Srila Prabhupada speaks on guru-tattva: who is the bona-fide guru

[Guest guest]

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Dear Manohara Prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances.

 

Could it be that all of your quotes concern the acceptance of a siksa guru

-- and not a diksa guru? After all, one can receive mantra diksa (on various

mantras) from anyone who is himself initiated into chanting that mantra.

 

Also, if we apply the standard of accepting diksa from a pure devotee who is

specifically on the uttama adhikari platform, then I am afraid there would

be very few, if any, qualified to initate in the ENTIRE Brahma-Madhva

Gaudiya sampradaya (not just ISKCON!) presently. Then what will happen to

the guru parampara? So, to sum up, the best thing to do is to accept a diksa

guru who has been initiated by Srila Prabhupada, and to take shelter in

siksa from Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada lives forever through his

divine instructions, and the follower lives with him!

 

This is what I, personally, have concluded for myself. Perhaps I am mistaken

-- in which case the kind Viasnavas here will mercifully correct me.

 

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

 

Nayan.

[Guest guest]

Dear Nayan Prabhu, pranams.

All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!

 

The questions you put forth are sincere ones and I will try to reply

as far as possible. I'm praying at the lotus feet of our Rupanuga Guru-varga

so that they allow me to speak according to guru-sadhu-sastra.

 

> Could it be that all of your quotes concern the acceptance of a siksa guru

> -- and not a diksa guru? After all, one can receive mantra diksa (on

various

> mantras) from anyone who is himself initiated into chanting that mantra.

 

I know that the idea you are suggesting is very popular nowadays among

ISKCON devotees. But unfortunately, this idea doesn't go well together with

the verdict of our sastra-acaryas. First of all, Srila Prabhupada himself

doesn't allow that:

 

"Unless one is *initiated* by the right person, who always carries within

his heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one cannot acquire the power

to carry the Supreme Godhead within the core of one's own heart." (SB

10.2.18p.)

 

*Initiated* means diksa. This statement is fully in agreement with the

instructions of our abhideya-tattva-acarya Srila Rupa Gosvami.

 

"First of all one has to accept a bona fide spiritual master. This is

advocated by Srila Rupa Gosvami in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu:

*sri-guru-padasrayah*. To be freed from the entanglement of the material

world, one has to approach a spiritual master." (SB 5.5.10-13p.)

 

"Srila Rupa Gosvami therefore recommends, sri-guru-padasrayah: one must seek

shelter at the lotus feet of a *pure devotee* who can be one's guru." (SB

10.2.37p.)

 

To take shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Guru is the first limb of the

sadhana-bhakti process. Then, who is Sri Guru? He is a Sad Guru, a pure

self-realized devotee who possesses the qualities mentioned in Sri

Gurvastaka and Sri Guru Carana Padma.

 

And the next limb of sadhana-bhakti is diksa (krsna-diksadi-siksanam). Now,

we should try to examine what is diksa and who is really qualified to give

Nama and diksa.

 

As explained in Sri Harinama Cintamani of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura,

krsna-prema can be attained only through chanting suddha-nama, the pure Holy

Name. But in order to purify one's chanting one first has to receive the

seed of suddha-nama from a guru who chants suddha-nama. It's not possible to

attain suddha-nama otherwise, on one's own endeavor.

 

*Sadguru* sambandha-gyana koriya arpana

 

"The bonafide spiritual master who is absorbed in pure & offensless chanting

of the Hare Krsna mantra gives the sambandha gyana or the knowledge of one's

relationship with Krsna, to the disciple."

 

Abhidheya-rupe korena namanusilana

 

"The disciple cultivates the process of the chanting of the maha-mantra as

abhideya."

 

Nama-surya svalpakale prabala haiya

Prayojana tattva tabe dena premadhana

Praptaprema-jiva kore nama sankirtana

 

"Gradually the sun of the Holy Name gets prominent in the heart of the

devotee and awards him the highest goal of life i.e the prayojana-tattva

which is Krsna prema. On achieving Krsna prema, the devotee does not stop

chanting but becomes completely attached to chanting the pure Name and

cannot give up chanting even for a fraction of a second."

 

So this is the verdict of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura: one has to receive

both Nama and diksa from a *Sad Guru*, self-realized devotee.

 

Then, the definition of diksa given by our sambandha-tattva-acarya Srila

Sanatana Gosvami:

 

divyam jnanam yato dadya kuryat papasya samksayam

tasmad-dikseti sa prokta desikais tattva-kovidah (Hari-bhakti-vilasa 2.9,

from Visnu Yamala)

 

"The process by which transcendental knowledge (divya jnana) is given and

sins are destroyed is called diksa by the highly learned scholars who are

expert in spiritual science".

 

Srila Jiva Gosvami in Bhakti Sandarbha explains that divya jnana, the

spiritual knowledge which the disciple receives from his guru in the form of

the diksa (gayatri) mantras, consists of two parts: bhagavat svarupa jnana

(knowledge about the svarupa of the Deities of the Gayatri-mantras - Guru,

Gauranga and Radha-Krsna) and bhagavat sambandha visesa jnana (knowledge

about one's relationship with the Lord). The word visesa here means

*particular* relationship. These are given in the form of a seed, and when

the disciple, having received these mantras from a bona fide guru, attains

perfection in chanting the mantras the divya jnana is fully revealed to him.

