Adi-lila, Chapter 7 121
the sun, which has been giving off unlimited amounts of heat and light since time
immemorial and yet has not even slightly decreased in power. Modern science
believes that it is by sunshine that the entire cosmic manifestation is maintained,
and actually one can see how the actions and reactions of sunshine maintain order
throughout the universe. The growth of vegetables and even the rotation of the
planets take place due to the heat and light of the sun. Sometimes, therefore,
modern scientists consider the sun to be the original cause of creation, not knowing
that the sun is only a medium, for it is also created by the supreme energy of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Aside from the sun and touchstone, there are
many other material things which transform their energy in different ways and yet
remain as they are. It is not necessary, therefore, for the original cause, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, to change due to the changes or transformations of His
different energies.

The falsity of Sripada Sankaracarya’s explanation of vivarta-vada and parinama-
vada has been detected by the Vaisnava acaryas, especially Jiva Gosvami, whose
opinion is that actually Sanikara did not understand the Vedanta-sutra. In Sarikara’s
explanation of one sutra, anandamayo ‘bhyasat, he has interpreted the affix mayat
with such word jugglery that this very explanation proves that he had little knowl-
edge of the Vedanta-sutra but simply wanted to support his impersonalism through
the codes of the Vedanta philosophy. Actually, however, he failed to do so because
he could not put forward strong arguments. In this connection, Srila Jiva Gosvami
cites the code brahma-puccham pratistha, which gives Vedic evidence that Brahman
is the origin of everything. In explaining this verse, Sripada Sankaracarya interpreted
various Sanskrit words in such a way that he implied, according to Jiva Gosvamt,
that Vyasadeva had very little knowledge of higher logic. Such unscrupulous devia-
tion from the real meaning of the Vedanta-sutra has created a class of men who by
word jugglery try to derive various indirect meanings from the Vedic literatures,
especially Bhagavad-gita. One of them has even explained that the word kuruksetra
refers to the body. Such interpretations imply, however, that neither Lord Krsna
nor Vyasadeva had a proper sense of word usage or etymological adjustment. They
lead one to assume that since Lord Krsna could not personally sense the meaning
of what He was speaking and Vyasadeva did not know the meaning of what he was
writing, Lord Krsna left His book to be explained later by the Mayavadis. Such
interpretations merely prove, however, that their proponents have very little
philosophical sense.

Instead of wasting one’s time falsely deriving such indirect meanings from
Vedanta-sutra and other Vedic literatures, one should accept the words of these
books as they are. In presenting Bhagavad-gita As It Is, therefore, we have not
changed the meaning of the original words. Similarly, if one studies Ved@nta-siitra
as it is, without whimsical and capricious adulteration, one can understand the
Vedanta-siitra very easily. Srila Vyasadeva therefore explains Vedanta-sutra, be-
ginning from the first sutra, janmady asya yatah, in his Srimad-Bhagavatam:

janmady asya yato 'nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijniah sva-rat
“| meditate upon Him [Lord Sri Krsna], the transcendent reality, who is the primeval
