9% Fools

Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied: "Yes, you are right, my dear Prakasananda Sarasvati, but there is a reason why I do it. Now I can explain to you. When I took sannyasa from My spiritual master, he found Me a rascal, a number one fool, and therefore he chastised Me. He called Me foolish, uneducated and illiterate. 'It is not possible for You to understand Vedanta. Therefore, You simply chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. That will make You all right.' " Now here is the point: Was Caitanya Mahaprabhu a foolish person? No, He was not. In His childhood He was known as Nimai Pandit. He was greatly learned; even when He was sixteen years old He defeated a very reputable scholar from Kashmir. Prakasananda Sarasvati also knew that Caitanya Mahaprabhu was a teacher of logic in His householder life and was a very learned man. They all knew it. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "My spiritual master found Me a fool. Therefore he said, 'You have no chance to understand Vedanta. You just take to this principle: simply chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare.' " What was His purpose in presenting Himself as a fool and a rascal? The idea is that in this age, 99.9% of the people are fools and rascals. Therefore it is very difficult for them to understand what is the purpose of Vedanta. Lord Caitanya represented Himself as one of them. According to Caitanya Mahaprabhu the so-called learned scholars of Vedanta are not actually Vedanta scholars; they are all fools. Vedanta-sutra is very difficult to understand. The author of Vedanta-sūtra is Vyasadeva, and he himself thought it wise to write a commentation on Vedanta-sūtra so that in the future people would not misunderstand and misuse it.