Prabhupada instructs how to use sastras to defeat impostors

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami: Early one morning as Srila Prabhupada walked through the neighborhood of Allston with Satsvarupa and Gaurasundara, Satsvarupa mentioned that a famous swami had recently given a talk at Arlington Street Church, where Prabhupada was also scheduled to speak. "What does he say?" Prabhupada asked.

Satsvarupa said that he had heard that the swami had said he was God. Immediately Prabhupada began to argue, destroying the swami's alleged claim to be God. "They say they are God and the dog is God," Prabhupada began. As he spoke, Satsvarupa and Gaurasundara walked beside him, sometimes holding back a low tree branch or watching on Prabhupada's behalf for traffic at the street crossings. But mostly they were concentrating on Prabhupada's words. Satsvarupa could understand that Swamiji was expending energy just to instruct him, to equip him to defeat such arguments. He tried to remember every word exactly as Swamiji was speaking it. "If everyone is God," Prabhupada continued, "then why is God worshiped all over the world in temples and churches, and why are these 'Gods' shoe-kicking each other? Do they know what God is that they say they are God? Do they have an idea of what God is? God is the controller. Are they controlling the universe? Ask them these questions. Are they omnipotent and omniscient? These are qualities of God. If you are God, do you know what I am thinking? Because God is all-knowing. They should not be allowed to say these things. They should be curbed with these questions."

Prabhupada punctuated his talk by sudden stops. He was angry. It was as if he were charging his disciples for allowing this nonsense "I am God" talk to go on unchecked. Why didn't they stop these rascals? He looked at them with eyes flashing. Were they meeting the challenges of the atheists? They should be. They should be fighting. And these were the arguments they should use. They shouldn't doubt. "We understand God is vast," Prabhupada continued. "We are similar to Him in quality, but we are infinitesimal. If they are God, then how is it they have come to this doggish state? You may be God, but for the present moment they are not God. They will admit that for the present moment they are not God, but that they will become God in the future. But what kind of God is this? And how have they fallen under illusion? That means illusion is stronger than God, that they have come under illusion. So the God then is maya, or not God. They may be God, but they are not the param brahman, the supreme God. We have the definition of God, that He is all-powerful. This swami is not all-powerful. If some poor fellow came to him on the street, he could not stop from getting a beating and if he got a toothache, he would be ruined as God. God is all-wealthy. This swami is begging for money, and is he God? God is all-knowing. They are not even intelligent. To surrender to Krishna is intelligent. They are kicking each other; they are fallen in the conditioned state and they say they are God! These questions should be put to them. They cannot answer them."

Prabhupada continued his walk through a neighborhood of automobile showrooms, hamburger luncheonettes not yet opened, and bus stops crowded with workers who stared at the elderly Swami passing with his young followers. "The devotees," Prabhupada said, "are more interested in talking about Krishna and in chanting His name than in arguing. But because so many godless parties come forward and challenge, a Vaishnava must be able to argue on the basis of sastra and sound logic."