Erroneous Approach to Knowledge
BY: CHITRAKETU DASA
Mar 27, JAPAN (SUN) —
imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan manave praha manur iksvakave 'bravit
All of us are familiar with the principle of the sampradaya. This chain of disciplic succession, however, is not a succession of power, like a dynasty of kings. The business of this disciplic succession is to preserve knowledge, to keep it intact, to make sure that it doesn't get contaminated by relativistic thinking, opinionated views, but keeps a unified view, namely what was taught by the Supreme Lord.
If we receive knowledge through the sampradaya, we can be assured that it is correct, that it is not contaminated by the four imperfections of the conditioned view, namely making mistakes, being in illusion, having imperfect senses and cheating.
These days we have a great facility for collecting information. With the help of the computer, we can collect and store tons of information, more than the modern human brain could possibly deal with, assimilate or sort out. We have an information glut, so to speak, we are literally drowning in it. But is information knowledge of the type that Lord Krishna passed on to the Sun God, Vivasvan? The imperishable science of yoga is knowledge of a different kind: a very precise, exact formula, free from error, and free from the habit of human speculation. In the Vedas it is stated:
One who is in association with great acharyas, even if he is not educated or has never studied the Vedas, can become familiar with all the knowledge necessary for realization. We may not have the time or the ability to sift through various scriptures in order to discern the truth. The six Goswamis, however, have kindly done this work for us. It is said of the six Goswamis: nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samsthapakau. They carefully studied all the revealed scriptures in order to establish devotion to the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna, as the highest sastric principle. They did the work for us, so that we don't have to collect together all the sastric references, and set our computer program to sort out what is the essence of it; which could not be discerned by a mere mechanical evaluation anyway.
This is the principle of receiving knowledge. They are already sastra-nipuna, so we don't need to sort through heaps of irrelevant information. We need only ask the expert, and the answer is simply and succinctly given. We can cut all corners and go straight to the point. If I study irrelevant verses from irrelevant places, I will come to an erroneous conclusion. This is where mere scholarship falls down.
Before Srila Prabhupada departed this world, he instructed his senior disciples and in fact all of us, that if there were any confusion regarding siddhanta, we should inquire from Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami, who was known throughout the Gaudiya Mission as sastra-nipuna, and he would provide answers and set us straight. In fact, when I was in Mayapur, during the construction of Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi Mandir, it was common practice for senior devotees and even ordinary devotees, such as myself, to go round to Srila Sridhara Maharaja's Math to spend time listening to discussions on sastra or ask questions. Nobody questioned his authority on sastra at that time.
It was he who furnished the answers concerning the jiva issue, simply and straightforwardly, without any political intent. If Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami said it, it meant that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had said it, which means that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur had said it. This is sampradaya.
I wonder what is the validity of Druta-Karma's methodology, collecting quotes from here and there, and then applying his mental speculation to sort out some valid siddhanta from the opposing arguments?
If you are interested to know exactly what His Divine Grace Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami has to say, it is available on the internet, along with his own recorded voice, under the heading of Origin of the Jiva. Please, anyone who wants unquestionable authority on this issue, refer to sastra-nipuna. This is where I get my information from.
I feel sincerely sorry for those devotees who have not met or understood the unassailable authority of a pure devotee. How did we get to know everything? Simply by receiving it from the perfect source. We ourselves had no qualification. In a million years, even after studying all the available sastras, not one mundane scholar could ever come to the right conclusion; but the Goswamis did, and they're passing on the information to us, through the unassailable process of disciplic succession.
Disciplic succession is not about performing initiations and amassing disciples!!
