Introduction
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The Lord continued: “Śrīla Vyāsadeva has summarized the direct meanings of the  mantras  in the  Upaniṣads  in the  Vedānta-sūtra . Unfortunately you do not take their direct meaning. Indirectly you interpret them in a different way.
“The authority of the  Vedas  is unchallengeable and stands without any question of doubt. And whatever is stated in the  Vedas  must be accepted completely, otherwise one challenges the authority of the  Vedas .
“The conchshell and cowdung are bone and stool of two living beings. But because they have been recommended by the  Vedas  as pure, people accept them as such because of the authority of the  Vedas .”
The idea is that one cannot set his imperfect reason above the authority of the  Vedas . The orders of the  Vedas  must be obeyed as they stand without any mundane reasoning. The so-called followers of the Vedic injunction make their own interpretations of the Vedic injunctions, and thus they establish different parties and sects of the Vedic religion. Lord Buddha directly denied the authority of the  Vedas , and he established his own religion. Only for this reason the Buddhist religion was not accepted by the strict followers of the  Vedas . But those who are so-called followers of the  Vedas  are more harmful than the Buddhists. The Buddhists have the courage to deny the  Vedas  directly, but the so-called followers of the  Vedas  have no courage to deny the  Vedas , although indirectly they disobey all the injunctions of the  Vedas . Lord Caitanya condemned this.
The example of the conchshell and that of the cowdung given by the Lord are very much appropriate in this connection. If one argues that since cowdung is pure, the stool of a learned  brāhmaṇa  is still more pure, his argument will not be accepted. Cowdung is accepted, and the stool of a highly posted  brāhmaṇa  is rejected. The Lord continued:
“The Vedic injunctions are self-authorized, and if some mundane creature adjusts the interpretations of the  Vedas , he defies their authority. It is foolish to think of oneself as more intelligent than Śrīla Vyāsadeva. He has already expressed himself in his  sūtras , and there is no need of help from personalities of lesser importance. His work, the  Vedānta-sūtra , is as dazzling as the midday sun, and when someone tries to give his own interpretations on the self-effulgent sunlike  Vedānta-sūtra , he attempts to cover this sun with the cloud of his imagination.
“The purpose of the  Vedas  and  Purāṇas  are one and the same. They ascertain the Absolute Truth, which is greater than everything else. The Absolute Truth is ultimately realized as the Absolute Personality of Godhead with absolute controlling power. As such, the Absolute Person-