Excerpt from Bhagavad Gita As It Is defeating ritvikism

[Guest guest]

Dear Deepak Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP!

 

Thank you for confirming my statement, namely what the ritvik followers mean

by "initiation".

 

Now my question is: Can someone fully understand Srila Prabhupada's

instruction concerning initiation just by reading a letter written by a

disciple of Srila Prabhupada? Can we understand initiation just by observing

how Srila Prabhupada did the initiations?

 

There is a very nice story in this connection. There was a physician and his

servant. So one day the physician was called by some person to treat his

horse. So when the physician came, he asked, "What is the matter?" He says

that "The horse has suddenly swollen his throat. So please treat." Then the

physician took a hammer and strongly struck the swollen portion, and it was

at once cured. The servant saw, "So this is the process of curing swollen

parts of the body." So on that very day, he resigned his service and he

thought that "Now I have learned how to cure swollen parts of the body," and

whenever he was called to treat such disease, he used to hammer over that

swollen part and the patient died. So when he came to his former master,

"Sir, you cured that horse, the swollen part, by beating hammer, but when I

treat, it dies, the patient dies. What is the matter?" So he explained, "You

nonsense, the swollen is not cured by beating. That was a special case. The

horse took a squash while he was in the garden, and he could not swallow it

up. Therefore it was swollen. So I struck therefore, and it was broken, and

the same thing, his swollenness, cured. But you foolish, you are simply

striking on swollen parts?"

 

And:

 

It is said, vaisnavera kriya mudra vijneha na bujhaya: even a very

intelligent man cannot understand the activities of a pure Vaisnava.

(SB 5.9.20 purport)

 

ys Ramakanta dasa