842
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[ Canto 4, Ch. 21 ]
already been explained in the previous verses that Pṛthu Mahārāja advised the citizens to become  adhokṣaja-dhiyaḥ , which means God conscious or Kṛṣṇa conscious, and in this verse he specifically presents the authority of  śāstra , even though his father was a number one atheist who did not abide by the injunctions mentioned in the Vedic  śāstras , who practically stopped all sacrificial performances, and who so disgusted the  brāhmaṇas  that they not only dethroned him but cursed and killed him. Atheistic men do not believe in the existence of God, and thus they understand everything which is happening in our daily affairs to be due to physical arrangement and chance. Atheists believe in the atheistic Sāṅkhya philosophy of the combination of  prakṛti  and  puruṣa . They believe only in matter and hold that matter under certain conditions of amalgamation gives rise to the living force, which then appears as  puruṣa , the enjoyer; then, by a combination of matter and the living force, the many varieties of material manifestation come into existence. Nor do atheists believe in the injunctions of the  Vedas . According to them, all the Vedic injunctions are simply theories that have no practical application in life. Taking all this into consideration, Pṛthu Mahārāja suggested that theistic men will solidly reject the views of the atheists on the grounds that there cannot be many varieties of existence without the plan of a superior intelligence. Atheists very vaguely explain that these varieties of existence occur simply by chance, but the theists who believe in the injunctions of the  Vedas  must reach all their conclusions under the direction of the  Vedas .
In the  Viṣṇu Purāṇa  it is said that the entire  varṇāśrama  institution is meant to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The rules and regulations set up for the execution of the duties of  brāhmaṇas ,  kṣatriyas ,  vaiśyas  and  śūdras  or  brahmacārīs ,  gṛhasthas ,  vānaprasthas  and  sannyāsīs  are all meant to satisfy the Supreme Lord. At the present moment, although the so-called  brāhmaṇas ,  kṣatriyas ,  vaiśyas  and  śūdras  have lost their original culture, they claim to be  brāhmaṇas ,  kṣatriyas ,  vaiśyas  and  śūdras  by birthright. Yet they have rejected the proposition that such social and spiritual orders are especially meant for worship of Lord Viṣṇu. The dangerous Māyāvāda theory set forth by Śaṅkarācārya—that God is impersonal—does not tally with the injunctions of the  Vedas . Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore described the Māyāvādī philosophers as the greatest offenders against the Personality of Godhead. According to the Vedic system, one who does not abide by the orders of the  Vedas  is called a  nāstika , or atheist. When Lord Buddha preached his theory of nonviolence, he was obliged to deny the authority of the  Vedas , and for this reason he was considered by the followers of the  Vedas  to be a  nāstika . But although