Excerpt from Bhagavad Gita As It Is defeating ritvikism

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Dear Deepak Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP!

 

> Srila Prabhupada is making a GENERAL statement about how one behaves

> towards the Spiritual Master. Srila Prabhupada is also a spiritual

> master, therefore it also applies to him. Or are you saying

> that the above passage applies to all spiritual masters except Srila

> Prabhupada?

 

Please carefully read my comment.

 

> "The ritvik followers misunderstood the July 9th letter."

>

> It was the GBC that "misunderstood" the J9 letter.

 

Who misunderstood it, those who had physical association with Srila

Prabhupada and are directly initiated by him, or the others?

 

> They concoted the unauthorised zonal acarya system, whereby the 11 named

> ritviks suddenly became 'mahabhagavat diksa gurus'. Jayadvaita Swami

> wrote an apology for this fraudulent system in BTG a few years back in his

> capacity as editor-in-chief.

 

What has this to do with the question whether the ritvik system should be

continued or not?

 

> The ritvik advocates simply take the face meaning of the letter. Can you

> please tell me the EXACT words in the letter ritvik followers

> "‘misunderstand", and HOW they "misunderstand" them?

 

Even if you completely understand every word, you cannot understand

initiation. See below.

 

> The letter was signed by Srila Prabhupada, therefore he must have fully

> agreed with it, therefore why does it matter WHO TYPED it? Where does

> Srila Prabhupada ever state your injunction

> that: "You cannot understand the system of initiation just by reading a

> letter?"

 

Krishna said that:

tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah

 

But if you still think that reading Srila Prabhupada's letters and books is

sufficient to get the required transcendental knowledge to understand

initiation, then please answer my question: Is for the initiation any action

required by the guru?

 

ys Ramakanta dasa