Text 56] The Residents of Varanasi Become Vaisnavas 327

literature that establishes the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead. In various
ways, Sankaracarya has tried to refute Vedic literature. Throughout the world,
ninety-nine percent of the philosophers following in the footsteps of
Sankaracarya refuse to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead they
try to establish their own opinions. It is typical of mundane philosophers to want
to establish their own opinions and refute those of others. Therefore: (1) The
Mimarnsaka philosophers, following the principles of Jaimini, stress fruitive activity
and say that if there is a God, He must be under the laws of fruitive activity. In
other words, if one performs his duties very nicely in the material world, God is
obliged to give one the desired result. According to these philosophers, there is
no need to become a devotee of God. If one strictly follows moral principles, one
will be recognized by the Lord, who will give the desired reward. Such
philosophers do not accept the Vedic principle of bhakti-yoga. Instead, they give
stress to following one’s prescribed duty. (2) Atheistic Sankhya philosophers like
Kapila analyze the material elements very scrutinizingly and thereby come to the
conclusion that material nature is the cause of everything. They do not accept the
Supreme Personality of Godhead as the cause of all causes. (3) Nydya
philosophers like Gautama and Kanada have accepted a combination of atoms as
the original cause of the creation. (4) Mayavadi philosophers say that everything
is an illusion. Headed by philosophers like Astavakra, they stress the impersonal
Brahman effulgence as the cause of everything. (5) Philosophers following the
precepts of Patafijali practice raja-yoga. They imagine a form of the Absolute
Truth within many forms. That is their process of self-realization.

All five of these philosophies completely reject the predominance of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead and strive to establish their own philosophical
theories. However, Srila Vyasadeva wrote the Vedanta-sitra and, taking the
essence of all Vedic literature, established the supremacy of the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead. All five of the philosophers mentioned above understand
that impersonal Brahman is without material qualities, and they believe that when
the Personality of Godhead appears, He is contaminated and covered by the
material qualities. The technical term used is saguna. They say, “saguna Brahman”
and “nirguna Brahman.” Nirguna Brahman means impersonal, and saguna Brahman
means “accepting material contamination.” More or less, this kind of philosophical
speculation is called Mayavada philosophy. The fact is, however, that the Ab-
solute Truth has nothing to do with material qualities because He is transcenden-
tal. He is always complete with full spiritual qualities. The five philosophers men-
tioned above do not accept Lord Visnu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
but they are very busy refuting the philosophy of other schools. There are six
kinds of philosophical processes in India. Because Vydsadeva is the Vedic
authority, he is known as Vedavydsa. His philosophical explanation of the Ve-
danta-sdtra is accepted by the devotees. As Krsna confirms in Bhagavad-gita
(15.15):
