Interview With Sri Bannanje Govindacharya

It may be recalled that HG Vidvan Gauranga Dasa posted a report of his meeting two eminent vaishnavas in Bangalore, namely Vidyavacaspati Sri Bannaje Govindacharya (a grhasta madhva scholar). When devotees of ISKCON Bangalore showed the report to Sri Bananje Govindacharya, he said that the reporting was partial and did not completely represent his views. The devotees continued their discussion with him and it was recorded. Later the interview was transcribed, taken back to him for review so that he is satisfied that we represent his views properly this time. We provide the same here:

Below is an interview with Sri Bannanje Govindacarya, original tape available:

Sri Bannanje Govindacarya: Meaning of diksha is to give adhikara in a mantra or any system or in a faith. Who can give initiation? In fact if I want to initiate somebody into gayatri, I must be a realised person. Gayatri sakshatkara is the first requirement for a diksha guru. Siddhi or perfection. Mantra siddhi. Otherwise one cannot give mantra diksha to others, according to shastra. So simply giving Diksha and canceling and taking again another diksha – that is all ashastric, not according to shastra… So this is the problem when we institutionalize a faith. We have to face all these problems, because when you institutionalize faith then all the institutional and organizational problems enter and all the organizational problems will come. Actually according to shastra, none of these swamis can initiate… No swami unless he has attained sakshatkar or mantra siddhi he cannot initiate. That is what….told was correct. Unless he has that power to take the sishya into that height, that elevation, initiation becomes a mere mechanical procedure. It has no meaning. If I want to initiate you I must be able to bring you to that plane and you must be able to meditate upon that mantra and that power should be given. Initiation is not mere mechanical procedure. That is a transformation of a power, mantric and spiritual power and a person who has actually no spiritual power how can he give spiritual power to a sisya. It cannot be claimed by a mere post or institutional powers. Initiation is totally different.

ISKCON devotee: The point is the 11 ritviks, only on the assumption that Prabhupada is not on the planet they stopped continuing to be ritviks. Is that correct or wrong? We are saying, ” you don’t have an explicit order. A clear order of the acharya is needed to become a diksha guru. Srila Prabhupada made a system-you stopped the acharya’s order!” We are questioning. They are not able to justify that. So are they correct in their justification or wrong?

Sri Bannanje Govindacarya: No…do they claim that they are no more ritviks?

ISKCON devotee: They say that they are no more ritviks. They are regular gurus. Regular gurus means, as I told you the definition, according to Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, it is very serious thing. It is a very big thing.

Sri Bannanje Govindacarya: Yes. See that is why I have told this is clash between the organization and the spiritual practice. When the spiritual practices become institutionalized, then the institution has certain… it is totally left to the …you are correct. There is no letter or there is no resolution, any orders. In an institution anything can be changed. The governing body is there and by majority they can vote and they can have a resolution. They can change anything. According to rules and regulations. But that is left to the organizational rules and regulations.

That is what I have told, according to shastra, the religious or spiritual part of diksha – giving diksha, a person who has siddhi – siddhapurusa can give diksha to others. Otherwise it has no meaning at all. It is not a mechanical thing.

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class/lecture video

Biogenesis and the Birth of Modern Science

By Narasimha das

The ancient Greeks, specifically the renowned philosopher Aristotle (384 B.C – 322 B.C.), believed that living things were spontaneously generated from non-living matter. Aristotle was a naturalist who loved to observe animals and nature while taking long walks through the country.  He noticed that ponds were full of various species, such as fish, frogs and tiny swimming insects. Later, in the summer months, many of these ponds would dry up and appear to become lifeless mud sinks or totally dry beds. But when the rains came, the same dry beds would fill up again with aquatic life. He wondered how all this life became regenerated. After pondering this puzzle for a long while, he finally concluded that earth itself had the power to generate life spontaneously with water and air under certain conditions. Observing the life cycles of insects on land, he came to similar conclusions: that rotting meat, animal fur and other non-living matter had the potency to generate various forms life under certain conditions.

Aristotle was considered one the greatest thinkers of his era, so naturally his published findings circulated to nearby Arab countries, and gradually such misleading ideas spread west to European nations. Such misinformation gradually evolved into a system of superstitions and beliefs that were taught in school texts on biology and medicine.

