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gratificatory proposals for enjoying life in heaven, where wine and women are available and material opulence
is very common. In the Vedas many sacrifices are recommended for elevation to the heavenly planets, especially
the Jyotiṣṭoma sacrifices. In fact, it is stated that anyone desiring elevation to heavenly planets must perform
these sacrifices, and men with a poor fund of knowledge think that this is the whole purpose of Vedic wisdom. It
is very difficult for such inexperienced persons to be situated in the determined action of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As
fools are attached to the flowers of poisonous trees without knowing the results of such attractions,
unenlightened men are similarly attracted by such heavenly opulence and the sense enjoyment thereof. (Bg 2.
42-43 - purport)

Persons attached to sense enjoyment and material enjoyment are bewildered in their attempts to understand
transcendental truths. Lord Krishna states:

bhogaiśvarya-prasaktānāṁ / tayāpahṛta-cetasām
vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ / samādhau na vidhīyate

In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered
by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place. (Bg
2.44)

Unqualified teachers misdirect their followers by instructing a false interpretation of the Vedas for their selfish
personal success and enrichment. Often they are touted as enlightened beings. Their disciples glorify them as
incarnations of god. Such false prophets and imposter gods along with their materialistic disciples are
condemned to suffer birth after birth.

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti / ye 'sambhūtim upāsate
tato bhūya iva te tamo / ya u sambhūtyām ratāḥ

Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so
do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute (mayavadis). (ISO mantra 12)

Brahma, the secondary creator of the material world after Lord Krishna, states that transcendental life and
factual understanding of Lord Krishna are not attainable by academic study of the Vedas (vedesu durlabham –
Krishna is inaccessible through the Vedas – BS 5.33). The Vedas originate in sound, which expands the mundane
ether (material space). For this reason, the Vedas cannot give a direct view of the transcendental world i.e.,
Goloka Vrindabana, which is free of all material influence. Lord Krishna also instructs Arjuna to rise above the
Vedas:

trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā / nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna
nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho / niryoga-kṣema ātmavān

The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental
to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in
the self. (Bg 2.45)

However, the Vedas are enhanced with spiritual potency by hearing them recited by a pure devotee or bona
fide spiritual master who trains his disciples in regulated devotional service to Lord Krishna. As the disciple
sincerely chants the sacred Mahamantra Hare Krishna/Hare Rama and follows the regulative principles of

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