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Misinterpretation (Letters)

Expressions researched:
"misinterpret" |" misinterpretation" |" misinterpretations" |" misinterpreted" |" misinterpreters" |" misinterpreting" |" misinterprets"

Correspondence

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951: The Western philosophers mostly of the Sankhya school have less aquaintance with the Vedanta Darsana and philosophers like Kant, Mill, Aristotle or Schopenhauer etc all belong to either of the above five Darsanas except Vedanta because limited human thinking power cannot go beyond that stage. But Vedanta Darsana is far beyond the limited mental speculation of the human brain conditioned by material nature. Unfortunately Sankara who belonged to the Mayavada school made a misinterpretation of the Vedanta for his own purpose to convert the Buddhists in India.
Letter to Mr. Bailey -- Allahabad 2 October, 1951: Philosophical ways are practical and it is no use simply by indulging in speculation without any practical result just like to keep a cow without any milk. We must always seek a practical value from philosophy for the benefit of all. The mission with which you have started your service inspired me to help you as far as possible and I thought it fit to inform you that your mission can be well guided by the practical philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita. If you do not wish to have it that is a different question. If you put up a programme acceptable to one and all there is no necessity of patronizing a particular ism. A common formula can be of practical use both for India or others. As such you can have practical solutions of all problems such as social, religious, cultural, political, economic as well as agricultural and industrial—from the Bhagavad-gita. It is possible only simply by assimilating it by direct perception. It is meant for all living being. Indirect perception will mislead far away from the truth and I am afraid many such indirect misinterpretations in a speculative mood by various commentators, have done more harm than good to the humanity in general

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Mr. Kair -- Los Angeles 8 July, 1969: Two things cannot go on simultaneously. Actually, India is the country of religion. The present government policy to kill religious faith of the people is resulting in frustration of religious life because it is not organizedly taught. But by nature the people of India have a hankering for spiritual advancement, and therefore the present situation is a natural result of the clash between two opposite ideals. In this case also the best treatment is to give the people scientific religious ideas which are very clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gita. But unfortunately, unscrupulous and rascal so-called scholars, religionists and philosophers have misinterpreted the teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, and they have misled the whole population. Bhagavad-gita is popular not only in India, but also all over the world. Unfortunately, the real idea has been distorted. We have therefore presented our Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and perhaps you know it; it is published by MacMillan. I have tried to explain in this book the real purpose of the Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita is the authorized book to teach people how to love Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is nothing else except devotional service to the Lord described there, but great politicians have misinterpreted the sunshine-like clear statements of Bhagavad-gita with a cloud of mental concoctions. So if you think seriously to improve the condition of India, you can begin even in a small-scale the propagation of Krishna Consciousness, and if you do it seriously and sincerely, surely you will be successful.
Letter to Sucandra -- London 8 December, 1969: One should try to make progress. One should not try to remain satisfied at a point which awaits further advancement. For example, the Commandment says "Thou shalt not kill". This means one should be non-violent. This is a good principle, but in the actual field, for want of sufficient knowledge, even this Commandment is being misinterpreted and misused. In the Bhagavad-gita you will find there are 20 items for advancing in knowledge. Perhaps you have read in the 13rd Chapter. Out of the 20 items, this non-violence items is one. But devotional service is so potent, that if one is engaged in devotional service to Krishna, automatically all good qualifications are there. Thus, from the practical point of view you can see the distinction between our disciples and any other group of religious faith. We do not indulge in illicit sex-life, which includes not to covet with another's wife or daughter; We do not eat meat, and that means automatically we are non-violent. We do not indulge in intoxication, and that means we are sane in considering things in their true perspective.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Jayapataka -- Los Angeles 21 January, 1970:

The Sankara's Bhaja Govinda verse is as follows:

bhaja govindam bhaja govindam
bhaja govindam mudha mate
prapte sannihite khalu marane
nahi nahi raksati dukrin karane.
This is Sankara's last instruction to his followers, and the purport is that the mayavadi philosophers are very much accustomed to draw favorable meanings from unwanted interpretations by grammatical jugglery. In Sanskrit the grammatical jugglery is a great puzzle, there are many words which can be changed into different meanings by grammatical root derivations and affixing and prefixing pratyayas. So Sankara advised that do not try to exact favorable conclusions by beating the Sastras, but be submissive to Lord Govinda and worship Him. Otherwise, this grammatical jugglery of words will not help you at the time of death. At that time only if you can someway or other remember the Lotus Feet of Govinda, Krishna, that will save you, O' the fool number-one. Don't waste your time in misinterpreting the sastras.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- Bombay 22 October, 1971: I am so glad to learn that you are eager to preach but we should know it that we cannot preach without being solid in our standing as devotee. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that "apani acari prabhu jivare sikhaya." This means that Lord Caitanya wanted that one should preach by behaving himself exactly what he preaches. So our Krsna consciousness movement, preaching, depends on personal behavior. If you want to preach the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ on the principles of Bhagavad-gita you will find so many differences. Those who are following Jesus Christ, let them follow strictly to the principles of the Bible. "Thou shalt not kill" is now being misinterpreted by Christian priests. Now they say "Thou shall not murder." This means trying to save themselves from the crime of animal killing. So you cannot teach such unscrupled followers the message of Bhagavad-gita. If you want to preach Bible you can tell them why there will be misinterpretation. In N.Y. there is a big press that prints "Watchtower." They are forcefully criticizing Christian behavior. I read that one Christian priest allowed a marriage between two men—homosex. So these things are going on. So your proposal for preaching the gospel on the basis of Bhagavad-gita will not be successful. If you want to do that I cannot check you but I cannot allow you to do such things from within our society. You have to understand our philosophy perfectly, follow the regulative principles, and then in fact you can edit our books and papers.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Trista Hubbarth -- Bombay 3 May, 1975: You have very thoughtfully asked me what do I think of the Self Realization yoga and meditation. We are not concerned with other religions or yogas in terms of competition or sectarian spirit. Actual spiritual knowledge is to take the authoritative statements from the scriptures and from the great acaryas, spiritual masters in disciplic succession. Other's opinions are not important. For example, in the Bhagavad gita, Lord Krsna gives His opinion, but He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by all the great sages of the Vedic philosophy including Vyasadeva the compiler of all the scriptures, as well as Narada, Brahma, Siva and in the modern time, Ramanuja, Sankaracarya, Lord Caitanya, etc. They all confirm that Krsna is the supreme truth, the Personality of Godhead. Although this is plainly described throughout the Vedas, you will not find it in the teachings of the so called swamis and yogis who are teaching nowadays. Therefore you have intelligently discovered that in my Bhagavad-gita the approach is very different from what you have found elsewhere. That is because I am not trying to avoid Krsna or give some misinterpretation, but I have accepted the actual Bhagavad-gita, wherein Krsna says, Mattah parataram nanyat [Bg. 7.7], there is no higher than Me. Nowadays so called gurus are promising us that we ourselves can become equal to God or that God is impersonal, or that everyone is God, but nowhere is this stated in the Bhagavad-gita or any other Vedic literature, nor is it taught by any of the great spiritual masters above mentioned.
Page Title:Misinterpretation (Letters)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Serene
Created:24 of Nov, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=7
No. of Quotes:7