all paths lead to god

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Please accept my blessings. Just on receipt of your last letter I sent you one detailed letter about the scheme of New Vrindaban. But since then I have not received any letter from you. In the meantime I also received one letter from Sriman Kirtanananda Swami which also I have replied duly, but I have not received any reply from him also. So I am very much anxious to know from you also how much this scheme has advanced. So far I could understand on the letter of Kirtanananda, that we had no freedom of action because the land belongs to Mr. Rose, who wants to develop an institution appealing to all sections of seekers in spiritual enlightenment. Such ideal of impersonal views can never be successful. That is the distinction between impersonalism and personalism. The impersonalists ultimate goal is something void, and therefore, any attempt for self-realization ending in voidness is all the same for the impersonalists. But we the personalists, we do not agree that all systems of self-realizing process ends in the same goal. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is explicitly said that the worshippers of different demigods ultimately reach the planets of respective demigods; the worshippers of forefathers also go to different pitri planets, respectively; the worshippers of mammon remain in the mammonish world; and the persons in Krishna Consciousness, ultimately reach to the planet of Krishna loka. So our mission is to reach the supreme planet, in the spiritual sky, namely the Abode of Krishna. As such, we cannot compromise that all sorts of meditation gives the same result. This sort of view is practiced and preached by the impersonalist missionaries like the Rama-Krishna mission, that one may follow any path, but he reaches the same destination. There is no Vedic evidence, neither any proof of the acharya principles. You know that Lord Buddha was Hindu, born in India, in a royal family, but because He advocated voidism, His philosophy was not accepted by the leaders of Vedic principles. For the time being, Lord Buddha's philosophy was accepted by emperor Asoka, and due to royal influence, it spread all over India. But later on, when Sankaracarya preached the Vedic principle, the voidism of Lord Buddha was driven out of India. Similarly, when Ramanujacarya found Sankaracarya a second edition of Buddhist philosophy, he also expunged Sankaracarya as compromising the Buddha, and he established Personal worship of Lord Visnu. Later on, other acaryas, including Sri Caitanya, developed the transcendental reciprocation of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Lord Caitanya preached that loving service in the highest conjugal love with Krishna is also possible. So we are preaching the highest principles of loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such, there is no scope for compromising with any of the kinds of philosophies of the impersonalist school. (More...)

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Nowhere in authentic scriptures is it said that whatever you do and whatever you worship you will ultimately reach the same goal. Such foolish theories are offered by self-made masters who have no connection with the parampara, the bona fide system of disciplic succession. The bona fide spiritual master cannot say that for everyone who has his own mode of worship-be it worship of the demigods or of the Supreme-it leads to the same goal. For a common man it is very easy to understand that a person starting by train from Bombay can reach the destination for which he has purchased his ticket, and nowhere else. A person who has purchased a ticket for Calcutta can reach Calcutta. But contemporary so-called masters preach that, whatever spiritual ticket you may purchase, it will take you to the Supreme Goal. Such mundane and compromising offers attract many foolish creatures to become puffed up with their manufactured methods of spiritual realization, but the Vedic instruction doesn't uphold them. Unless one has received knowledge from the bona fide spiritual master-one who is in the recognized line of disciplic succession-one cannot have the real thing as it is. The Bhagavad-gita says: (More...)

Material speculators differ in conclusions, and at the end they make a useless compromise by saying,

There is an intimate relationship between the swan and the lotus stem. So the comparison is very appropriate: without becoming a swan or paramahamsa, one cannot enter into the network of the lotus feet of the Lord. The mental speculators, as it is stated in the Brahma-samhita, even by dint of learned scholarship, cannot even dream of the Absolute Truth by speculating over it for eternity. The Lord reserves the right of not being exposed to such mental speculators. And because they cannot enter into the network stem of the lotus feet of the Lord, all mental speculators differ in conclusions, and at the end they make a useless compromise by saying "as many conclusions, as many ways," according to one's own inclination (yatha-rucam). But the Lord is not like a shopkeeper trying to please all sorts of customers in the mental speculator exchange. The Lord is what He is, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, and He demands absolute surrender unto Him only. The pure devotee, however, by following the ways of previous acaryas or authorities, can see the Supreme Lord through the transparent medium of a bona fide spiritual master (anupasyanti). The pure devotee never tries to see the Lord by mental speculation, but by following the footsteps of the acaryas (mahajano yena gataḥ sa pantha). Therefore there is no difference of conclusions amongst the Vaisnava acaryas regarding the Lord and the devotees. Lord Caitanya asserts that the living entity (jiva) is eternally the servitor of the Lord and that he is simultaneously one and different from the Lord. This tattva of Lord Caitanya is shared by all the four sampradayas of the Vaisnava school (all accepting eternal servitude of the Lord even after salvation), and there is no authorized Vaisnava acarya who may think of the Lord and himself as one. (More...)

