Mayavadis Don't Achieve the Goal of Life part1
Sun, 02/24/2008 - 21:10 — admin
MICHAEL: But the Mayavadis also try to please God. Even Shankaracharya opened temples and visited many temples during the course of his life.
TEACHER: A diehard impersonalist does not visit a temple for the pleasure of God, but for his own pleasure. He is convinced that he is God and that the form or Deity in the temple is just a temporary manifestation of God which he can meditate upon or make offerings to in order to bring himself to the stage of realizing or experiencing that he himself is the Supreme Brahman.5 The Mayavadi philosophy states that the so-called personal forms of God are just maya, or illusion, whereas the Vaishnavas accept the personal forms of the Lord to be eternal. According to Mayavadi philosophy, there is no qualitative difference between my form and the form, say, of Krishna or Rama. The Mayavadis consider the forms of God to be made of matter.6
Therefore, when the Mayavadis offer “worship” or “service” to the personal form of the Lord, it is a kind of game for them. In the back of their minds they are feeling that they themselves are God, but they are making believe that they are not God and engaging in worship as a type of process to bring about the realization or experience that they themselves are God.7 So to the impersonalists bhakti is not the goal of life, it is a means to achieve the goal of life-realization that I am God.8
SPIRITUAL HUNGER IN A MATERIAL WORLD (OR : SPIRITUAL HUNGER)As soon as one understands loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be the goal of life, then he can immediately understand the philosophical basis for the statement that the life of an impersonalist will be spoiled. If the purpose of life is loving service to God and I do not achieve that state of consciousness, then my life has been wasted or spoiled. Of course, as soon as I become convinced that I am God, any chance of achieving love for God is immediately finished. If I think I am God, then obviously I will not be striving to develop my love for God; nor will I be striving to please God.
If you believe that you are your body, you will strive endlessly to give your body sensual pleasure. You will struggle to fill up your inner emptiness with fleeting sensual flashes. But no amount of sensual pleasure will satisfy you. No matter how many taste orgasms, sexual orgasms, and other kinds of orgasms you may have, you still won’t be actually satisfied. You’ll always have a never ending desire for more.
Science of Identity Foundation – Siddhaswarupananda
MICHAEL: But the Mayavadis also try to please God. Even Shankaracharya opened temples and visited many temples during the course of his life.
TEACHER: A diehard impersonalist does not visit a temple for the pleasure of God, but for his own pleasure. He is convinced that he is God and that the form or Deity in the temple is just a temporary manifestation of God which he can meditate upon or make offerings to in order to bring himself to the stage of realizing or experiencing that he himself is the Supreme Brahman.5 The Mayavadi philosophy states that the so-called personal forms of God are just maya, or illusion, whereas the Vaishnavas accept the personal forms of the Lord to be eternal. According to Mayavadi philosophy, there is no qualitative difference between my form and the form, say, of Krishna or Rama. The Mayavadis consider the forms of God to be made of matter.6
Therefore, when the Mayavadis offer “worship” or “service” to the personal form of the Lord, it is a kind of game for them. In the back of their minds they are feeling that they themselves are God, but they are making believe that they are not God and engaging in worship as a type of process to bring about the realization or experience that they themselves are God.7 So to the impersonalists bhakti is not the goal of life, it is a means to achieve the goal of life-realization that I am God.8