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When we hear about impersonalism, we often connect it with the Māyāvādīs, but these are actually two separate things. Although Māyāvādīs are common nowadays, they are just a modern sect. There are other types of impersonalists who follow valid spiritual paths.
First of all, what is the problem with impersonalism? Can they also go back to Godhead?
There is an interesting discussion in this direction in the Gītā. After hearing Kṛṣṇa repeatedly glorify devotional service, Arjuna asks Him to settle once and for all the question of personal and impersonal worship. Who is more perfect, the devotee or the impersonalist? Kṛṣṇa answers that devotees who directly worship His personal form with faith are the most perfect. Impersonalists may also attain Him eventually, but their path is filled with difficulties:
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect. But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable – the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth – by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me. For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.”(Bg 12.2-5).
How does it work?
For devotees, progress is easier and much faster, because they can directly engage their senses in the service of Kṛṣṇa. The soul is active by nature; the problem is that due to material contamination, this tendency is misapplied. Bhakti solves the problem by directing it back to Kṛṣṇa. One can chant, dance, eat nice prasādam, discuss Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, worship the Deity, make friendships with other devotees, and so on.
For the impersonalist, however, there is no positive engagement. One has to stop material activity without reviving the tendency for spiritual activity. One has to move the mind from absorption in material objects without the positive alternative of spiritual forms and activities. Some may still be able to attain success somehow, but, as Kṛṣṇa mentions, “To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.”
There is, however, something that may sound contradictory in these verses. Although Kṛṣṇa mentions that the devotee is the most perfect and that advancement in the impersonal discipline is very difficult, He also mentions that “by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.” Does it mean that impersonalism is also a valid path that leads to the same goal? Yes, but only partially.
Impersonalism is not an independent path, nor is the impersonal brahmajyoti an independent destination. The impersonal brahmajyoti is also Kṛṣṇa, the effulgence of His body, but it is a partial and preliminary realization of the Absolute Truth. By negating material qualities and withdrawing the senses from material objects, the impersonalistic jñānī or yogī may realize the all-pervading spiritual existence of Brahman. This is incomplete, but it is still genuine. As realization deepens, one comes to understand the localized Paramātmā and ultimately Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, who is the source of both Brahman and Paramātmā.
Usually, jñānīs and yogīs start as impersonalists, and some of them progress to the path of bhakti at some point. Jñānīs may come to understand the many passages of the scriptures that speak about Kṛṣṇa and our eternal relationship with Him, while neophyte yogīs are instructed to first meditate on the universal form and later fix their minds on the localized Paramātmā. Those who eventually reach the process of bhakti naturally also come to Kṛṣṇa. They fit into what Kṛṣṇa mentions in text 7.19: “After many births the man of wisdom seeks refuge in Me, knowing that Vāsudeva is all.”
What about the others? They may also reach Kṛṣṇa indirectly by merging into His bodily effulgence, but this is an incomplete spiritual realization, a limbo where the soul becomes freed from material existence, but does not fully awaken his eternal, active spiritual nature. They also attain Kṛṣṇa, because the impersonal brahmajyoti is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. This, however, does not erase the distinction between impersonal realization and personal devotional association. Kṛṣṇa thus says in the same breath that they are inferior, and that they attain Him, because they reach only partial realization.
Here we come to one of the essential differences between liberation in the brahmajyoti and the final perfection of attaining the personal service of Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world. As Prabhupāda emphasizes in many passages, attaining the brahmajyoti is not a completely stable position, like attaining the spiritual planets. If a soul develops the desire to attain His effulgence, Kṛṣṇa agrees with that very easily and places the impersonalist there. However, missing variety, one may later fall back into the material world. One may then meet devotees and finally become attracted to the path of bhakti. This is also part of the “they at last achieve Me” Kṛṣṇa mentions.
Prabhupāda mentions this mechanism of an impersonalist eventually attaining Kṛṣṇa through the mercy of devotees in his purport to text 12.5:
“A living entity is eternally an individual soul, and if he wants to merge into the spiritual whole, he may accomplish the realization of the eternal and knowledgeable aspects of his original nature, but the blissful portion is not realized. By the grace of some devotee, such a transcendentalist, highly learned in the process of jñāna-yoga, may come to the point of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service.
Can someone be promoted to the spiritual planets directly from the impersonal brahmajyoti, without having to fall back into the material world? In his purport to SB 4.23.15, Prabhupāda raises this possibility:
“When a living entity gives up the material coverings, he remains a spirit soul. This spirit soul must enter into the spiritual sky to merge into the Brahman effulgence. Unfortunately, unless the living entity has information of the spiritual world and the Vaikuṇṭhas, there is a 99.9 percent chance of his falling down again into material existence. There is, however, a small chance of being promoted to a spiritual planet from the Brahman effulgence, or the brahmajyoti. This brahmajyoti is considered by impersonalists to be without variety, and the Buddhists consider it to be void. In either case, whether one accepts the spiritual sky as being without variety or void, there is none of the spiritual bliss which is enjoyed in the spiritual planets, the Vaikuṇṭhas or Kṛṣṇaloka. In the absence of varieties of enjoyment, the spirit soul gradually feels an attraction to enjoy a life of bliss, and not having any information of Kṛṣṇaloka or Vaikuṇṭhaloka, he naturally falls down to material activities in order to enjoy material varieties.”
