Text 31]
The Haṁsa-guhya Prayers
227
also by Kṛṣṇa Himself, who says,  ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ : “I am the source of everything.” Devotees have no problem understanding the ultimate cause of everything, but nondevotees must face many opposing elements because everyone who wants to be a prominent philosopher invents his own way. In India there are many parties of philosophers, such as the  dvaita-vādīs ,  advaita-vādīs ,  vaiśeṣikas ,  mīmāṁsakas ,  Māyāvādīs  and  svabhāva-vādīs , and each of them opposes the others. Similarly, in the Western countries there are also many philosophers with different views of creation, life, maintenance and annihilation. Thus it is undoubtedly a fact that there are countless philosophers throughout the world, each of them contradicting the others.
Now, one might ask why there are so many philosophers if the ultimate goal of philosophy is one. Undoubtedly the ultimate cause is one—the Supreme Brahman. As Arjuna told Kṛṣṇa in  Bhagavad-gītā  (10.12):
paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān puruṣaṁ śāśvataṁ divyam ādi-devam ajaṁ vibhum
“You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty.” Nondevotee speculators, however, do not accept an ultimate cause ( sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam ). Because they are ignorant and bewildered concerning the soul and its activities, even though some of them have a vague idea of the soul, many controversies arise, and the philosophical speculators can never reach a conclusion. All of these speculators are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as Kṛṣṇa says in  Bhagavad-gītā  (16.19–20):
tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān saṁsāreṣu narādhamān kṣipāmy ajaṣram aśubhān āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu