Page 68 - Defending Prabhupada Words - By Harivlas Das

Brahma das is not the only person who questions Srila
Prabhupada’s words. There are devotees who are disciples
of Srila Prabhupada serving in ISKCON that also raise
questions as the following by an ISKCON guru and GBC
in response to a quote of Srila Prabhupada from Bhagavad-
gita.

“This Bhagavad-gita is the science of Krsna consciousness.
No one can become Krsna conscious simply by mundane
scholarship.... It is the realized soul who is actually self-
controlled, because he is surrendered to Krsna. He
is transcendental because he has nothing to do with
mundane scholarship.”

“Our disagreement is not doctrinal. It is philosophical.
We all agree that we must accept the statements of a
liberated guru like Prabhupada. Here is the philosophical
issue: is Prabhupada always speaking as a transcendental
guru, even when he is not repeating shastra? Prabhupada
repeatedly claims that the main/only qualification of a
guru is to repeat the message of Krishna coming down
in parampara. In matters confirmed by guru and shastra
I have no recourse to mundane scholarship. In matters
not so confirmed, I follow, in a sense, the example of the
great acarya Bhaktivinoda Thakur who did in fact engage
mundane scholarship. Prabhupada himself strongly
recommends engaging mundane scholarship in his
purport to the Bhagavatam verse idam him pumsah (1st
canto). But all these real issues are ignored and we are told

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Defending Prabhupada Words insid