Srila Prabhupada performs a first!

[Guruvani]

To give an example of how Srila Prabhupada became the FIRST acharya to do a certain thing, I would like present this....

 

"Therefore, although I am a sannyāsī I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples."

 

For the full context, refer to this.....

Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 7.37

aparādha kṣamāila, ḍubila prema-jale

kebā eḍāibe prabhura prema-mahājāle

SYNONYMS

aparādha — offense; kṣamāila — excused; ḍubila — merged into; prema-jalein the ocean of love of Godhead; kebā — who else; eḍāibe — will goprabhura — the Lord's; prema — loving; mahā-jāle — network.

TRANSLATION

Lord Caitanya excused them all, and they merged into the ocean of devotional service, for no one can escape the unique loving network of ŚrīCaitanya Mahāprabhu.

PURPORT

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was an ideal ācārya. An ācārya is an ideal teacher who knows the purpose of the revealed scriptures, behaves exactly according to their injunctions and teaches his students to adopt these principles also. As an ideal ācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu devised ways to capture all kinds of atheists and materialists. Every ācārya has a specific means of propagating his spiritual movement with the aim of bringing men to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, the method of one ācārya may be different from that of another, but the ultimate goal is never neglected. Śrīla Rūpa

tasmāt kenāpy upāyena manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet

sarve vidhi-niṣedhā syur etayor eva kińkarāḥ

An ācārya should devise a means by which people may somehow or other come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. First they should become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and all the prescribed rules and regulations may later gradually be introduced. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we follow this policy of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. For example, since boys and girls in the Western countries freely intermingle, special concessions regarding their customs and habits are necessary to bring them to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The ācārya must devise a means to bring them to devotional service. Therefore, although I am a sannyāsī I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples.

[suchandra]

 

To give an example of how Srila Prabhupada became the FIRST acharya to do a certain thing, I would like present this....

 

"Therefore, although I am a sannyāsī I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples."

 

For the full context, refer to this.....

 

Anyone in the West who presently considers Krishna consciousness his/her religion but decided to join a camp which rejects Srila Prabhupada's position as genuine teacher of bhagavat-dharma, the knowledge of attaining the ultimate goal of life, should at least remember one thing - that without Prabhupada they would be presently in the nowhere - fully absorbed in kali-yuga action and reaction, right on the path to hell.

[theist]

Just to bring in another angle on this I believe it is important to remember that the acceptance of one particular guru instead of another is not sutomatically rejecting the other one.

 

If they are both authentic then Guru is one. Acceptance of one is acceptance of the other.

 

The main thing is that we receive the internal confirmation that we are listening to a person who is recognized by Krsna as His devotee in good standing.

[Beggar]

 

Anyone in the West who presently considers Krishna consciousness his/her religion but decided to join a camp which rejects Srila Prabhupada's position as genuine teacher of bhagavat-dharma, the knowledge of attaining the ultimate goal of life, should at least remember one thing - that without Prabhupada they would be presently in the nowhere - fully absorbed in kali-yuga action and reaction, right on the path to hell.

"...but decided to join a camp which rejects Srila Prabhupada's position..."

I can't think of one Gaudiya Math derivative camp that does that. Who are you thinking of? The "Babajis"?

[Guest guest]

 

Just to bring in another angle on this I believe it is important to remember that the acceptance of one particular guru instead of another is not sutomatically rejecting the other one.

 

If they are both authentic then Guru is one. Acceptance of one is acceptance of the other.

 

The main thing is that we receive the internal confirmation that we are listening to a person who is recognized by Krsna as His devotee in good standing.

 

 

This is good advice, plus it doesn't create enemies, keep it coming.

[Guest guest]

 

"...but decided to join a camp which rejects Srila Prabhupada's position..."

I can't think of one Gaudiya Math derivative camp that does that. Who are you thinking of? The "Babajis"?

 

Sure there are. In fact, there are several. Not all, by any means, but the leaders of several Gaudiya Math camps will admit, at least in private to their committed members, especially non-Westerners, that they don't consider "Swami Maharaja" to have been an exalted devotee at all. Thankfully this is far from a universal perspective, but it does exist, and followers of Srila Prabhupada ought to be careful of it.

[Kulapavana]

 

To give an example of how Srila Prabhupada became the FIRST acharya to do a certain thing, I would like present this....

 

"Therefore, although I am a sannyāsī I sometimes take part in getting boys and girls married, although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples."

 

so what was he supposed to do in these early days? ask a local priest to marry them? he insisted on the spiritual dimension to the marriage and thus a mere marriage certificate from some clerk would have not been sufficient. there was nobody else so he had to do it himself, based on the utility principle.

[Guruvani]

 

so what was he supposed to do in these early days? ask a local priest to marry them? he insisted on the spiritual dimension to the marriage and thus a mere marriage certificate from some clerk would have not been sufficient. there was nobody else so he had to do it himself, based on the utility principle.

 

The topic was not started to question WHY Srila Prabhupada did it.

It was started to show how he was known to do some things that had never been done before - "although in the history of sannyāsa no sannyāsī has personally taken part in marrying his disciples.

[Kulapavana]

If you dont ask the question WHY you are bound to misunderstand the event and it's significance.

[Guest guest]

Although he was the first, there is nowhere where Srila Vyasadeva forbids this minor detail.