There are no two different kinds of uttamas?

[Guest guest]

Dear Sadhu Maharaj

Hare Krsna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Thank you for sending me a copy of your remarks on this subject of uttama

adhikari. With your permission I would like to make a few comments.

 

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.

 

However I must say that you would have more influence on Iskcon devotees if

you had remained in Iskcon. Accepting a Guadiya Math sannyasi as your

sannyas guru and now living outside of Iskcon is bound to make those of us

who are loyal to Iskcon somewhat suspect. As it is said, "Good fences make

good neighbors." You are certainly a respected neighbor, but unfortunately

for us, no longer a direct family member.

 

I agree with you that there is only one kind of uttama adhikary, of course

within that category I think you will agree that there are different levels.

Kanista uttama, madhyama uttama, uttama uttama, with shades in between.

 

However your main point, that ONLY AN UTTAMA ADHIKARY CAN INITIATE is in my

opinion not accurate(Foot note-1). How is that? Well I firmly believe that

our Founder Acarya His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

was fully cognizant of all the evidence that you present in you letter, but

still he was faced with the practical questions. WHAT TO DO if there is no

uttama adhikary on the planet???? How to continue the mission if new people

are not being initiated into it??? This was, and still is, a very real

consideration. You may have had the luxury, by Srila Prabhupada's mercy, of

not having to worry about this as you connected to his society because he

made a practical adjustment on this point. He, followed in the foot steps of

his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddanta who had ordered his disciples,

"Continue the preaching mission under the authority of the GBC."

Unfortunately his disciples did not follow this order, and instead tried to

establish someone from amongst their ranks to become the Acarya, most likely

on the strength of many of the quotations that you have provided us.

 

Srila Prabhupada clearly saw what happened to his spiritual master's mission

as a result of this attempt to create a "perfect person" to fit into the

definition of an "uttama adhikary"(2). The reality is that you can not

create a perfect person. That was the Gaudiya Maths main failure, that...

they tried to create an "Acarya". Srila Prabhupada was very concerned that a

similar fate would not befall his institution Iskcon. Therefore he in effect

made an Acarya Board, the GBC, which he empowered to have authority over and

above the initiating gurus that he selected.

 

You make the point that the disciple will lose faith if he sees that his

guru is not a perfect person. There is some validity to this of course, but

if the disciple sees that his spiritual master is not presenting himself as

an uttama adhikary but is sincerely attempting to follow the order of his

uttama adhikary guru then the disciple can be confident that his guru is

making advancement. If he sincerely follows such a madhyama guru then he

will also advance, and he can be assured that Krsna will be please with his

service attitude and He will bless him more and more. In this way we can be

confident that such a sincere madhyama guru and his disciples will all

eventually become eligible to enter into the spiritual world.

 

On the other hand if new people come but there is no one to initiate them

then certainly they will be come discouraged, for by reading the books they

will quickly come to understand that their first business is to serve and

become intiated by a guru.(3)

 

Yours sincerely

Trivikrama Swami

 

 

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Foot notes(1)"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."

(SB. 2-3-21. Purport.)

 

(2)"However, one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced

devotee or maha-bhagavata without being self-realized, for by such imitation

one will eventually become degraded."

(Nectar of Instruction text-5. Purport.)

 

(3)"He (Rupa Goswami) mentions the basic principles as follows:

1.accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of a bonafide spiritual master.

2.becoming initiated by the spiritual master and learning how to discharge

devotional service from him. 3.obeying the orders of the spiritual master

with faith and devotion. 4.following in the footsteps of great acaryas under

the direction of the spiritual master.

(Nectar of Devotion Chap-6)