Faith and the Analytical Mind
A sannyasi asked me, "Who is the better devotee—one who is educated, say in psychology or philosophy, or one who is simple, but has faith?"
The question presumes that the educated person does not have faith. But Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis, were highly educated and also had faith, so Mahaprabhu engaged them in setting forth the philosophical basis for His teachings. The Lord Himself only wrote eight verses. His example of engaging the educated class proves that one who has faith along with knowledge or some specific ability can do more to Krsna-ize the material world and to spread Krsna consciousness. Yet, on the principle of stri vaisya tatha sudra te ‘pi yanti param gatim, both the simple faithful and the knowledgeable faithful can be pure devotees.
Another devotee asked, "Prabhu, you advocate using your own intelligence in Krsna consciousness, but we often hear that we cannot become Krsna conscious by our own effort. What do you say to that?"
This question assumes that because we cannot become Krsna conscious by our own effort then we should make no effort. Actually, we must make the best effort we can, and then Krsna will carry whatever we lack. Our prayer must be accompanied by our endeavor. If we hold back, Krsna holds back. If we give our whole heart to the effort, Krsna gives His whole heart to the effort. This is the meaning of ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tataiva bhajami aham. Surrender means to make an effort, our best effort. That means to use our intelligence. God did not give us intelligence so we can forego its use.
The above two conversational snippets highlight a common misconception in spiritual life: that having faith and developing an analytical mind are opposed to each other. In our group, just as they have done with elevating "the tone" into a major principle or made blind following into a central precept, certain sentimental persons have reinforced the misconception that having an analytical mind is automatically in conflict with developing one’s faith.
Thus one godbrother told me, "I used to be into all this intellectual stuff, but now I'm just into the heart." He earnestly believed he was making a profound statement, revealing how he’d progressed over the years. A surprising number of devotees, both old and new, would be taken in by this declaration as an indication of progress in God-realization. It is sheer bluff.
Of course, such a declaration is indicative of advancement, when one is expressing an authentic state and one is no longer in the preaching field. Bhakti involves experiencing authentic emotions, "the heart," but one cannot preach emotions as the basis for belief in bhakti. One has to preach scientifically, with logic and reason. That’s why it is said that the uttama-adhikari comes down from the plane of pure experience to preach. One reason is that on that plane there is no duality. Everyone is seen as a devotee of the Lord. So there is no call to preach.
Another reason: if the devotee on the highest platform preaches on the basis of his emotional experiences, two things would happen, and both are undesirable. Less intelligent people would go wild out of sentimentality, and intelligent people would reject Vaisnavism as pure sentimentality. Are we primarily interested in the intelligent or the less intelligent?
Through their books our acaryas reveal an incredible capacity for "intellectual stuff". They give us threadbare analyses of bhakti-marga from many different angles of vision. On the principle of parampara, Srila Prabhupada urged us to follow in their footsteps, by trying to understand our philosophy "from many angles of seeing".
Of course, this is according to varying individual capacity, but to neglect to do it entirely, thinking that it an uncommon display of our unflinching faith in the Lord is really a mistake. Why would the Lord promise to give us more intelligence to reach Him unless He expects us to use what we already have in the first place? Considering this, therefore, what the above declaration about the head and the heart really says is, "I have become intellectually dull, toothless."
II
Some people mistake a dull state of consciousness for quiescence of the mind when these two states are worlds apart. A quiescent mind is a state of heightened awareness, and at the very top of the scale of awareness we find Krsna consciousness. The confusion is owing to the illusion of progress out of illusion. To accommodate this illusion they fantasize a dichotomy between a life of faith and an analytical mindset.
True religion is inseparable from science. Thus faith and the analytical mind go side by side. We say, therefore, religion (faith) without science (analytical thinking) is mere sentimentality. Srila Prabhupada taught us this. So where is the question of rejecting "intellectual stuff"—i.e. the philosophy—to be into "the heart" or, as we saw earlier, to be a "Prabhupada man"? Where is the question of having "more faith in Prabhupada than in sastra? Where is the question of guru, guru, and guru, as our sole pramana in ascertaining heresy? This is all sentimental fanaticism. Soft-headed surrealism. This is all bluffing. Cheating.
Yet throughout the world, this soft-headed business is spreading as the authentic orientation for taking up Krsna consciousness. In Bombay, in South Africa, in several parts of Europe, in several parts of North America, in Australia, in Poland, in Russia (practically a hopeless situation there), in Vrindavana. Well, to make a long list short—in all ISKCON.
This predicament is because several of our preachers have discovered that they can swell our ranks if they preach charismatic, soft-headed, Krsna consciousness as opposed to hard-headed realism. This practically scares away intelligent people from our ranks. Instead we get the type who say, "I’m so glad I have a guru, now I don’t have to think."
However, the predicament is rooted in something even deeper: Our preachers who go this route have not understood our philosophy. They do not know theoretically or practically what is Krsna consciousness. What do we call persons who teach what they don’t know? Cheaters. This was the answer that pleased Srila Prabhupada when he posed the question one time in Philadelphia.
If someone defends these cheaters, we should simply point out that whether we are cheated knowingly or unknowingly it is no consolation whatsoever to the victim.
Is a cheater a "Prabhupada man". Actually, a genuine Prabhupada man is the one who faithfully combines intellectual stuff and the heart. Religion and science. Faith and the analytical mind. Faith and philosophy.
Considering all this and the number of ways cheaters have risen to prominence in our society, what does this say, then, for our state of affairs?
It says that we have several naked emperors at several levels in our society. It says that by ignoring to do something about our situation we are agreeing to be part of the problem, we agree to be cheaters too. It says that we are in dire straits, and the only way out is to resolve to be part of the solution. Most of all, what it says is that for you, dear reader, this is your equivalent of Kurukshetra. You must resolve to do your duty to the parampara and neglect these people, these cheaters, these dharmadvajis. And if anyone says that this is an offense, Vaisnava aparadha, that rascal should also be neglected. Completely.
III
Ultimately, prema transcends reason and analysis, but that is a private experience. It is not that we go out to preach how prema transcends reason, for this would create havoc, giving all kinds of encouragement to the class of lazy conditioned souls who seek for an easy spiritual life, who are enamored by their material emotions, thinking them transcendental.
Read any book by any acarya and see if they were intellectually toothless and opposed to the analytical mindset. Even a casual glance at their words should dispel any doubts. Their very presentation itself is logical, analytical, scientific. It is the non-Vaisnava religious (and Vaisnavas that are not very realized, owing to being too sentimental, lazy, and too eager to be seen as advanced) that preach with emotion and charisma and turn every gathering into something reminiscent of a multi-level marketing sales rally.
In the case of those supposedly advanced Vaisnavas who play on (or prey on) the emotions of others, it is really their substitute for authentic bhakti, which they lack. Yet rather than pay the price for the authentic experience they prefer to claim it falsely, so they tend to indulge in all sorts of artificial intimacy to convince others of their elevated platform. They advertise themselves as being advanced in love of God, but they show themselves to be applying religion without true understanding of our philosophy. Faith minus the analytical mind is cheating.