An Imaginary Letter to a Fallen Soul

Some years ago in Bangalore I met an elderly Indian woman in love with London. She had been living there for a long time and could not wait to go back. Seeing the Vaisnava tilak on my forehead she told me about “a wonderful book” she’d just read: “My conversations with God.” Therein, “God” tells the author there is nothing wrong with sex and money—and so many other things in support of hedonism. “In any case, the woman concluded, “all scriptures are manmade, so there is no meaning to all these restrictions we’ve been brought up with.”

Somehow the place, time, and circumstances were not in my favor and I could not even attempt to explain anything. She went back to London, I returned to Vrindavan; but in my head, days after the incident, I was still talking to her, telling her what I had wanted to explain to her at the naturopathic hospital in Bangalore.

“Dear Pearl, I agree with you there’s nothing wrong with sex and money. The problem arises only when we use either or both without discrimination. The Bhagavad-gita—which, by the way, is the original conversation between God and His beloved creature Arjuna—declares that sex used in God’s service is divine in nature. (Bg 7.11) Also in Bhagavad-gita God says, “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.” (Bg 10.8)

There’s nothing wrong with anything God created, but unless He tells us what the purpose of His creation is, how will we know what to do with it? By using our “own” (God-given) intelligence we may be able to figure out a few things. The greater plan, however, eludes us, and there is as much chance of figuring it out as there is of getting to know our father’s identity by asking every single man on the planet. Actually, our mother alone can give us a definitive answer. When we decide to guess what things mean without referring to authority, we may end up—at best—in the situation of the jungle dweller who thinks that a CD recorder’ s purpose is to prevent the open door from slamming shut. Therefore, to save us from our own foolishness, which is bound to produce misery for ourselves and for others, the creation comes with a usage manual—the Vedas.

You say that all scriptures are manmade. That is also the opinion of the Buddhists. But such opinion was smashed by the Supreme Lord Himself (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu) over five hundred years ago. Fortunately for us, the Lord’s words were recorded in the medieval Bengali text Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, which we now have in many European languages, thanks to the devotional scholarship of our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Commenting on Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s encounter with the Buddhists, Srila Prabhupada writes:

“No one can attain the Absolute Truth by argument. One may be very expert in logic, and another person may be even more expert in the art of argument. Because there is so much word jugglery in logic, one can never come to the real conclusion about the Absolute Truth by argument. The followers of the Vedic principles understand this. However, it is seen here that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu defeated the Buddhist philosophy by argument.”

In the same way, my dear Pearl, because you do not believe in the authority of the Vedas, we have to defeat you by logic and argument.

The Buddhists’ first principle is that the creation has always existed and therefore there is no need to accept a creator. Srila Prabhupada points out that if the creation has always existed there can be no theory of annihilation. “The Buddhists maintain that annihilation, or dissolution, is the highest truth. If the creation eternally exists, there is no question of dissolution or annihilation.”

Pearl, do you understand? If the creation, which is made up of the five basic elements earth, water, fire, air, and space is eternal, how can the material body, which is made up of the same elements, be annihilated? This does not make sense. Srila Prabhupada points out that the Buddhists’ ultimate goal of dissolving the body is based on the observation that the body has a beginning. Everyone practically experiences that material things have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The cosmic manifestation is also a gigantic body, “but if we accept the fact that it will always exist, there can be no question of annihilation. Therefore the attempt to annihilate everything in order to attain zero is an absurdity. By our own practical experience we have to accept the beginning of creation, and when we accept the beginning, we must accept a creator. Such a creator must possess an all-pervasive body, as pointed out in the Bhagavad-giti (13.14):

sarvatah pani-padam tat/ sarvato-’ksi-iro-mukham

sarvatah sruti-mal loke/ sarvam avrtya tiñshati

“Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes, heads and faces, and He has ears everywhere. In this way the Supersoul exists, pervading everything.”

If the Supreme Person’s body did not exist before the creation, then there cannot be a creator. “The conclusion is that the cosmic manifestation is certainly created at a certain time, and the creator existed before the creation; therefore the creator is not a created being.” Tell me, Pearl, can you beat that logic? No? Well, then, better surrender to Srila Prabhupada’s presentation before your elderly body transforms into a youthful one, perhaps in London, perhaps not; perhaps in a white body, perhaps not; perhaps as a cockroach, a turnip, or a cornflower even. And the thing is that whatever species you come in again, you are guaranteed to experience the pangs of birth, old age, disease and death, hunger, thirst, lust, greed, anger, envy, pride, and illusion.

Although the Buddhists and their modern-day followers maintain that the principle “I am” is the ultimate truth, it excludes the individuality of “I” and “you.”

Srila Prabhupada comments: “If there is no ‘I’ and ‘you,’ or individuality, there is no possibility of argument. The Buddhist philosophy depends on argument, but there can be no argument if one simply depends on ‘I am.’ There must be a ‘you,’ or another person also.”