This humbleness of the pure devotee who is one hundred percent engaged in His service puts the devotee of the Lord in a trance to realize everything, because to the sincere devotee of the Lord, the Lord reveals Himself, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 10.10). The Lord, being the Lord of intelligence in everyone (even in the nondevotee), favors His devotee with proper intelligence so that automatically the pure devotee is enlightened with the factual truth about the Lord and His different energies. The Lord is revealed not by one's speculative power or by one's verbal jugglery over the Absolute Truth. Rather, He reveals Himself to a devotee when He is fully satisfied by his service attitude. Sukadeva Gosvami is not a mental speculator or compromiser of the theory of "as many ways, as many conclusions," but He prays to the Lord only, invoking His transcendental pleasure. That is the way of knowing the Lord. (More...)

There is a class of common men who claim that anyone and everyone can worship the Supreme Lord according to his own invented mode of worship and still attain the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja says in this connection: "O living entities, simply engage yourselves in Krsna consciousness. This is the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu." Lord Caitanya preached this cult, instructing the philosophy of Krsna consciousness in His eight verses, or Siksastaka, and He said, iha haite sarva-siddhi haibe tomara: "By chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, one will get all perfection in life." [C.b. Madhya ] Therefore one who does not show Him respect or cannot appreciate His mercy despite all these merciful gestures is still an asura, or opponent of bona fide devotional service to Lord Visnu, even though he is very exalted in human society. Asura refers to one who is against devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu. It should be noted that unless one worships Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu it is useless to become a devotee of Krsna, and unless one worships Krsna it is also useless to become a devotee of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Such devotional service is to be understood to be a product of Kali-yuga. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura remarks in this connection that atheist smartas, or worshipers of the five kinds of demigods, worship Lord Visnu for a little satisfaction in material success but have no respect for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Thinking Him to be one of the ordinary living entities, they discriminate between Gaurasundara and Sri Krsna. Such understanding is also demoniac and is against the conclusion of the acaryas. Such a conclusion is a product of Kali-yuga. (More...)

What are the demigods? That of course has been answered previously by Krsna in the Third Chapter where He outlines the demigods' functions as universal managers in charge of supplying the various necessities of life (3.11-12). In the Fourth Chapter the Lord adds that one gets quick results from worshiping the demigods in the matter of fruitive activities (4.12), but in the Fifth Chapter the Lord clearly states that He alone is the Lord of all sacrifice, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, the only benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, and therefore He alone is the giver of peace and relief from the material miseries. And in the Seventh Chapter, 23rd verse, the Lord declares: "Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees reach My supreme abode." They are of small intelligence because they are accepting something temporary and insignificant in place of the highest, the reservoir of all pleasure, Krsna. It is something like a little child, who, if one offers him the choice of some little trinket or a check for a million dollars, takes the worthless toy, never realizing that with a million dollars he could have countless playthings. There are some mental speculators who teach that it doesn't make any difference what or who is worshiped; the end is all the same. But that is clearly denied here by Krsna. "Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees reach My supreme abode." And it is clearly stated that the demigods and everything connected with them are temporary, so how can they be equal to the supreme eternal abode of Krsna, which is sac-cid-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge and bliss? Krsna summarizes the whole matter here in the Eighth Chapter by saying, "The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord." (8.4) That means that the demigods (and everything else) are located within the body of the Lord, but the demigods are highly placed administrators for the purpose of universal management; but it is one body, and it belongs to Krsna. Therefore, everything is meant for His satisfaction, and when one knows this and acts accordingly, he is called intelligent and enlightened. (More...)

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