View source for One must approach a bona fide spiritual master in order to understand the transcendental message of the Vedas. That is the direction of the Mundaka Upanisad (1.2.12)

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{{terms|"One must approach a bona fide spiritual master in order to understand the transcendental message of the Vedas. That is the direction of the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad"}}
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[[Category:One Must]]
[[Category:Approach]]
[[Category:Bona Fide Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:In Order To Understand]]
[[Category:Transcendental Message]]
[[Category:Vedas]]
[[Category:That Is]]
[[Category:Direction]]
[[Category:Mukunda]]
[[Category:Upanisads]]
[[Category:Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 9]]
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<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
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<h3>Sri Isopanisad</h3>
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One must approach a bona fide spiritual master in order to understand the transcendental message of the Vedas. That is the direction of the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad.
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[[Vanisource:ISO 9 (1974)|Sri Isopanisad 9, Translation and Purport]]
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Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
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But the veda-vāda-rata people, instead of realizing that the purpose of the Vedas is to revive the forgetful soul's lost relationship with the Personality of Godhead, take it for granted that such side issues as the attainment of heavenly pleasure for sense gratification—the lust for which causes their material bondage in the first place-are the ultimate end of the Vedas. Such people misguide others by misinterpreting the Vedic literature. Sometimes they even condemn the Purāṇas, which are authentic Vedic explanations for laymen. The veda-vāda-ratas give their own explanations of the Vedas, neglecting the authority of great teachers (ācāryas). They also tend to raise some unscrupulous person from among themselves and present him as the leading exponent of Vedic knowledge. Such veda-vāda-ratas are especially condemned in this mantra by the very appropriate Sanskrit words vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ. Vidyāyām refers to the study of the Vedas because the Vedas are the origin of all knowledge (vidyā), and ratāḥ means "those engaged." Vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ thus means "those engaged in the study of the Vedas." The so-called students of the Vedas are condemned herein because they are ignorant of the actual purpose of the Vedas on account of their disobeying the ācāryas. Such veda-vāda-ratas search out meanings in every word of the Vedas to suit their own purposes. They do not know that the Vedic literature is a collection of extraordinary books that can be understood only through the chain of disciplic succession.

One must approach a bona fide spiritual master in order to understand the transcendental message of the Vedas. That is the direction of the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (1.2.12). These veda-vāda-rata people, however, have their own ācāryas, who are not in the chain of transcendental succession. Thus they progress into the darkest region of ignorance by misinterpreting the Vedic literature. They fall even further into ignorance than those who have no knowledge of the Vedas at all.

The māyayāpahṛta-jñāna class of men are self-made "Gods." Such men think that they themselves are God and that there is no need of worshiping any other God. They will agree to worship an ordinary man if he happens to be rich, but they will never worship the Personality of Godhead. Such men, unable to recognize their own foolishness, never consider how it is that God can be entrapped by māyā, His own illusory energy. If God were ever entrapped by māyā, māyā would be more powerful than God. Such men say that God is all-powerful, but they do not consider that if He is all-powerful there is no possibility of His being overpowered by māyā. These self-made "Gods" cannot answer all these questions very clearly; they are simply satisfied to have become "God" themselves.
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