Å›rÄ«-Å›uka uvÄca
bharatasyÄtmajaḥ sumatir nÄmÄbhihito yam u ha vÄva kecit pÄkhaṇá¸ina ṛṣabha-padavÄ«m anuvartamÄnaá¹ cÄnÄryÄ aveda-samÄmnÄtÄá¹ devatÄá¹ sva-manÄ«á¹£ayÄ pÄpÄ«yasyÄ kalau kalpayiá¹£yanti
Å›rÄ«-Å›ukaḥ uvÄca - ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« continued to speak; bharatasya - of Bharata MahÄrÄja; Ätma-jaḥ - the son; sumatiḥ nÄma-abhihitaḥ - named Sumati; yam - unto whom; u ha vÄva - indeed; kecit - some; pÄkhaṇá¸inaḥ - atheists, men without Vedic knowledge; ṛṣabha-padavÄ«m - the path of King Ṛṣabhadeva; anuvartamÄnam - following; ca - and; anÄryÄḥ - not belonging to the Ä€ryans who strictly follow the Vedic principles; aveda-samÄmnÄtÄm - not enumerated in the Vedas; devatÄm - to be Lord Buddha or a similar Buddhist deity; sva-manÄ«á¹£ayÄ - by their own mental speculation; pÄpÄ«yasyÄ - most sinful; kalau - in this age of Kali; kalpayiá¹£yanti - will imagine.
Those who are Ä€ryans strictly follow the Vedic principles, but in this Age of Kali a community has sprung up known as the Arya Samaj, who members are ignorant of the import of the Vedas in the paramparÄ system. They decry all bona fide ÄcÄryas and pose themselves as the real followers of the Vedic principles, but in fact such non-Ä€ryans do not follow the Vedic principles. Another group of non-Ä€ryans are the Jains, who are referred to in the present verse. Not only do they not follow the Vedic principles, but they have no relationship with Lord Buddha, though they claim to. Imitating the behavior of Sumati, they also claim to be descendants of Ṛṣabhadeva. Those who are Vaiṣṇavas carefully avoid their company because they are ignorant of the path of the Vedas. In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (15.15) Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiÅ› ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ: “The real purpose of the Vedas is to understand Me.†This is the injunction of all Vedic literatures. One who does not know the greatness of Lord Kṛṣṇa cannot be accepted as an Ä€ryan. Lord Buddha, an incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa, adopted a particular means to propagate the philosophy of bhÄgavata-dharma. He preached almost exclusively among atheists. Atheists do not want any God, and Lord Buddha therefore said that there is no God, but he adopted the means to instruct his followers for their benefit. Therefore he preached in a duplicitous way, saying that there is no God. Nonetheless, he himself was an incarnation of God.