“Regarding your question about Lord Jesus Christ, we accept him as saktyavesa avatara. Lord Buddha is in the same category also. Lord Buddha is mentioned specifically in Srimad-Bhagavatam as an incarnation of Godhead, and yet Vaisnavas do not accept his philosophy, which is classified as atheism. Similarly, even if we accept Lord Jesus Christ as saktyavesa avatara, it doesn’t mean that we have to accept his philosophy. But we have all respects for him without fail. Regarding books like Aquarian Gospel or even the Testaments, we cannot accept them as authorities because sometimes it is learned that the words are not actually spoken by Christ, but they are so set up by the devotees. For example, in the Ten Commandments it is clearly stated “Thou shalt not kill,” but some Bishop in Boston has changed it to “Thou shalt do no murder.” This means the Bishop wants to keep hold for animal slaughter. So don’t bother about all this literature. We have all respect for these great preachers, but we do not require to study books save and except for some reference. We must push on our philosophy of how to love God. Our process is simple. We have got volumes of books also, so it is better for us to mind our own business than to divert our attention in the studies of other books. This was definitely forbidden by Lord Caitanya.”
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From Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Hansadutta — Tittenhurst 2 November, 1969
2019-12-25
Such an important point brought out by the article on Christ. Devotees constantly express confusion about this.
They conflate accepting of someone as a saktyavesa avatar with the purity of his message. That is Mayavada.