TEXT 56
tate chaya darsana haite 'tattva' nahi jani
'mahajana' yei kahe, sei 'satya' mani
SYNONYMS
tatetherefore; chaya darsana haitefrom the six philosophical principles; tat-tva nahi janiwe cannot understand the actual truth; mahajanathe great authorities; yei kahewhatever they say; seithat; satya maniwe can accept as truth.
TRANSLATION
"By studying the six philosophical theories, one cannot reach the Absolute Truth. It is therefore our duty to follow the path of the mahajanas, the authorities. Whatever they say should be accepted as the supreme truth.
PURPORT
In his Amrta-pravaha-bhasya, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura gives the following summary of the six philosophical processes. Prakasananda admitted that Sripad Sankaracarya, being very eager to establish his philosophy of monism, took shelter of the Vedanta philosophy and tried to explain it in his own way. The fact is, however, that if one accepts the existence of God, he certainly cannot establish the theory of monism. For this reason Sankaracarya refuted all kinds of Vedic literature that establishes the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead. In various ways, Sankaracarya has tried to refute Vedic literature. Throughout the world, ninety-nine percent of the philosophers following in the footsteps of Sankaracarya refuse to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead they try to establish their own opinions. It is typical of mundane philosophers to want to establish their own opinions and refute those of others. Therefore: (1) The Mimamsaka philosophers, following the principles of Jaimini, stress fruitive activity and say that if there is a God, He must be under the laws of fruitive activity. In other words, if one performs his duties very nicely in the material world, God is obliged to give one the desired result. According to these philosophers, there is no need to become a devotee of God. If one strictly follows moral principles, one will be recognized by the Lord, who will give the desired reward. Such philosophers do not accept the Vedic principle of bhakti-yoga. Instead, they give stress to following one's prescribed duty. (2) Atheistic Sankhya philosophers like Kapila analyze the material elements very scrutinizingly and thereby come to the conclusion that material nature is the cause of everything. They do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the cause of all causes. (3) Nyaya philosophers like Gautama and Kanada have accepted a combination of atoms as the original cause of the creation. (4) Mayavadi philosophers say that everything is an illusion. Headed by philosophers like Astavakra, they stress the impersonal Brahman effulgence as the cause of everything. (5) Philosophers following the precepts of Patanjali practice raja-yoga. They imagine a form of the Absolute Truth within many forms. That is their process of self-realization.
All five of these philosophies completely reject the predominance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and strive to establish their own philosophical theories. However, Srila Vyasadeva wrote the Vedanta-sutra and, taking the essence of all Vedic literature, established the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All five of the philosophers mentioned above understand that impersonal Brahman is without material qualities, and they believe that when the Personality of Godhead appears, He is contaminated and covered by the material qualities. The technical term used is saguna. They say, "saguna Brahman" and "nirguna Brahman." Nirguna Brahman means impersonal, and saguna Brahman means "accepting material contamination." More or less, this kind of philosophical speculation is called Mayavada philosophy. The fact is, however, that the Absolute Truth has nothing to do with material qualities because He is transcendental. He is always complete with full spiritual qualities. The five philosophers mentioned above do not accept Lord Visnu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are very busy refuting the philosophy of other schools. There are six kinds of philosophical processes in India. Because Vyasadeva is the Vedic authority, he is known as Vedavyasa. His philosophical explanation of the Vedanta-sutra is accepted by the devotees. As Krsna confirms in Bhagavad-gita (15.15):
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
"I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known; indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas."
The ultimate goal of studying all Vedic literature is the acceptance of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This Krsna consciousness movement is propagating the philosophical conclusion of Srila Vyasadeva and following other great acaryas like Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Visnusvami, Nimbarka and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself.

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