Due, perhaps, to the liberating influence of the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on Earth, Europe started to slowly emerge from the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages people had no idea how or why deadly diseases like the black plague were spread. City people would pass stool and urine in buckets and then through it out their townhouse windows, yelling a warning to pedestrians, “Loo!” (This is how the term “loo” came to mean toilet or latrine.) Some streets were, at times, ankle deep in human excrement. Surgeons had no idea of any need for cleanliness. In fact doctors would often wear their most filthy clothes to perform surgeries with unwashed scalpels, just as field workers and street cleaners would wear filthy clothes for their work, saving their clean clothing for social affairs. Thus, many patients would “mysteriously” die shortly after even routine surgeries.

William Harvey (1578-1657) became famous for his discovery that blood circulates through the body in veins and blood vessels. In one of his writings, he mentioned that it was possible that insects may lay eggs that were too small to see with the naked eye. The glimmer of light from this suggestion inspired and motivated another early scientist, Francisco Redi (1626-1697) to investigate further. Soon he became convinced that the prevailing theories of his day were ill-conceived. He demonstrated through experiments that life was not be generated spontaneously from non-living matter and that such conjectures had no basis. His controlled experiments involved sterilization through heating and various means of sealing containers and then comparing these with non-sterilized open containers of the same organic substances. He boldly propounded his views that life was generated not spontaneously from dead matter but from living organisms, some that were too small to be seen with the naked eye or laid eggs too small to be seen.

People of his day were stunned by this fantastic new theory. Aristotle had been highly regarded in the West for centuries as one of the greatest thinkers and naturalists of all time. So people wondered, “How could Aristotle have been so wrong?”

To prove his theory, Redi devised several interesting experiments to demonstrate that life comes from life, and this was the birth of modern sciences, specifically biology and medicine, which relies on controlled observations and experiments to demonstrate the truth or fallacy of theories like Redi’s and Aristotle’s. Redi’s experiments gave rise to modern-day knowledge regarding food preservation through sterilization and sanitation through disinfecting. He had demonstrated in a number of ways that life is generated only from other living things and that non-living matter had no power to generate life on its own. Scientists then began forming groups for the sake of exchanging their findings derived through various means of experimentation and observation. Redi and his followers strongly propounded their new understanding known as biogenesis, which establishes that life arises only from previously existing life and not from non-living matter.

A major breakthrough came when a humble lens grinder, Antonio Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) refined his art with the help of a renowned spectacle maker. He learned how to grind a precision magnifying lens and how to achieve further magnification by stacking lens’s in a tube. In this way he created the first known microscope. With his microscope he was able to observe microbes for the first time, and this led to many new discoveries. At first other scientists were doubtful about the existence of microbes because they were unable to match the precision and power of Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes.

Soon Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries of microbes were verified by other scientists, yet many scientists clung to their belief that microbes themselves were spontaneously generated from non-living substances. Aristotle had taught that non-living substances can create life under certain conditions, and this widely accepted belief had been around for centuries. Long held beliefs don’t die easy.

Many scientists challenged the idea of biogenesis for another 150 years. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, Dr. Pouchet published a compelling book that attempted to reaffirm the idea that micro-organisms were spontaneously generated from non-living matter. His book was highly lauded by scientists worldwide. Dr. Pouchet’s findings didn’t go unchallenged for long. Soon Louis Pasteur read Pouchet’s book and wrote to him explaining several discrepancies in his methods, findings and conclusions.  Pasteur was considered one of the top scientists of his times, especially in France, and he is still considered one the most important scientists of the modern age. Pasteur strongly refuted Pouchet’s ideas through a series of experiments and debates. The scientific community and general public were divided in their opinion on this issue. Many challenges and counter-challenges went back and forth and gave rise to varieties of experiments under careful controls.

Both Pouchet and Pasteur were experts in conducting experiments, and their efforts created the modern era of controlled experimentation and observation. They both refined and adjusted their experiments to demonstrate their theories, and this went on for several months or even years under the scrutiny of a special commission appointed by the French Academy of Sciences. At first the Commission was divided in its opinion, but finally they accepted Pasteur’s conclusions and bestowed upon him the Academy Award for science (circa 1865). This was a high honor like the Nobel Prize, and people worldwide recognized Pasteur as the one of greatest scientists in the world. Louis Pasteur became widely popular and famous, and Pouchet faded from the limelight.

