PURPORT

A mistake is the acceptance of an object to be different than what it is or the acceptance of false knowledge. For example, one may see a rope in the dark and think it to be a serpent, or one may see a glittering oyster shell and think it to be gold. These are mistakes. Similarly, an illusion is a misunderstanding that arises from inattention while hearing, and cheating is the transmission of such defective knowledge to others. Materialistic scientists and philosophers generally use such words as “maybe” and “perhaps” because they do not have actual knowledge of complete facts. Therefore their instructing others is an example of cheating. The final defect of the materialistic person is his inefficient senses. Although our eyes, for example, have the power to see, they cannot see that which is situated at a distance, nor can they see the eyelid, which is the object nearest to the eye. To our untrained eyes the sun appears to be just like a plate, and to the eyes of one who is suffering from jaundice everything appears to be yellow. Therefore we cannot rely on the knowledge acquired through such imperfect eyes. The ears are equally imperfect. We cannot hear a sound vibrated a long distance away unless we put a telephone to our ear. Similarly, if we analyze all our senses in this way, we will find them all to be imperfect. Therefore it is useless to acquire knowledge through the senses. The Vedic process is to hear from authority. In the Bhagavad-gītā (4.2) the Lord says, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ: “The supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.”We have to hear not from a telephone but from an authorized person, for it is he who has real knowledge.

In the Bhagavad gita Srila Prabhupada tells us in the above purport that one in mode of goodness can hear things in the right position, or in other words he does not “hear” or see or touch of feel or think- that which is not there.

He also says..”an illusion is a misunderstanding that arises from inattention while hearing”, This means if we are inattentive while chanting Hare Krsna mantra (which is the 10^th offense) we are still in some sort of illusion(s) which is why we have all sorts of illusory explanations regarding guru tattva, etc. When we have many conclusions from many different devotees this means we are not accepting the words of Srila Prabhupada-verbatim, as he asks. Many opinions also means we are not following the 4 regulative principles, of which the 4^th one is no gambling or speculation.

This verse from Adi lila above is very instructive for conditioned souls. We must know for a fact that most of us are conditioned because to be liberated means we do not have these sensory defects mentioned in the above verse. It is very clear, we are either conditioned or liberated as there is no half way position, like 75% liberated. When Krsna tells Maya devi to release us from her clutches, at that point when she releases us, then we are liberated, and not before.

So Srila Prabhupada defines a mistake as- the acceptance of an object to be different than what it is or the acceptance of false knowledge. So to make this easy to understand, if we accept somebody as a bona fide spiritual master and he does not fit the sastric descriptions, then we have made a huge mistake-especially if we accept him as our own “guru”. Similarly, when Srila Prabhupada calls his representatives who will initiate new disciples in the future as officiating acaryas, or ritviks,then this means we must accept verbatim the terminology he has used. It has now become fashionable for devotees to just generate their own definitions of this person who is giving initiation and how he does it on behalf of Srila Prabhupada.

TEXT 108-TRANSLATION

PURPORT

It has become fashionable since the time of Śaṅkarācārya to explain everything regarding the śāstras in an indirect way. Scholars take pride in explaining everything in their own way, and they declare that one can understand the Vedic scriptures in any way he likes. This “any way you like” method is foolishness, and it has created havoc in the Vedic culture. One cannot accept scientific knowledge in his own whimsical way. In the science of mathematics, for example, two plus two equals four, and one cannot make it equal three or five. Yet although it is not possible to alter real knowledge, people have taken to the fashion of understanding Vedic knowledge in any way they like. It is for this reason that we have presented Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. We do not create meanings by concoction. Sometimes commentators say that the word kurukṣetra in the first verse of the Bhagavad-gītā refers to one’s body, but we do not accept this. We understand that Kurukṣetra is a place that still exists, and according to the Vedic version it is a dharma-kṣetra, or a place of pilgrimage. People still go there to perform Vedic sacrifices. Foolish commentators, however, say that kurukṣetra means the body and that pañca-pāṇḍava refers to the five senses. In this way they distort the meaning, and people are misled. Here Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms that all Vedic literature, including the Upaniṣads, Brahma-sūtra and others, whether śruti, smṛti or nyāya,must be understood according to their original statements. To describe the direct meaning of the Vedic scriptures is glorious, but to describe them in one’s own way, using imperfect senses and imperfect knowledge, is a disastrous blunder. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu fully deprecated the attempt to describe the Vedas in this way.

Srila Prabhupada says above that “we do not create meanings by concoction.” But it has become’ “fashionable” he also says today, to do such things. For example , now among the so called camp where devotees accept that Srila Prabhupada can and does accept disciples now and into the future, some have come up with various descriptions for the person doing the fire sacrifice initiation ceremony. Some of these devotees flat out say that they “dont accept the ritvik system but accept the “Prabhupada Acarya” system instead ,whatever that means. Some say they are not comfortable with the word ritvik and prefer to say he is the Prominent link. And there are many others like these, but none of these devotees will call it what Srila Prabhupada himself called it.

He said when asked, on tape, that these devotees are his Officiating Acaryas, and TKG asked if that was ritvik acarya to which Srila Prabhupada replied, ritvik, yes” (May 28^th 1977 Vrndavana)