Open in App
Open in App

A meeting went sadly wrong

Riddha Dasa: Early that morning on October 8th, 1975, at the University of Durban-Westville, a meeting went sadly wrong - but not for Srila Prabhupada. The head of the Department of Religion, Professor Oosthuizen, had arranged for the leader of the Arya-Samaj from India to be present without informing us.

Srila Prabhupada was not pleased when he found out that he was to be sharing his time alongside a tea-drinking mayavadi (an impersonalist philosopher who thinks God is formless and himself equal to God). He had to listen to the mayavadi's nonsensical claims that he is God and we are God!

Srila Prabhupada took up this unexpected challenge to confront him in an informal debate. He also questioned the European professor of the Department of Hindu Studies and the Science of Religion who had arranged the unwarranted meeting. Srila Prabhupada put the emphasis on the spiritual dimension as a scientific concept throughout the Vedic teachings.



Reference: Mission in the service of His Divine Grace - Riddha Dasa Adhikari