"The Lion Guru"

In his preaching, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was especially keen to confront and defeat what is known as Mayavada or impersonalist philosophy. This is the mission of Lord Caitanya, who converted the most powerful Mayavadi impersonalists of His time, such as Prakasananda Sarasvati, who had 60,000 followers, and Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who conducted an important school for training Mayavadi teachers. Mayavadis are impersonalists who maintain that God is under the influence of maya (illusion). According to them, His attributes, such as His name, form and activities, are all materially contaminated. On the other hand, the Vaisnavas, the personalist devotees of the Lord, correctly accept the transcendental nature of the Lord and everything connected with Him. Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita that His birth and activities are all transcendental (janma karma ca me divyam). The Mayavadis, however, stress the impersonal aspect of the Lord, ultimately concluding that He is nothing. This, of course, is an atheistic idea. Unlike the Buddhists, who arrive at the same conclusion but do not accept any Vedic authority, the Mayavadis try to argue their point from the Vedic scriptures. Therefore Lord Caitanya has forbidden all devotees to read Vedic commentaries by Mayavadis. Bhagavad-gita says, avajananti mam mūḍhaḥ: those who deride the Lord because of His humanlike form are all fools and rascals. Bhaktisiddhanta met and defeated all such wrangling Mayavadis so ferociously chat he became known as simha-guru, or "the lion guru." Thus, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati is the personification of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings (gauravani-sri-mūrti) because he refused to tolerate any statement that was against the doctrine of devotional service as enunciated by Lord Caitanya's chief disciple, Rūpa Gosvami (rūpanuga-virud-dhapa siddhanta-dhvanta-harine).

In his books, obviously not intended for an ordinary audience, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura revealed his genius for tearing apart the materialistic philosophy of the Mayavadis in order to establish the truth. His style, although scholarly and at times abstruse, will reveal to any serious reader a depth of transcendental understanding and charm. But one must be prepared to read and reread his great words. Here is an example, from his introduction to his English translation and commentary on Sri Brahma-samhita:

"The materialistic demeanour cannot possibly stretch to the Transcendental Autocrat who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to associate with Him through devotion, the eternal serving mood. The phenomenal attractions are often found to tempt sentient beings to enjoy the variegated position, which is opposed to undifferentiated monism. People are so much apt to indulge in transitory speculations, even when they are to educate themselves on a situation beyond their empiric area or experiencing jurisdiction. The esoteric aspect often knocks them to trace out immanence in their outward inspection of transitory and transformable things. This impulse moves them to fix the position of the Immanent to an Indeterminate Impersonal Entity, no clue of which could be discerned by moving earth and heaven through their organic senses.

"The lines of this booklet will surely help such puzzled souls in their march towards the Personality of the Immanent lying beyond their sensuous gaze of inspection. The very first stanza of this publication will revolutionise their reserved ideas when the nomenclature of the Absolute is put before them as Krsna."