Pasteur’s controlled experiments and observations proving biogenesis and disproving spontaneous generation led to many new breakthroughs in medicine, food preservation, disease control, sanitation and other fields. He had proven that life comes from life and not from non-living matter. Without his discoveries through controlled experiments, science might have remained much longer in the dark ages of superstition, myth and foolish conjectures.

But the new age of enlightened science in the realm of biology didn’t last long. Biological sciences suddenly embraced the darkness of superstition yet again with the publication of The Origin of Species by the infamous Charles Darwin, a clever fellow commissioned by biased atheists who wanted to squash the idea of God and religion through the use of wild speculation under the guise of scientific observation.  Darwin himself doubted his own hypothesis, which was more outlandish than many prior superstitions. Darwin’s ideas have led to the now popular belief among scientists and academia that microbes were originally generated from non-living matter and gradually evolved to higher life forms spontaneously due to accidental genetic mutations and the process of natural selection. Thus modern biology has embraced a dark fog that’s more foolish and dangerous than any myth that came before.

Although biological sciences have continued to improve in methods, research, and technology, with applied knowledge leading to advancements in medicine, ecology, and genetic research, including the creation GMOs, thus far no one has been able to create even one living microbe from non-living matter. In fact, no great scientist can even repair and make grow one broken grain of rice. Discoveries regarding the mind-boggling complexities of living organisms and their interrelationships with other highly complex living organisms should have caused unbiased scientists and thinkers to reject Darwin’s ideas as preposterous, but instead these foolish ideas are still being vigorously defended and promoted by academia in the field of biology and by atheistic social and political activists.

Darwin’s weak hypothesis regarding the origin of species has no basis in scientific theory and can’t be demonstrated by any sort of experimentation or observation. It is unfounded and flies in the face of common sense. Yet due to a deviously calculated system of indoctrination in academia and media, school kids, like those from the dark ages, are taught this foolish conjecture in the name of science.

In the Kali Yuga, there is no real science for the liberation of consciousness, save and accept the science of Krishna consciousness and the chanting of the Holy Names of God. Modern science, by its very nature, is full of ignorance, illusion and doubt.  Lord Krishna’s material energy is very difficult to understand and overcome. God’s power of illusion forever overwhelms everyone who fails hear from authority and chant the Holy Names of God.

“This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and non-moving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 9.10)

“Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demoniac and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.” (BG. 9.12)

“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest of mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.” (BG.7.15)

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” (BG.7.14)

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SB4.7.46 purport-A significant word used in this verse is trayī-gātra, which means that the transcendental form of the Lord is the Vedas. Anyone who engages in the worship of the Deity, or the form of the Lord in the temple, is understood to be studying all the Vedas twenty-four hours a day. Simply by decorating the Deities of the Lord, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, in the temple, one very minutely studies the injunctions of the Vedas.Even a neophyte devotee who simply engages in the worship of the Deity is understood to be in direct touch with the purport of Vedic knowledge. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ: the purport of the Vedas is to understand Him, Kṛṣṇa. One who worships and serves Kṛṣṇa directly has understood the truths of the Vedas.   Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/4/7/46

Dec 23 1970 Surat conversations

Devotee (3): In regard to worshiping arcā-vigraha form, you have explained that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master who is not bona fide, that mantra has no effect. So I would like to ask if one is worshiping a Deity and his spiritual master is not bona fide, so that Deity cannot be considered the Supreme Lord?

Prabhupāda: Well, first of all, thing is if the spiritual master is not bona fide, how his mantra can be bona fide? Your statement is contradictory. If you say the spiritual master is not bona fide, then how his mantra becomes bona fide? If he is bona fide, then his mantra is bona fide.

Devotee (3): Then why is he giving instruction to worship the Deity? If the spiritual master is not bona fide, then is the Deity also not bona fide?

Prabhupāda: I do not follow. What does he say?

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His idea is that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master, if the spiritual master is not bona fide…

Prabhupāda: Then there is no question of mantra. There is no question of worshiping Deity. These are all bogus things. If you are not… Just like here is a young medical man. If he has not received instruction from a bona fide medical college, so what is the value of his medical, being… That is… What is called? What is the technical name?

Devotee (4): Quack.

Prabhupāda: Quack! (laughter) (pronounces like “quark”)

Devotees: Quack.

Prabhupāda: A quack is not a medical man, however he may show all red bottles, white bottles.

 https://prabhupadabooks.com/classes/sb/6/1/41-42/surat/december/23/1970

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Vedic Conception of Sound in Four Features

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