Lecture, SB 2.3.20, June 16th, 1972 Los Angeles

Lord’s Activities are Maya:

So the impersonalists or the voidists, so where is their God? So there is no God for them. Impersonal. So there is no activity. What they will hear and where they will chant? If you have no activity, then what shall I hear about you? If you are a dead stone, then what can I hear? Simply one…, a big stone. That’s all. So they have no this opportunity. These impersonalists, they are so unfortunate that they cannot hear. As soon as there is some activity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they will say, “It is māyā.”
That is called Māyāvāda.

Imposing Oneself on the Lord:

“These are…, our activities, māyā, and therefore God’s activities are also māyā.” A poor fund of knowledge, or rascaldom. “Because I cannot do this, therefore God cannot do this.

Mayavada – Another Name for Sense gratification:

I am pleased in this way; therefore God can be… Permanent, they are identical.” Big, big sannyāsī explained like that. “When I am pleased, God is pleased. When I am dissatisfied, God is dissatisfied.”

So roundabout way, their philosophy is to satisfy one’s own sense gratification. That’s all. The Māyāvāda philosophy means, impersonalist means, the same material condition. The material condition means everyone is busy in sense gratification. And therefore they cannot understand. And when there is a question of sense gratification… Just like, “We are dancing here, ball dance. So this is material māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa’s dance with the gopīs, that is also māyā.” This is Māyāvāda symptom.

Sick Patient Example:

The example can be given like this: Just like a patient, since his birth he is sick, and he is lying in the hospital, cannot walk freely or cannot eat nice things. All bitter medicine, injection, always suffering. So if he is informed that “After your cure, you shall be able to eat nice rasagullā, sandeśa,” he cannot believe it. He says, “Again eating? Oh, it is horrible.” Because he has got bad experience of eating in sick condition, he thinks that eating in healthy condition is also the same. This is Māyāvāda.

He has no experience what is healthy eating. Therefore his bad experience of this diseased condition, he wants to make it zero. He is thinking that “When my this drinking of medicine and lying down will be zero, oh, that will be my real healthy condition.” This is their philosophy.

NO Good Experience:

Because bad experience… Just like foolish persons sometimes commit suicide or they talk of suicide. The whole thing is zero, wants to make the life zero. That is their happiness. Śūnyavādi. Because they have no experience that there is another life, going back to home, back to Godhead. There also, Kṛṣṇa is eating, Kṛṣṇa is dancing, Kṛṣṇa is playing, Kṛṣṇa is killing. Everything is there. They are all transcendental. Everything is there. Here, only perverted reflection, false reflection only.

Sweet Rice with Sand:

There are five principal rasas: śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya. The same thing is here also. Here also the śānta-rasa, sākhya-rasa, dāsya-rasa is there. But that is mixed with material grains. Just like sweet rice. Sweet rice is very nice, but if it is mixed with some grains of sand, just imagine. How it is pleasurable?

So all the rasas… The Māyāvāda philosopher, they have eaten sweet rice with grains, with sand grains. Therefore when you offer him next sweet rice, “Oh, I have got taste. Don’t supply it.” Or “I wish to live without eating—zero.” This is Māyāvāda philosophy, try to understand: impersonal, making everything zero, without any varieties. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. Nirviśeṣa means without any varieties, and śūnyavādi means zero, voidist. So two kinds of Māyāvādīs, generally headed by Saṅkara philosophy and Buddha philosophy.

So these people, the voidists and impersonalists, because they have no information of the Supreme Lord and His activities… Activities are there. Kṛṣṇa is coming, showing His activity. But they will say, “It is māyā. Kṛṣṇa is māyā.” Although Kṛṣṇa is practically showing them that it is not māyā, it is completely spiritual, but their dull brain cannot accommodate that Kṛṣṇa is Supreme Absolute Truth.