According to his point, impersonalists who reach the brahmajyoti almost always fall back, but in some rare cases, souls who have practiced devotional service while in the material world or have some information about the Vaikuṇṭha planets and develop a desire to go there, may be promoted to the spiritual planets by the mercy of the Lord’s internal potency and be engaged in His service there. This point is discussed in more detail by Sanātana Gosvāmī in his commentary on the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta (2.2.206–207):
“How can impersonalists be elevated to the Lord’s devotional service? Only by the mercy of the Lord. Because the Personality of Godhead is eager to display the greatness of His devotees and His devotional service, He sometimes blesses self-contented impersonalists by arranging opportunities for them to associate favorably with His devotees. Then the impersonalists, their discrimination refined by the influence of the devotees, can recognize just how insignificant is liberation. They then give up their hopes for liberation, give up all the trouble it entails, become attracted to the Supreme Lord’s glories, and enter the path of bhakti to serve the Lord in various ways.”
“Impersonalists who are jīvan-mukta, liberated even in this life, can be elevated to devotional service because they are still living in material bodies. But what of those who have attained complete liberation and no longer have material bodies? Without a body and senses, how is it possible to serve the Supreme Lord by such devotional methods as hearing, chanting, worshiping, and offering prayers?
To clear this doubt, the bhakti-śāstras here indicate that even the liberated souls who have “merged” into Brahman continue to exist as individual persons, even though they may be called mukta and siddha. Using these two words, Mahārāja Parīkṣit states in the Sixth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (6.14.5): muktānām api siddhānāṁ, nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇaḥ, su-durlabhaḥ praśāntātmā, koṭiṣv api mahā-mune. “O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”
Impersonalists generally imagine themselves perfect and liberated, and among them a very few may actually attain impersonal liberation. But those rare souls, like all others, are eternal servants of Hari, the all-attractive Lord. Out of millions of such rare liberated impersonalists, one very fortunate soul may realize this natural fact. Since intelligence is dormant in the “merged” soul, it can be reawakened. Even the liberated souls who have merged into the formless divine light of the spiritual sky retain their eternal spiritual bodies, complete with spiritual mind and senses. Nothing, even liberation, can ever deprive a jīva of these assets. Thus when a liberated soul gains the favor of the Supreme Lord’s personal energy, his spiritual body and senses are reawakened for hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Hari and acting in other ways for the Lord’s pleasure.”
The main point raised by him is that the soul cannot become impersonal, because that’s not the soul’s original nature. A soul may be placed in the brahmajyoti, but individuality remains. Even in this situation, one retains his original spiritual body, as well as the original spiritual mind and senses, even though inactive. Therefore, just as one may fall back to the material world due to attraction to material activity, one may be promoted to the spiritual planets out of attraction to Kṛṣṇa.
The Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta itself gives us a concrete example. Gopa-kumāra at some point attains the impersonal brahmajyoti. Even while in the transcendental light, however, he does not become unconscious. He has thoughts and remembers his previous worship of the Lord. Feeling dissatisfied there, he considers returning to the material world, so he may again be engaged in devotional service, when he suddenly meets Lord Sadāśiva and sees his abode in the spiritual sky.
“The more I looked at the effulgent Lord Mahākāla, the stronger rose my long-standing greed to see the object of my worship. The Deity I worshiped seemed pulled by force onto the path of my remembrance.
Because of that greed, even though I beheld the Supreme Lord right before me, I could not feel as satisfied as before. I was disturbed by the fear that I might merge into Him, as was likely to happen in that abode. I was thinking that if I returned to this Vraja-bhūmi I would fulfill my desires. And then I heard some wonderful singing and music. Enlivened, looking all around, I saw someone riding on a bull—a unique person, arriving from a higher region.” (Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 2.3.46-49)
What about the Māyavādīs?
The legitimate impersonalist is called a Brahmavādī. That’s the general tendency within the process of jñāna. The four Kumāras were Brahmavādīs before visiting Vaikuṇṭha and becoming attracted to the aroma of the tulasī leaves offered to Lord Nārāyaṇa, and so was Śukadeva Gosvāmī before hearing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This means that they were at a point more attracted to the impersonal aspect, but after coming to know about Kṛṣṇa they came to the path of bhakti. That’s the natural progression Kṛṣṇa speaks about. The Brahmavādī gradually advances by controlling his senses, discerning between spirit and matter, and becoming a well-wisher of all living entities, understanding that despite bodily differences, they share the same intrinsic spiritual nature. Purified, when he finally comes in contact with Kṛṣṇa or His devotees, he is naturally attracted.
Māyāvādīs are different. They directly offend Kṛṣṇa by saying that His form is material and that His pastimes are performed under the influence of the material modes. They write commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā saying that it is not to Kṛṣṇa that one should surrender, but to the unborn eternal behind Him. They ridicule people worshipping in the temple, arguing that God is everywhere, and so on.
In His talk with the Mahārāṣṭrian brāhmana, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained: māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī—“The Māyāvādī impersonalists are great offenders unto Lord Kṛṣṇa.” He then continued: “Because they are offenders unto Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is identical with His holy name, the holy name ‘Kṛṣṇa’ does not manifest in their mouths.”
Unlike the Brahmavādīs, who simply do not know enough about Kṛṣṇa, Māyāvādīs are deliberate offenders who have little chance of coming to Him. To be misdirected to this path is thus the greatest tragedy for any soul, depriving one of the possibility of reviving his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa for a very long time. That’s why Prabhupāda and other ācāryas protest so strongly against it.
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