Prabhupada: "...On behalf of Krishna, I have to say this."
Yasomatinandana Dasa: Then one day Prabhupada said that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's philosophy, yatha mat tat ha path (anything you do is all right) was bogus. It was atheism. And Prabhupada criticized Vivekananda's daridra-narayana philosophy that Narayana is not in the temple but is in daridra, 'the poor men', so serving poor men is better than going to the temple. Prabhupada said. "If Narayana is in the poor men, then why isn't He in the rich men also? And if Narayana is in a man, then He is also in a chicken. You are trying to serve the poor men and you are killing murgi, 'the chickens' to eat them. You are eating murgi-Narayana and you are serving daridra-Narayana, so your philosophy is contradictory." Prabhupada said, "You can be compassionate to poor men, but your service should be rendered to Narayana, to God. Narayana is never daridra, never poor. This kind of confusion has turned Bengalis into ruffians." So one Gujarati, Mr. Shah, became bewildered and started shouting, "You criticize everybody! You don't respect other saintly persons! You only think that you are right, that they are not good! Vivekananda was a great man!" The devotees were upset and were going to physically remove Mr. Shah but Prabhupada said, "No, no, let him speak." Prabhupada walked on calmly saying, "I am simply saying what Krishna has said. Na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah. Those who are miscreants, foolish, whose knowledge is stolen away by Maya, they do not surrender to Krishna.' Krishna says they are miscreants and on behalf of Krishna, I have to say this. I have nothing against those persons, but I am trying to teach my disciples how to judge their philosophy." After that we walked back to the temple silently and attended Guru puja. Like the devotees, every day Mr. Shah offered flowers to Prabhupada and on that day he also put his head on Prabhupada's feet and started crying like a baby. He felt repentant. Prabhupada put his hand on Mr. Shah's head and said, "It is okay." Then Prabhupada said, "From tomorrow, we are not going to discuss. We are just going to read Krishna book." So starting the next morning, one of us read Krishna book while we walked along the beach.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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