Mayavada is Born of Childish Thinking

The kevalādvaita-jñāna, or nirviśeṣa-vāda (monism), that māyāvādīs stir up heaven and earth to establish—Śrīman Mahāprabhu expressed that same current of thought as a child and had His mother’s instructions refute it, thereby demonstrating that though nirviśeṣa-vāda may be entertaining for the childish restlessness that is the monists’ akṣaja (mundane) ideology, it cannot abide for even a moment in the proximity of the self-manifest radiance of pure devotion in the hearts of the genuinely knowledgeable, those who are acquainted with Adhokṣaja. Once baby Nimāi was eating dirt. When Śacī Devī saw Him doing that, she chastized Him, to which he said:

tumi māṭi khāite dile, more kibā doṣa || 

khoi, sandeśa, anna jateka māṭira vikāra |

iha māṭi, seha māṭi, ki bheda vicāra | 

māṭi deha—māṭi bhakṣya, dekhaho vicāri’ | 

avicāre deha doṣa ki bolite pāri || 

“You gave me dirt to eat. What did I do wrong?

Puffed rice, curd sweets, rice are all transformations of dirt.

This is dirt, that is dirt. What difference is there?

The body is dirt, food is dirt. Look, understand.

If, without thinking, you say I am at fault, what can I say?”

Śacī Devī was amazed at Nimāi’s response and began to say:

māṭi khāite jñāna-yoga ke śikhāla tore ||

māṭir vikāra anna khāile deha-puṣṭi haya |

māṭi khāile roga haya, deha jāya kṣaya ||

māṭi vikāra ghaṭe pāni bhari’ āni |

māṭi-piṇḍe dhari jabe śoṣi’ jāya pāni ||

“Who taught you this jñāna-yoga about eating dirt?

If you eat the transformation of dirt that is rice then you nourish your body.

If you eat dirt, you will get sick. The body will wither away.

You can a clay pot and bring water in it.

But if you try to bring water with a clump of dirt, it will just absorb the water.”

Upon hearing His mother’s philosophy, the boy Nimāi began to say:

āge keno ihā mātā nā śikhāle more ||

ebe se jānilāma, āra māṭi nā khāibo |

kṣudhā lage jabe, tabe tomāra stana pibo ||

“Mother, why did you not teach me this before?

Now that I know that I will not eat dirt anymore.

When I feel hungry, I will drink from your breast.”

There are plenty points to note and contemplate in the aforementioned exchange between Mahāprabhu and His mother during His childhood. Everything has been created from Śrī Bhagavān; of that there is no doubt. If you reject the necessity of every created element and suggest that created objects are nothing at all, that the perception of the world exists only in a covered state of ignorance, that really the world does not exist, and that Śrī Bhagavān’s transcendental pastimes, etc. are nothing—this philosophy of māyāvādīs has been refuted by Śacī Mātā’s words. The word ‘mṛttikā’ refers to earth or, in other words, that which is the refuge of living entities. Śrī Bhagavān is the refuge of all jīvas and all objects. We must not have an enjoying mentality toward Bhagavān. We must take only what we obtain as His kṛpā-prasāda (gracious remnants). If we let into our ears the words of the impersonalists, who equate mūḍi (puffed rice) and miśri (sugar candy), we will have to succumb to the attack of the disease of material existence and we will simply be striving to erase our spirit souls. Śrī Bhagavān is eternal, His śakti (energy) is eternal, His servants are eternal, and their service is eternal. All these points are to be noted in Śacī Mātā’s words. Mahāprabhu has imparted the teaching that if one is experiencing the thirst to know para-tattva (the supreme truth), then one should drink the breastmilk of śuddha-bhakti from Mother Gāyatrī. The nirviśeṣa-vādīs mistakenly equate even favourable elements with unfavourable elements. Mahāprabhu demonstrated the futility of foolish impersonalist thought via His mother’s words, by the simple examples of corpses and pots, illustrating that this sort of notion is but a deeply flawed, inexplicit manifestation of the materialistic conception.

Another day, Śrīman Mahāprabhu, having been chastised by Śacī Mātā, sat on the discarded cooking pot. Upon being scolded for doing so by His mother, He spoke extensively on the subject of purity and impurity. On one hand, He negated the superficial judgments of orthodox ritualists entrenched in karma (karma-jaḍa-smārtas) and instructed that any place where Bhagavān resides is supremely pure. Those who fail to perceive Bhagavān everywhere are swayed by the dictates of their minds. The place used for cooking for Viṣṇu is never impure; it is eternally sacred, and its mere touch sanctifies everything.

On the other hand, out of deference to Śacī Mātā, Mahāprabhu took bath and demonstrated that for those following vidhi-bhakti, it is never reasonable for them to transgress pertinent rules by, for example, embracing creatures such as dogs.

The impersonalists (nirviśeṣavādīs), being enslaved by the whims of their minds, devise various practices such as the pañcopāsanā (worship of five deities) and distinguish between purity and impurity in a manner that is utterly ineffectual. In Mahāprabhu’s instructions to His mother, He explicitly revealed the futility of such mental concoctions.

After accepting sannyāsa, at Nīlācala in the temple of Śrī Jagadīśa, He demonstrated with irrefutable logic to Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, and later in Vārāṇasī to Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, that the Māyāvāda philosophy is nothing more than the ramblings of childish intellects. At that time, there were no greater proponents of the school of Advaita-vāda in India than these two. Bowing their heads to the soundness of Mahāprabhu’s arguments, they accepted His conclusions as ultimate truths and felt blessed. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya composed the following prayer:

héloddhulita-khedayā viśadayā pronmīlad-āmodayā


śāmyac-chāstra-vibādayā rasa-dayā cittārpito’nmādayā


śaśvad-bhakti-vinodayā sama-dayā mādhurya-maryādayā


śrī-caitanya-dayānidhe tava dayā bhūyād amando’dayā

[“O ocean of mercy, Śrī Caitanya! May Your compassion, which dispels misery, spreads clarity, awakens bliss, resolves scriptural disputes, bestows the essence of divine mellows, captivates the heart with ecstasy, continuously nourishes devotion, grants equality, and establishes the highest sweetness, ever arise within us!”]