He realizes the svarupa of the Lord, svarupa of his Guru and his own svarupa

in relationship with the Lord.

 

So, do you think that anyone initiated into chanting Nama and diksa-mantra

is able to give you suddha-nama and divya jnana and destroy all your papa,

sins for many lifetimes? I don't think so. In order to be able to give

sabda-brahma, transcendental knowledge (divya jnana), not merely an

information about transcendental knowledge, one has to be on the

transcendental level.

 

Some people consider diksa just a matter of formality. Someone will chant on

you beads (no matter whether he chants Nama or nama-aparadha), give you a

new name, say the Gayatri mantras into your ear, make a fire sacrifice, and

then if this person is "officially certified" as a "bona-fide guru" you

automatically have diksa. Even if after some time your guru falls down, no

harm since you are "connected to the sampradaya". You can try another one or

even may go on without accepting a new guru because you have "diksa"

already. Sounds good, isn't it? But can it really be true that to connect

you to the sampradaya it's enough to have a neophyte devotee, just a little

bit more advanced than you, chant on your beads and conduct a fire

sacrifice?

 

No. Doesn't work this way. If the guru is not powerful enough this so-called

diksa is useless. It's just a formality, an imitation. You will have your

beads, your new name and a fire yajna, but you will not have the main thing,

bhakti-lata-bija. Rather, instead of the bhakti-lata-bija you may get some

other kind of bija, as nicely put by Srila Prabhupada:

 

"If one is not fortunate enough to receive the bhakti-lata-bija from the

spiritual master, he instead cultivates such seeds as karma-bija,

jnana-bija, or political, social or philanthropic bijas." (Madhya 19.152)

 

It's because in order to be able to give bhakti one has to have bhakti

himself (bhaktya sanjataya bhaktya). One cannot give more than what he has.

The bhakti-lata-bija is a manifestation of the svarupa-sakti of the Lord in

the form of sraddha, and if one is not powerful enough to plant it in the

hearts of others all his initiations are bogus.

 

"This bhakti-lata-bija is received when one is initiated by the bona fide

spiritual master." (Madhya 19.152)

 

But who is the bona fide spiritual master? See the direct statements of

Srila Prabhupada in my previous text.

 

> Also, if we apply the standard of accepting diksa from a pure devotee who

is

> specifically on the uttama adhikari platform, then I am afraid there would

> be very few, if any, qualified to initiate in the ENTIRE Brahma-Madhva

> Gaudiya sampradaya (not just ISKCON!) presently. Then what will happen to

> the guru parampara?

 

No harm. Sad Guru is called Jagat Guru. It means he can initiate the whole

world. Our Srila Prabhupada is a good example of such a guru. Such devotees,

of course, are very rare but if one really wants to find one and prays very

sincerely from his heart then Krishna will certainly bring him to a Sad

Guru. If we are serious of going back to Godhead we should apply this

standard as given by our acaryas.

 

> So, to sum up, the best thing to do is to accept a diksa

> guru who has been initiated by Srila Prabhupada,

 

Excuse me, I don't follow your logic. How have you come to such a

conclusion? The best thing is to accept diksa from an uttama-adhikari

Vaisnava in the line of Sri Rupa Gosvami, whether he is initiated by Srila

Prabhupada or not. Srila Prabhupada says in this regard:

 

"It is imperative that a serious person accept a bona fide spiritual master

in terms of the sastric injunctions. Sri Jiva Gosvami advises that one not

accept a spiritual master in terms of *hereditary* or *customary* *social*

and

*ecclesiastical* conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely

qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual

understanding." (Adi 1.36)

 

In any case, your relationship with Srila Prabhupada will remain intact on

the principle of the Bhagavata-parampara (siksa-parampara), if you desire

so. We are speaking here about the real relationship, not a formal one.

 

> and to take shelter in

> siksa from Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada lives forever through his

> divine instructions, and the follower lives with him!

 

As far as siksa from Srila Prabhupada, it can help us but only to an extent.

It cannot substitute a living siksa-guru, because Srila Prabhupada has

entered nitya-lila and for the most of us he is only a passive siksa-guru as

are all the previous acaryas. With very rare exceptions, he would not come

to us personally to correct and chastise us if our understanding of his

teachings is wrong, and to give us required specific instructions on our

spiritual

development according to our present level. We need an *active* siksa-guru

in order to be able to advance properly. This was explicitly stated by Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur:

 

"We have to hear about the Supreme Lord from His own agent. When we hear

those things then all material existence and the inclination to make false

arguments have to be locked up. When we hear about the Supreme Lord from a

*LIVING* sadhu who can deliver these talks in a bold, lively, inspiring way,

then all weakness will disappear from our hearts, we will feel a kind of

courage which was never there before, and the soul's natural tendency to

surrender to the Lord will fully manifest itself. In that surrendered heart

the eternally manifested truth of the transcendental world will

spontaneously reveal itself".

 

> This is what I, personally, have concluded for myself. Perhaps I am

mistaken

> -- in which case the kind Vaisnavas here will mercifully correct me.

 

Your humble attitude is very nice. As long as we are conditioned souls we

can always be mistaken, therefore we always need the guidance of a liberated

soul. But he must be *physically present* unless we are so advanced that

able to associate with aprakata world or understand sastra on our own.

 

Your servant,

Manohara das

 

PS: Please send a Carbon Copy of this text to Katha and the other

conferences, otherwise it won't be posted there since I'm not its member.