Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Narada Bhakti Sutra 74

vado navalambyah

SYNONYMS

vadah -- debate; na -- not; avalambyah -- to be resorted to.

TRANSLATION

One should not indulge in argumentative debate.

PURPORT

Narada discourages the egotistic wrangling spirit. One who is proud of his debating skills and eager to defeat others will lose his humility, which, as Narada says in Sutra 27, is essential for pleasing Krsna. The existence of God is not something to be proven or disproven merely by a battle of logical wits. The spiritual reality cannot be understood by material logic or the speculations of the material mind. As the Vedanta-sutra (2.1.11) declares, tarkapratisthanat: "Logical reasoning is inconclusive."

However, when a Krsna conscious preacher defends the Lord or the Vaisnavas against blasphemy, that should not be taken as vain controversy. The devotee doesn't argue on his own account, but on Krsna's. Also, a devotee's preaching is not based on mental speculation, which is always imperfect, but on the perfect process of receiving knowledge from the sastra and the acaryas. As it is said, "Mistakes, illusion, cheating, and defective perception do not occur in the sayings of the authoritative sages" (Cc. Adi 2.86). Also, the Vaisnava acaryas have all argued against Mayavada interpretations. This kind of argumentation is not to be avoided but is rather one of the duties of the madhyama-bhakta, or preacher. Krsnadasa Kaviraja states, "A sincere student should not neglect the discussion of such conclusions [concerning the philosophy of Krsna consciousness], considering them controversial, for such discussion strengthens the mind. Thus one's mind becomes attached to Krsna" (Cc. Adi 2.117).

But sometimes a preacher will avoid a fight if he sees that the challenger simply wants to argue for the sake of argument. Rupa Gosvami once declined to debate a rascal who came to defeat him, but then Rupa's nephew, Jiva Gosvami, took up the challenge. So a devotee may or may not choose to meet the challenges of the atheists and voidists, depending on the circumstances, but in any case he knows that debate and challenge do not lead to a true understanding of God.

Certainly the devotee himself has no challenging spirit when he approaches the scriptures or the acaryas. He accepts them axiomatically, beyond argument. The best method for solving one's personal doubts is to inquire submissively from advanced Vaisnavas, who will always be able to answer in terms of sastra and reason.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
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