Re: Question about a Book

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

Thank You Hadai for Your interesting point.

In my humble opinion, when it comes to reading non-vaishnava books, there is a considerable distinction between common mundane books of materialistic minded people (including scientific literature) and the literature of the so-called spiritualists who willingly and knowingly deny the existence of an Eternal Personal God.

In the first case, the authors are quite innocent, just ignorant about everything and their scientific contribution (like psychology You mentioned) can be used by devotees for service purposes. Of course their words are saturated with materialistic conception of life, but that does not endanger our faith and bhakti creeper so much, if we have good association and strong spiritual practice. We are able to use their knowledge without being affected.

In the case of impersonal spiritualists (like Mayavadis) there is a great danger for our bhakti creeper and faith, because their intention is more or less to directly or indirectly deny or minimize the Personal Form of the Lord. They appear to be on our side, when it comes to renunciation of the materialistic life, but they can allure us with a specific kind of spiritual feeling which is diametrically opposed to ours and which is being subtly transmitted via their writings. Their words can infect us with their mentality and weaken our faith in bhakti. It must not necessarily be the case every time, but the above-mentioned danger is always there.

Yours humbly,
Matus

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