Madhyama Guru

[Guest guest]

Dear Trivikrama Maharaj,

Please accept my dandavat pranams. __o______. All Glories to Shrila

Prabhupada and Lord Shri Nitai-Gauranga along with Shri Gaura-Bhakta-Vrnda!

 

Thank you for your kind and merciful message. I am sorry for the delay in

replying.

 

> First congratultions on taking to the renounced order of life. It is good

> that you have decided to dedicate yourself solely to the service of the

> Lord.

 

I need your mercy Maharaj and prayers for my spiritual advancement in the

sannyasa ashram and for preaching.

 

I will write in detail about it later but I was suggesting that in the ideal

case only an uttama-adhikari mantra-siddha should initiate if he is present.

In the case when he is not present, for the sake of continuing the

preaching, a madhayama-guru can initiate but it should be verified that he

is indeed a madhyama. The definition of madhyama is that he is constantly

chanting the holy name. Thus a madhyama-guru should chant atleast 64 rounds

daily which is the beginning of constant chanting. I have given all the

quotes in my message ' Lord Gauranga, Prabhupada and the Acharyas on 64

rounds" and in my recently published book 'Maha-mantra Yoga.' A

madhyama-guru is known by his taking constant shelter of Harinam and

Gauranga nama (which removes all offenses), the most merficul

Navadvipa-dhama and the most merciful Gauranga-lila. Like Shrila

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada did bhajan in Navadvipa for 10 years by

contant chanting and read Chaitanya-Bhagavata and Chaitanya-Charitamrita 100

times.

 

In Jaiva Dharma, Paramhansa Haridas babaji tells Nityananda das that he has

just crossed the kanishtha platform and entered the madhyama platform after

he had chanted 64 rounds for many years in Navavdvipa dhama and after

hearing that he feels ecstacy and rolls on the ground during kirtana and is

greatly attached to the association of devotees. Thus madhyama-adhikari

stage is a very high stage and goes from nishtha or ruci upto the level of

asakti.

 

The only quote from Prabhupada about kanishtha-gurus in NOI verse 5, should

be understood that only in an extreme emergency situation a kanishtha should

be allowed to initiate, when even no madhyama is around. But this cannot be

generalized. If the no. of kanishtha gurus increase then there will simply

chaos in the Vaishnava society. In the absence of a uttama-guru, better to

have a few chosen madhyama-gurus who can be clearly identified as madhyama

by their constant chanting rather than simply increasing the no. of kanistha

gurus.

 

SB. 2-3-21. Purport.:

"The second-class devotees are therefore meant for preaching

work..... The second-class devotee accepts disciples from the section of

third-class devotees or nondevotees. Sometimes the first-class devotee also

comes down to the catrgory of the second-class devotee for preaching work."

 

So Prabhupada mainly refers to madhyama-gurus here. They can become gurus in

the absence of uttamas. A third-class devotee accepting disciples from the

third-class is not a good proposition because many times it ends up in the

disciple becoming more advanced than the guru and then it leads so many

problems.

 

Also there has to be some set standards (a long subject) which the

madhyama-guru should follow so that he does not end up artificially

accepting the position and worship of an uttama.

 

Daso'smi, Tridandi Bhikshu Bhaktiratna Sadhu.