great sadness. Being
subjected to his own humbleness and meekness, Śrīla
Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī had Śrīla Gopāla Bhaṭṭa forbid
any narrations about him to be recorded in the Caitanya-
caritāmṛta, and Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī did not violate
his order. Thus, we find the present difficulties. If Śrīla
Prabodhānanda knew that in the future there would be a
misleading attempt to include him amongst the class of
offenders towards Lord Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas, then he
would not have made such a prohibition. The readers of
the Bhakti-ratnākara can understand this. In connection
with Śrīla Prabodhānanda, in the Bhakti-ratnākara (1.83-
84,128-129,133,135,149-150) it is written:
tirumalaya, vyeṅkaṭa, āra prabodhānanda
tina bhrātāra prāṇa-dhana gauracandra