How to receive Initiation?

[Shivam]

I have been chanting 20 rounds of Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra daily and I read that initiation is best to guide one back to Krishna. How must one receive initiation? What is the process?

 

Hare Bol

[Kamalasana Das]

i think one can receive it from prabhupäda steel. but harinama iniciation.

i think on ecan attempt to come fordward to anyother spiritual representative master or of the master, but with him you can.

 

and best if the rounds fixed strat to come up.

that way.

[Guest guest]

approach a true guru who has been a direct disciple of bhaktivedanta swami prabhupada

[vrajavasi]

Radhe Krishna,

 

It depends whether you engage yourself in gaudiya vaishnava sampradaya. In that case, you should get initiation from a guru of that sampradaya. Else there are many many sampradaayas and many sampradaya Acharyas are there from whom you can get initiation. What is more important is how sincere you are in your bhakthi rather than from whom you have got initiation. May Rahdaju showers us all with krishna bhakthi.

 

Radhe Krishna

[Guest guest]

Is initiation really necessary, from a guru? Can we just accept Prabhupada as our guru?

[Bhakta Omer]

 

 

For initiation you need a guru.

For a guru you need to pray to god to send you a guru.

So what you should do is continue practice your sadhana and chanting and until the lord decide you are ready to send you a guru, accept parmatma, the God within, as your guru. Until you'll find you're diksa guru, it's ok to consider Srila Prabhupada, or any other acharya from the past, as you're siksa guru and follow their instructions.

 

[Guest guest]

Shivam ... Bhkata Omer gives some solid advice in his post that I've quoted below. You'd do well to make note of these points.

 

 

 

For initiation you need a guru.

For a guru you need to pray to god to send you a guru.

So what you should do is continue practice your sadhana and chanting and until the lord decide you are ready to send you a guru, accept parmatma, the God within, as your guru. Until you'll find you're diksa guru, it's ok to consider Srila Prabhupada, or any other acharya from the past, as you're siksa guru and follow their instructions.

 

[Guest guest]

 

I have been chanting 20 rounds of Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra daily and I read that initiation is best to guide one back to Krishna. How must one receive initiation? What is the process?

 

Hare Bol

 

In the process of initiation the guru makes a promise before Lord Krsna and Vaishnavas that he will lead the disciple on the path of spiritual development, and the disciple makes a similar promise that he will follow his guru's advice.

 

Find a person whose teachings you want to follow in life and ask him very humbly to accept you as their disciple. You cannot become a disciple if the guru does not give you his consent - at least not in a legitimate Vedic tradition. Departed gurus dont accept disciples. Only non-Aryan traditions like Christians and Muslims believe otherwise.

 

Once you find the guru, he will tell you precisely what the process of initiation involves in his tradition.

[Bhakta Omer]

 

 

Actually, the acceptance of the non-physically present as a guru is quite possible in our tradition. We accept the acharyas of the past and their instructions, we go on a pilgrimage to their Samadhi and worship them. We accept them as shiksha guru indeed. It is also acceptable in some vaishnava sampradayas to accept Lord Shiva as a guru.

But indeed, a physically present diksha guru is very important. Important, but hard to find… So until that day, the acceptance of past acharyas as our shiksha guru, by studying their words and following their instruction, is very important.

 

[Guest guest]

 

Actually, the acceptance of the non-physically present as a guru is quite possible in our tradition. We accept the acharyas of the past and their instructions, we go on a pilgrimage to their Samadhi and worship them. We accept them as shiksha guru indeed.

Devotee who started this thread was asking about initiation. To the vast majority of Vaishnavas in the world that means he is seeking diksa. Only some very confused people in and around Iskcon cant tell the difference. Dont become one of them, Omer prabhu.

[Bhakta Omer]

 

Not only the vast majority. I do believe that it's safe to say that all of us think that diksa is initiation and initiation is diksa. I wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was merely referring to the pre diksa state, when he should still receive instruction even without initiation and that state is called Shiksa. I wasn't suggesting in any way that siksa is an initiation or that diksa can be given from the non-physically present.