Teaching the Vedas openly to the public and the concept of sin

In the Vedic tradition, the teaching of the scriptures is done only for qualified students. Why then we publish books and openly distribute them to the public?

In the Vedic tradition, the teaching of the scriptures is done only for qualified students. Typically, only Brāhmanas, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas would receive spiritual education, while ordinary workers would be excluded from both studying the scriptures and chanting mantras. Ladies would also not receive formal study, although they would be allowed to listen together with their fathers or husbands.

Considering that the very goal of the Lord creating the material universes is to help the souls to obtain spiritual knowledge and advance in their spiritual practice, barring most of the population from receive spiritual knowledge seems counterproductive, but that was the way it used to work.

The reason is that Vedic societies in Satya-yuga and Treta-yuga, and also in most of Dvāpara-yuga, used to work under the Vaidika system, where the priority was to prevent unqualified people from receiving spiritual knowledge, reducing the risk that it may be misused or misunderstood. This was a system appropriate to a time when most people were advanced spiritually, but that has become outdated with the advancement of Kali-yuga.

Nowadays we follow the pañcarātrika system, which is based on reformation. Instead of demanding that a candidate may show all qualifications upfront, we accept anyone who is willing to follow basic principles, understanding that with time one may progress and become qualified. In the pañcarātrika everyone is accepted, and one is classified according to spiritual advancement (instead of birth or other forms of artificial status).

We can see that the Vaidika system is adequate for a society where most people are enlightened and the main priority is to prevent its degradation, while the pañcarātrika system is more appropriate when the society is mostly degraded and the priority is to elevate people.

Under this prism, we can understand why Prabhupada wrote the Bhagavad-Gītā as It Is and other books, and asked his disciples to distribute them far and wide, making the knowledge available for everyone.

One could ask, however, what would be the qualification for other authors who also want to write and publish spiritual books? There are many translations and commentaries of spiritual literature in the market, but we can practically see that most of them fail to properly elevate people. On top of that, the books themselves often include warnings about being shared with unqualified people. In the Bhagavad-Gita, for example, Krsna says:

idaṁ te nātapaskāya, nābhaktāya kadācana
na cāśuśrūṣave vācyaṁ, na ca māṁ yo ’bhyasūyati

"This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me." (Bg. 18.67)

In the Mundaka Upanisad, that we just finished publishing, it's said:

tad etad ṛcā ’bhyuktam—
kriyāvantaḥ śrotriyā brahma-niṣṭhāḥ, svayam juhvata ekarṣim śraddhayantaḥ
teṣām evaitām brahma-vidyām vadeta, śiro vratam vidhivad yais tu cīrṇam

"It has been declared in a verse of the Rig Veda: Let one teach this brahma vidyā only to those who are religious, versed in the Vedas, and firmly devoted to the Lord. Let this knowledge be taught only to those who perform sacrifices with faith and have performed the siro-vrata." (3.2.10)

How does it work?

The main point in Vaishnava culture is that spiritual knowledge should be received in the paramparā system, or the disciplic succession, instead of by independent thought, which is different from what is commonly practiced nowadays.

The reason for that is that the human intellect is imperfect, and is therefore not the right tool to conceive the perfect of the spiritual platform. One has to receive the right conclusions from the spiritual teacher and then study the sacred texts with these conclusions in mind to reach the correct understanding, much like a student of mathematics who practices solving equations for which the correct answer is already defined. Once he practices enough, he may understand the science well enough to create new equations that may solve other problems.

The main rule for publishing translations and commentaries on Vedic scriptures, therefore, is that the text should be properly explained, according to the proper conclusions received through the disciplic succession. One should have learned the proper conclusions by studying the texts under a spiritual master who learned from a spiritual master, who learned from a spiritual master who learned from Krsna, and he should be able to explain the text following the same tradition, without lacing the text with imperfect speculations.

Since very few people will be able to directly understand most sacred texts, especially cryptic texts such as the Upaniṣads, one has to include all the necessary explanations, so that the book itself may function like a teacher, giving the necessary explanations in a clear way, anticipating mistakes and misunderstandings on the part of the student and so on. We can observe that Prabhupada commented on his Bhagavad-Gita as It Is in this style, and that's how the book became so successful in introducing people to Krsna Consciousness and helping them to attain the qualifications necessary to understand not only the Gītā, but other scriptures as well.

Prabhupada based his movement on the bhāgavata-vidhi, or the path of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which involves hearing and chanting, as well as always remembering the Lord, spreading Krsna Consciousness, sharing prasādam, etc. as a format to introduce Krsna Consciousness to the masses, in the mood that "you don't need to change anything, just add Krsna". However, at the same time, he demanded that serious students who would be initiated should follow four rules:

1- No meat eating.

2- No illicit sex.

3- No gambling.

4- No intoxication.

He explained that these are the four pillars of sin, and sinful person can't come close to God, who is the most pure. One can advance to a certain stage just by chanting, taking prasādam and reading books, just as one can learn a lot about medicine or engineering by watching YouTube videos, but when one becomes serious about learning, then formal education and the whole disciplinary package becomes necessary.

One may argue that the concept of sin comes from Christianity and is not inherent to the Vedas, but this conclusion is not correct. Many modern lineages based in the Vedas indeed reject the concept of sin, but this is not the traditional interpretation. The Vedas, especially the dharma sastras, explain extensively about the concept of pāpa (evil acts, or sin), which is a violation of the cosmic order, actions that are harmful to others or to oneself. Sin, or pāpa, brings one to darkness, illusion, bondage, impurity, and ultimately suffering, and is therefore something that should be avoided by all sane persons.

The root cause of sin is ignorance (avidyā), and the result of sin is more avidyā. In other words, sinful acts such as the killing of animals, promiscuous sex, etc., come from ignorance of their effects, and it leads to more ignorance, which keeps us bound to this material world. To escape this conditioning, we need to avoid such acts and simultaneously practice spiritual realization under the guidance of a self-realized soul, who can guide us in the proper understanding of the scriptures and the proper performance of the spiritual process.

The concept of sin in the Vaishnava tradition is thus different from Christianity in the sense that we don't see evil as some personified force that challenges God, but we also see it as something that must be avoided, since it keeps us bound to ignorance, which is the root cause of our staying in this material world.

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