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THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
Purāṇas.  The goal of this institution of Vedic culture is to educate every man for advancement in knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, or God. That is the entire Vedic program.
When Lord Caitanya talked with the great devotee Rāmānanda Rāya, the Lord asked him, “What is the basic principle of human life?” Rāmānanda Rāya answered that human civilization begins when  varṇāśrama-dharma  is accepted. Before coming to the standard of  varṇāśrama-dharma  there is no question of human civilization. Therefore, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to establish this right system of human civilization, which is known as Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or  daiva-varṇāśrama —divine culture.
In India, the  varṇāśrama  system has now been taken in a perverted way, and thus a man born in the family of a  brāhmaṇa  (the highest social order) claims that he should be accepted as a  brāhmaṇa . But this claim is not accepted by the  śāstra  (scripture). One’s forefather may have been a  brāhmaṇa  according to  gotra , or the family hereditary order, but real  varṇāśrama-dharma  is based on the factual  quality  one has attained, regardless of birth or heredity. Therefore, we are not preaching the present-day system of the Hindus, especially those who are under the influence of Śaṅkarācārya, for Śaṅkarācārya taught that the Absolute Truth is impersonal, and thus he indirectly denied the existence of God.
Śaṅkarācārya’s mission was special; he appeared to reestablish the Vedic influence after the influence of Buddhism. Because Buddhism was patronized by Emperor Aśoka, twenty-six hundred years ago the Buddhist religion practically pervaded all of India. According to the Vedic literature, Buddha was an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa who had a special power and who appeared for a special purpose. His system of thought, or faith, was accepted widely, but Buddha rejected the authority of the  Vedas . While Buddhism was spreading, the Vedic culture was stopped both in India and in other places. Therefore, since Śaṅkarācārya’s only aim was to drive away Buddha’s system of philosophy, he introduced a system called Māyāvāda.
Strictly speaking, Māyāvāda philosophy is atheism, for it is a process in which one  imagines  that there is God. This Māyāvāda system of philosophy has been existing since time immemorial. The present Indian system of religion or culture is based on the Māyāvāda philosophy of Śaṅkarācārya, which is a compromise with Buddhist philosophy. According to Māyāvāda philosophy there actually is no God, or if God exists, He is impersonal and all-pervading and can therefore be imagined in any form. This conclusion is not in accord with the Vedic literature. That