842 Srimad-Bhagavatam {Canto 4, Ch. 21

already been explained in the previous verses that Prthu Maharaja advised
the citizens to become adhoksaja-dhiyah, which means God conscious or
Krsna conscious, and in this verse he specifically presents the authority of
Sastra, even though his father was a number one atheist who did not abide
by the injunctions mentioned in the Vedic sastras, who practically
stopped all sacrificial performances, and who so disgusted the brahmanas
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 Sankhya
philosophy of the combination of prakrti and purusa. They believe only
in matter and hold that matter under certain conditions of amalgamation
gives rise to the living force, which then appears as purusa, 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, Prthu Maharaja 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 Visnu Purana it is said that the entire varnasrama institution is
meant to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The rules and regu-
lations set up for the execution of the duties of brahmanas, ksatriyas,
vaigyas and sudras or brahmacaris, grhasthas, vanaprasthas and sannyasis
are all meant to satisfy the Supreme Lord. At the present moment, al-
though the so-called brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras have lost
their original culture, they claim to be brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and
Sudras by birthright. Yet they have rejected the proposition that such so-
cial and spiritual orders are especially meant for worship of Lord Visnu.
The dangerous Mayavada theory set forth by Sankaracarya—that God is
impersonal—does not tally with the injunctions of the Vedas. Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu therefore described the Mayavadi 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
nastika, 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 nastika. But although
