Siksa as most important guru

[Guest guest]

On 19 May 1999, Madhava Gosh wrote:

 

> Diksa has more to do with institutional matters. Also very important

> and useful, but as a means, not an end.

 

While I admit that I do not know too much about current "diksa" philosophy and

ideals in ISKCON leaders minds I have always understood it to be a function of

the Pancharatriki institution. It was never stressed during my years in

ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada never translated the Narada Pancharatra for general

consumption of the devotees or people in general. I am sure he had good

reasons:

 

"In the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is no recommendation of pancharatriki worship

because in this Kali-yuga, even without Deity worship, everything can be

perfectly performed simply through hearing, chanting, remembering and worship

of the lotus feet of the Lord....

...By chanting the holy name of the Lord, one can reach the platform of love

of Godhead. One might ask, then what is the necessity of being initiated?

The answer is that even though the chanting of the holy name is sufficient to

enable one to progress in spiritual life to the standard of love of Godhead,

one is nonetheless susceptible to contamination because of possessing a

material body. Consequently, special stress is given to the archana-vidhi.

One should regularly take advantage of both the bhagavat process and

pancharatriki process." S.B. 7.5.24.

 

 

So this makes sense, to me. We accept those processes which we can perform

well. If it is too difficult or if we compromise the process out of

pretentiousness it is spoiled. Why try to perform diksa if we are not doing it

correctly? Do not the qualifications for guru apply to diksa guru (freed from

ALL material contamination, 100 percent Krsna conscious) ? Especially if we

already agree that siksa is "most important" and we KNOW we have a pure siksa

guru in Srila Prabhupada?

 

"Especially in this age of Kali, sankirtan alone is sufficient. If the

members of our temples in the different parts of the world simply continue

sankirtan before the deity, especially before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they

will remain perfect. There is no need of any other performances.

Nevertheless, to keep oneself clean in habits and mind, Deity worship and

other regulative principles are required." S.B. 6.3.25.

 

 

If we cannot do Radha-Krsna deity worship well, we are to do sankirtan in

front of Lord Caitanya. Sounds practical and logical.

 

 

"...in Kali-yuga, worship of the Deity is being neglected. Therefore chanting

of the Hare Krishna mantra is more powerful than Deity worship. Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu set a practical example in that he did not establish any temples or

Deities, but He profusely introduced the sankirtan movement. Therefore,

Krishna consciousness preachers should give more stress to the sankirtan

movement, especially by distributing transcendental literature more and more.

This helps the sankirtan movement. Whenever there is a possibility to worship

the Deity, we may establish many centers, but generally we should give more

stress to the distribution of transcendental literature, for this will be more

effective in converting people to Krishna consciousness." S.B. 7.14.39.