January 3, 1937: On this date in history, the noted philosopher, linguist, poet, lyricist and social reformer Dr. Kali Prasad Sinha (1937-2011) is born in a small village called East Kachudharam, near Silchar, India. He receives a Ph. D. from Jadavpur University and a Doctor of Literature degree from Bardhawan University, West Bengal. He starts his career as a lecturer in Cachar College, Silchar, and subsequently joins as a Reader in the Department of Sanskrit, Gauhati University. Thereafter he joins Tripura University as a Professor and ultimately works in Assam University, Silchar as a Professor and a Dean. He was a bachelor and devoted his whole life to research. He had a huge personal library, mainly on Philosophy and Indology.
In 1997, Punthi-Pustak of Calcutta published Sinha’s 304-page book titled A Critique of Bhaktivedanta Swami, in which he reveals how Bhaktivedanta Swami, in his books, misinterprets the Advaita philosophy. The inside dust cover jacket explains:
“In the present work, Prof. K. P. Sinha has made an attempt to refute almost all the objections raised by A. C. Bhaktivedanta, the founder of ISKCON, in his works—Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta, Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and others—against the non-Vaisnavite religious systems of India, particularly, against Advaita Vedanta. In the view of the present author, most of the objections raised by Bhaktivedanta are based on misinterpretations of the concepts of the systems taken for criticism. He has, therefore, ventured, in the present work, to point out those misinterpretations and to show the correct views of the relevant concepts of the systems concerned. He has, however, got nothing to say against Bhaktivedanta’s views of interpretations of his own religion, i. e., Sri Caitanya’s Vaisnavism.”
In the Preface, K. P. Sinha reveals why he wrote A Critique of Bhaktivedanta Swami:
Sri Caitanya’s religion marks the finest development of the cult of Vaisnavism or indeed, of the path of devotion in India. And it is a matter of great joy that A. C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, has taken this religion to every corner of the world and has practically established it as a world religion. This inspired me to study the works of Bhaktivedanta with keen interest and with deep reverence for him. But while going through his works, I had to stumble at every step on his misinterpretations of other systems and on his unkind remarks against them. Such misinterpretations and unkind remarks are really painful, since they tend to implant an uncatholic outlook in the hearts of the readers and to give rise to ill-feelings unnecessarily against other religious systems.
We have, therefore, ventured to undertake the task of pointing out those misinterpretations and giving the correct views of the relevant concepts of the systems concerned, in the hope that my efforts may be able to remove, to some extent, the evil effects these misinterpretations and unkind remarks tend to create in the hearts of the readers of Bhaktivedanta’s discourses. We are of the view that misinterpretations of other systems are uncalled for, since the acceptance of the real views of the system concerned will not, in any way, affect the worth of Sri Caitanya’s philosophy. The only thing required for synthesizing the views of different religions is to accept the well-known maxim that “men follow different paths of religion because of the difference in their ‘ruci’ or taste,” and also the great saying of Sri Ramakrishna that “all the systems are but different paths leading to the same goal—the Lord.”
In our present discourses, we are going to criticize only those views or remarks of Bhaktivedanta which, in our view, are based on misinterpretations of other systems and are marks of his disregard for them. We would not criticize his views on Sri Caitanya’s philosophy itself, for it must be admitted that there is little to say against them. . . .
K. P. Sinha
Assam University, Silchar
1st April 1997