Māyāvādī Impersonalists: Pseudo Spiritual Masters

The Mayavadi spiritual masters and their followers proclaim that by surrendering to Lord Sri Krsna one can become Lord Sri Krsna Himself. Under the guise of glorifying the spiritual master, such Mayavadi disciples declare the spiritual master to be Krsna Himself. Thus they await the day that they can become acarya in the disciplic succession and thus become Krsna Himself. A bona fide spiritual master will reject such disciples. "Those who are under the spell of the material energy, instead of following the instructions of the disciplic succession, try to manufacture something of their own, and thereby step outside the sphere of Vedanta study. A bona fide spiritual master must always condemn such independent mental speculators. If the bona fide spiritual master directly points out the foolishness of a disciple, that should not be taken as otherwise." (TLC, 169)

We have already quoted the example in Srimad-Bhagavatam in which Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although the Supreme Lord Himself, covered His ears with His hands and shouted the name Visnu loudly when His disciples called Him Krsna. "Caitanya's philosophy is: one should give up everything and worship God, Krsna. The difference is that Krsna, as the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, spoke the same words, indicating Himself, and the Mayavadi philosophers misunderstood Him. Therefore Lord Caitanya indicated the same thing: one should not declare himself to be as good as Krsna, but should worship Krsna as the Supreme Lord." (TLC, 159)

Actually a disciple who, out of sentiment or fanaticism, proclaims a bona fide spiritual master to be Krsna Himself is committing the greatest injury to the spiritual master. The bona fide spiritual master instructs that one should approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna through the bona fide representative of Lord Sri Krsna, the pure devotee. He instructs that one cannot approach Lord Sri Krsna directly. If the spiritual master is Lord Sri Krsna Himself, as the Mayavadi followers of the spiritual master may maintain, then these followers are actually approaching Lord Sri Krsna directly. Thus they distort and twist the teachings of the spiritual master under the guise of glorifying him. The actual motive behind such false glorification should be understood as asuric. As stated before, none of the devotees declare themselves to be God, but "This blasphemy is declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation." (Bhag., Canto I, 123) The motives of the Mayavadi are themselves asuric. Actually every conditioned soul is a Mayavadi, otherwise the soul wouldn't be conditioned. When Srila Prabhupada first began lecturing in New York in 1966, he would often attack the Mayavadi impersonalists in his talks, and not understanding this I joked with a friend: "Mayavadi? When was the last time you saw a Mayavadi?'' None of us could understand who Srila Prabhupada was talking about; we all thought that the Mayavadis were a little group of philosophers in India against whom Srila Prabhupada was waging theologic battle. But actually we were all Mayavadis. Now we are daily praying:

"Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvati Gosvami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism."

The Mayavadi, being envious of God, wants to be God. Therefore he is thrown by Lord Krsna into the material world where he can try to lord it over material nature. "The impersonalist philosophers are in one sense like the enemies of the Lord because the out-and-out enemies of the Lord and the impersonalists are both allowed to enter only into the impersonal effulgence of the brahma-jyoti. So it is to be understood that they are of similar classification. And actually the impersonalists are enemies of God because they cannot tolerate the unparalleled opulence of the Lord. They try always to place themselves on the same level with the Lord. That is due to their envious attitude. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has proclaimed the impersonalists to be offenders of the Lord." (NOD, 123)

The Mayavadi spiritual master claims, "I am Krsna. Just surrender to me and you can become Krsna too." Or the Mayavadi disciples claim, "Our guru is Krsna. Just surrender to him and you'll become Krsna too." Or they claim, "We are all Krsna. We have just forgotten, that's all." These impersonalists may set up their own Krsna and proclaim that He is talking to them directly. "There are many so-called devotees who artificially think of Krsna pastimes, which are known as asta-kalika-lila. Sometimes one may artificially imitate these, pretending that Krsna is talking with him in the form of a boy, or else one may pretend that Radharani and Krsna both have come to him and are talking with him. Such characteristics are sometimes exhibited by the impersonalist class of men, and they may captivate some innocent persons who have no knowledge in the science of devotional service. However, as soon as an experienced devotee sees all of these caricatures, he can immediately evaluate such rascaldom. If such a pretender is sometimes seen possessing imitative attachment to Krsna that will not be accepted as real attachment." (NOD, 143) Thus such Mayavadi impersonalists who proclaim their spiritual master and themselves to be Krsna simply propitiate their conditioning life after life.

The impersonalists discourage direct discussion of Lord Krsna and His pastimes. "Impersonalists do not directly derive the transcendental pleasure of association with the Lord by hearing of His pastimes. As such, the impersonalists cannot derive any relishable transcendental pleasure from the topics of the Bhagavad-gita, in which the Lord is personally talking with Arjuna. The basic principle of their impersonal attitude does not allow them the transcendental pleasure which is relished by a devotee whose basic principle of understanding is the Supreme Person." (NOD, 290-291)

The Mayavadi impersonalists who envy the Lord and who actually want to be the Lord are in reality not spiritualists at all, but materialists. "Because the impersonalists cannot appreciate the spiritual happiness of association and the exchange of loving affairs with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, their ultimate goal is to become one with the Lord. This concept is simply an extension of the material idea. In the material world, everyone is trying to be the topmost headman amongst all his fellow men or neighbors. Either communally, socially or nationally, everyone is competing to be greater than all others, in the material concept of life. This greatness can be extended to the unlimited, so that one actually wants to become one with the greatest of all, the Supreme Lord. This is also a material concept, although maybe a little more advanced." (NOD, 32) It is also to be understood that the impersonalists are not really in a relationship with Lord Sri Krsna at all, for "In relationship with Krsna there is no question of impersonalism." (NOD, 251)