Dear Pearl, please come to your senses. Hear from Srila Prabhupada: “The philosophy of duality—the existence of the individual soul and the Supersoul—must be there. This is confirmed in the Second Chapter of the Bhagavad-gétä (2.12), wherein the Lord says: ‘Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.’ We existed in the past in different bodies, and after the annihilation of this body we shall exist in another body. The principle of the soul is eternal, and it exists in this body or in another body.”

It’s true, isn’t it, Pearl? Do you have photographs of yourself at different stages of life? Look at your baby’s body, your toddler’s body, your schoolgirl’s body, your teenage body, your young woman’s body, your middle-aged body. At all stages of development you will say, “This is me.” What do you mean, “This is me”? You don’t look at all like that beautiful young girl in the picture. “No, no,” you will protest. My body has changed but I am the same person.” There you are. You have just admitted that you are not your body.

“Everything that exists is a product of matter and spirit. Spirit is the basic field of creation, and matter is created by spirit. Spirit is not created at a certain stage of material development. Rather, this material world is manifested only on the basis of spiritual energy. This material body is developed because spirit is present within matter.”

“Spirit and matter, which combine to manifest this gigantic universal form, are originally two energies of the Lord, and consequently the Lord is the original cause of everything. A fragmental part and parcel of the Lord, namely the living entity, may be the cause of a big skyscraper, a big factory, or even a big city, but he cannot be the cause of a big universe. The cause of the big universe is the big soul, or the Supersoul. And Krishna, the Supreme, is the cause of both the big and small souls. Therefore He is the original cause of all causes. This is confirmed in the Katha Upanisad (2.2.13): Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam.” (Bg 7.6)

Of course, fanatical materialists may argue that “God is a mere anthropomorphic creation of the human mind—a mythological deity created by people who need to believe in some superior being. But this argument is not logical, nor does it prove anything. It is merely the opinion of certain people. We need water, but that does not mean man creates water. We also need food, oxygen, and many other things that we do not create. Since our general experience is that our needs correspond to available objects existing in the external world, that we appear to need a Supreme Lord would tend to indicate that in fact there is a Supreme Lord. In other words, nature endows us with a sense of need for things that actually exist and that are in fact necessary for our well-being. Similarly, we experience a need for God because we are in fact part of God and cannot live without Him.” (SB 12.2.19-20)

Really, Pearl, what kind of human being could even dream of writing the Bhagavad-gita? It is way beyond human intellect. The manuscript of Bhagavad-gita may have been written on palm leaves five thousand years ago, a thousand years ago, or five hundred years ago—who cares? But the words come directly from the Supreme Lord’s mouth. And they have been passed on along centuries and millenniums from qualified spiritual master to qualified disciple in an unbroken chain of disciplic succession. Now of course, before accepting someone as a bona fide representative of God, you have to check the person’s credentials. And before doing that, you should know what makes a person qualified to speak about the Absolute Truth. If you are looking for gold but do not know what gold is, it will be very easy to cheat you. But in any case, the very existence of cheaters proves the existence of truth.

“No one can point out any defects in Vedanta philosophy, and therefore we can conclude that Vedanta is the supreme philosophical way of understanding the truth. According to the Buddhist cult, the Vedas are compiled by ordinary human beings. If this were the case, they would not be authoritative. From the Vedic literatures we understand that shortly after the creation Lord Brahma was instructed in the Vedas. It is not that the Vedas were created by Brahma, although Brahma is the original person in the universe. If Brahma did not create the Vedas but he is acknowledged as the first created being, wherefrom did Vedic knowledge come to Brahma? Obviously the Vedas did not come from an ordinary person born in this material world. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam, tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye: after the creation, the Supreme Person imparted Vedic knowledge within the heart of Brahma. There was no person in the beginning of the creation other than Brahma, yet he did not compile the Vedas; therefore the conclusion is that the Vedas were not compiled by any created being. Vedic knowledge was given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who created this material world. This is also accepted by Sankaracarya, although he is not a Vaisnava.”

One last thing, Pearl. Of His own admission, God speaks only to qualified persons: “That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” (Bg 4.4) On the authority of the Bhagavad-gita I can confidently say that the author of the book you so much liked is a fraud.

In his purport to the verse I just quoted, Srila Prabhupada explains that God selected Arjuna as the recipient of this great science because he was a devotee of the Lord. “But those who do not accept God’s supremacy cannot understand this great mysterious science. There are a number of editions of this great book of knowledge. Some of them have commentaries by the devotees, and some of them have commentaries by the demons. Commentation by the devotees is real, whereas that of the demons is useless. Arjuna accepts Sri Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and any commentary on the Gita following in the footsteps of Arjuna is real devotional service to the cause of this great science. The demonic, however, do not accept Lord Krsna as He is. Instead they concoct something about Krsna and mislead general readers from the path of Krsna’s instructions. Here is a warning about such misleading paths. One should try to follow the disciplic succession from Arjuna, and thus be benefited by this great science of Srimad Bhagavad-gita.”

Oh, and… Pearl? Make sure you don’t buy your Bhagavad-gita in just any bookstore. Get it from the Hare Krishna bookshop in Soho Street. You deserve the best and they have the real thing.