The Paravidya-peetha

It is well known to the reader of these pages that an institution

bearing the name of Paravidya-peetha has been established at Sridham
Mayapur under the auspices of Sree Viswa Vaishava Raj Sabha and has
been in actual working for a number of years. It has an exoteric aspect
which comes before the public occasionally in connection with the
Goverment Sanskrit Examinations to which it regularly sends up several
batches of pupils. But the Paravidya-peetha does not really concern itself,
except in a secondary and external way, with education as imparted by
the institutions set up for the diffusion of Empiric knowledge. Those critics,
who confine their observations to the aspect of empiric academics offered
by the Institution, appreciate the good work implied by the apparent effort
for keeping alive the traditions of a wonderful culture which is a source of
legitimate national pride. It is not the purpose of the present article to
deal with the Institution as viewed by an empiricist. The Paravidya-peetha,
seeks to impart the knowledge of the Absolute, by the Shastric method, to
those students who are found to seek for Him. The actual number of such
students is not very large.
It is of course the object of the Institution to attract all persons to the
endeavour for spiritual culture from a tender age when they are yet
uncontaminated by the current empiric sophistries of their surroundings.
The guardians of the boys ordinarily send their wards to the Institution for
the purpose of picking up empiric knowledge at a cheap price. Sanskrit
study is at a low ebb now-a-days as it is not economically a paying
concern. It is only the most unpromising cadets of the poorest Brahmana
families who are sent for Sanskrit education from an early age. The boys
know that they are in high request by the Academies in an age when
nobody is willing to receive such education. They accordingly prove truant
and ungovernable. This temperament of the boys is in keeping with the
policy of their guardians in this country who oppose the employment of
their wards in any way that is not intended for the mere passing of the
University Examinations. This is the nature of the material and the
conditions under which the Paravidya-peetha has set itself to build up a
system of education upon unconditional submission of the pupil to the
bona lido spiritual preceptor for realising the causeless service of the
Absolute. Most students of the Paravidya-peetha are employed in a
variety of duties for diffusing spiritual culture all over the world: all of
them are not masters of the Sanskrit culture in its worldly sense. The
highest degree of any University of this world can only testify to the
presumed possession of a measurable knowledge of particular branches
of empiric studies. The diplomas of Vedic studies conferred by these
Universities are no exception to this rule. An empiric scholar of the Veda
does not realise the Nature of the Absolute, any more than one who is
altogether innocent of such scholarship. Para Vidya has been carefully
distinguished from A-Para Vidya. The Vedic Samhitas have been classed,
along with all other branches of the Sanskrit literature, under the category
of A-Para Vidya. It is true that the Vedas are the record of revealed
transcendental knowledge. This knowledge is not available to scholars
who are equipped with information that enables them to pass an empiric
examination on the subject. The so-called knowledge of the Vedic scholar
is not any knowledge of the Absolute. Had it been necessary to study the
Vedas in the empiric sense for acquisition of the knowledge of the
Absolute then such knowledge would be an indispensable condition for the
attainment of the service of the Absolute. Such a proposition is, however,
in flat contradiction to the teaching of the Vedas themselves. The Vedas
are not dead writings. The Absolute Knowledge is identical with Godhead
Himself, The Absolute Knowledge is identical with the Transcendental
Sound appearing on the lips of the bona fide devotee. The Absolute
Knowledge alone can impart Himself. No mundane agency can confer any
knowledge of the Absolute. The Absolute reveals Himself to all persons
who submit unconditionally to receive Him from the lips of the Guru who is
the authorised agent of the Absolute. These conditions of real Vedic study
are complied with in the process of education that is imparted to the
Brahmacharins and Vanaprasthas, i.e. to those persons. who have
surrendered themselves completely at the feet of the Preceptor. The
Chaitanya Math with its affiliated branches are seminaries of spiritual
culture imparted to their inmates by the really pure devotees of the
Absolute. It is not money that can build up the Paravidya-peetha. Souls
are wanted to avail themselves of the mercy of the suddha bhaktas by the
method of unconditional submission for receiving the knowledge of the
Absolute. On this condition real enlightenment is open to all persons
irrespective of caste, creed or colour. The