On the basis of āsuri bhāvam, one is always constantly engaged in duṣkṛtina, I mean to say, sinful activities, and mūḍha, falsely thinking that he is God. Therefore he is a mūḍha. That is the sign. A big mūḍha. Small mūḍhas, they are working hard only to become happy, and the big mūḍha, he wants to become God. The small mūḍha wants to become a minister or a president, and the big mūḍha wants to become God. The disease is the same, "I shall become the most powerful." But that is not possible. Therefore these big mūḍhas who simply falsely thinking that, "I have become now liberated by meditation or by some jugglery of powers," so they have been described in the Bhāgavata as vimukta-māninaḥ. They are falsely thinking that they have become liberated, they have become Nārāyaṇa. How you can become Nārāyaṇa? The śāstra says:
- yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ
- brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ
- samatvenaiva vīkṣeta
- sa pāṣaṇḍī bhaved dhruvam
- (CC Madhya 18.116)
Nārāyaṇaṁ devam. Even Śaṅkarācārya, he says, nārāyaṇaḥ avyaktāt paraḥ: "Nārāyaṇa is transcendental. He has nothing to do with this material world."
So Vaiṣṇavas also say, yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ. Brahmā, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, they are demigods of this material world. So if one puts Nārāyaṇa even with the label of Brahmā and Rudra, Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā . . . they are the very exalted, big demigods. Lord Śiva is almost like Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is ninety-five percent complete God, and Lord Śiva is eighty-five percent and Kṛṣṇa is cent percent. There is analysis. So yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ, samatvenaiva vīkṣeta. Samatvena, equal. "Well, whatever is Nārāyaṇa, that is also Lord Śiva, that is also Lord Brahmā, that is also Goddess Kālī." This is Māyāvāda. Because the Māyāvāda philosophy is that, "The Absolute Truth is impersonal. That is the final understanding. So because we cannot think of impersonal, meditate upon that, let us imagine some form." Sādhakānāṁ hitvārthāya brahmaṇo rūpa-kalpanaḥ. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they say that kalpana, "You just imagine any form." Therefore they especially recommend the five forms, the five form: the Sūrya, sun-god; Gaṇeśa and Durgā, Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva. There is also Viṣṇu. But this Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇava conception of Viṣṇu is different. This Viṣṇu is imagination, and Vaiṣṇava conception of Viṣṇu is reality. Kṛṣṇa is reality. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). Those are mūḍhas, the same mūḍhas. Because He has come in the form of a human being, they say, "This is māyā. This Kṛṣṇa has come . . . the impersonal Brahman has assumed a body, accepting this body given by māyā." This is the Māyāvāda philosophy. But actually Kṛṣṇa does not come. Because Kṛṣṇa says, daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). Māyā is controlled by Him. How He can accept subordinance of māyā? No. So Vaiṣṇava philosophy is very perfect philosophy according to the śāstra and Vedas. All the ācāryas confirm. So we have to follow this. Then our life will be successful.