Siksa Guru Parampara

[suchandra]

 

 

These, see article below, are the exact points by many genuine Vaishnavas and even Lord Krishna Himself. The list of Vaishnava acaryas has many diksha guru gaps in it, because Lord Brahma's sampradaya is mainly a siksa/preachers/ instructors parampara. The siksa devotees are sometimes called preachers and priests i.e. persons who preach "on behalf" of the parampara.

 

 

This is exactly what Srila Prabhupada ordered when he said, initiating "on my behalf." So finally the Gaudiya Matha has concluded that Gaudiya-Vaishnavas are mainly a siksa line. Why are they suddenly stressing the siksa concept? Do they feel forced to admit that we are mainly supposed to act as siksa devotees and not artificially adopt the role of saksad-dhari, being worshiped as good as God?

 

 

Concluding that Srila Prabhupada had only made siksa devotees and not diksa devotees. In sum, Gaudiya Matha seems to learn better than present ISKCON.

 

 

 

Siksa Guru Parampara

 

BY: MURALIDHAR DAS (SCSMath)

 

 

 

Nov 06, AUSTRALIA —

Radhavallabha dasa Prabhu's article about Guru Parampara, "

Spirit above Body

", presents very good philosophical points, but I believe the actual historical facts are a little different from what he put forward. My understanding is that if you were to list the diksa-parampara of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, it would be like this: Sri Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati > Srila Gaurkishore Das Babaji > Some Unknown Person.

 

The unknown person was almost certainly a jati-goswami (caste-goswami) brahmin in the lineage of Sri Nityananda Prabhu or in Sri Advaita Acharya's family. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura taught that ritual connections with caste-goswami Vaishnavas was of negligible importance in contrast with the importance of the transcendental siksa connection to Mahaprabhu that existed, primarily, through Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur.

 

Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati intentionally chose not to mention the name of the diksa guru of Srila Gaurkishore Das Babaji. The name wasn't written in Srila Saraswati Thakurs' books, and he didn't talk about it with disciples living with him in Mayapur. The reason? Srila Saraswati Thakurs' close disciples all understood his teaching about Guru-parampara very, very well. The Guru-parampara is primarily a connection with siksa-gurus such as Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur and Srila Jagannatha das Babaji, who provided inspiration and guidance in addition to the guidance being given by Srila Gaurkishore Das Babaji.

 

Radhavallabha dasa Prabhu wrote:

• "In regards to parampara, if it were up to diksa alone, the parampara on most ISKCON/Gaudiya Matha altars would look like this: Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (and/or the present Gaudiya Matha acarya), Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada, Srila Gaura-kisore Dasa Babaji, Srila Bhagavat Dasa Babaji, Srila Jagannatha Dasa Babaji, Srila Madhusudana Dasa Babaji."

But Srila Bhagavat Das Babaji Maharaj gave Srila Gaurkishore Das Babaji his babaji-vesha (clothes) and there was no mantra initiation. He wasn't his diksa guru. Also, it was Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami who instituted the process of giving mantra at the time of giving sannyasa or babaji-vesha. Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati gave babaji-vesha and mantra to Radha-Govinda das Babaji (the father of Ananta-Vasudeva das) and others. But in earlier times when the babaji became a babaji, he simply accepted babaji-vesha and agreed to follow the unspoken vow of renunciation.

 

Srila Jagannatha das Babaji Maharaj was the initiated disciple of Sri Jagadananda Goswami of Vrindaban. He was initiated by Sri Jagadananda Goswami as Jagabandhu das and received the title "Jagannatha das" when he became a babaji. His siksa gurus were Sri Krishnadas Babaji of Govardhana and Siddha Madhusudana Das Babaji of Suryakunda. There is no diksa-parampara connection whatsoever between Srila Jagannatha das Babaji Maharaj and Baladeva Vidyabhusana and there is a gap of about one hundred years as well.

 

Looking at the Guru-Parampara list at the end of the introduction of

Bhagavad Gita As It Is

, we also see that Baladeva's predecessor, Visvanatha Cakravarti, is listed as the successor of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura. If the Parampara was a diksa-guru lineage then the list should be like this: Narottama das Thakura > Ganganarayana Cakravarti > Krsnacarana Cakravarti > Radharamana Cakravarti > Visvanatha Cakravarti. There is a gap of almost one hundred years here too, between the disappearance of Narottama and the appearance of Visvanatha.

 

The names of the intervening diksa-gurus (Ganganarayana Cakravarti, Krsnacarana Cakravarti and Radharamana Cakravarti) are not listed in the Guru-parampara. The Guru-Parampara list we have today was written by Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati in his Parampara song; he mentions Visvanatha and Narottama but leaves out the others.

 

Why was the recluse Srila Gaurakishore das Babaji's name listed in the Guru-Parampara song, but there is no mention of the spiritual masters Ganganarayana Cakravarti, Krsnacarana Cakravarti and Radharamana Cakravarti? Some people think the Parampara list is simply a list of great preachers. What someone might call Sampradaya Acaryas. Yet the name of Syamananda Thakura is not included in the list and Syamananda Thakura probably gave initiation to more disciples than any other Gaudiya Acharya. Syamananda Thakura is supposed to have given initiation to about 250,000 people in Orissa, as he journeyed back and forth preaching the message of Mahaprabhu. A devotee once asked my Guru Maharaj about all this…

• Devotee:
  "Between Baladeva Vidyabhusana and Jagannatha Dasa Babaji is a gap of almost a hundred years. How is it that between the two of them no one is listed in our guru parampara?"
  
  
  Srila Sridhara Maharaja:
  "We have to forget material consideration when we consider the spiritual line. Here in this plane, the spiritual current is always being disturbed and interrupted by material obstructions. Whenever truth is interrupted by a material flow and becomes mixed or tampered with, Krsna appears to again reinstate the truth in its former position of purity (
  yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
  ). That attempt is always being made by the Lord and his devotees."

Respectfully,

 

Muralidhar das (SCSMath)

 

 

[theist]

Letter to: Kirtanananda

—

Los Angeles

25 January, 1969 69-01-25

My Dear Kirtanananda,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 18, January 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am encouraged to know that you are very enthusiastic about our projects for developing New Vrindaban. So far as the school goes, we have many qualified teachers, and they are all enthusiastic about going there and beginning their teaching work. The only thing is that there is as of yet no place to accommodate these teachers. So as soon as these facilities are constructed we can at once start at full force in setting up our Krishna Consciousness school program.

You have asked some questions, and I will answer them herewith. The first question is, <jd:"lt-deity worship-arati="" 03="">"When making arati offerings, is it proper to meditate on the different parts of the Lord's Body?'' The answer is that there is no need to meditate in that way. The Lord is actually there with you, and you are seeing all of His parts of the Body, so there is no need to meditate in that way. In regard to the other questions, food should be offered before arati. In the morning, after arati, you can offer some food and then perform kirtana.</jd:"lt-deity>

 

Regarding your question about the disciplic succession coming down from Arjuna, it is just like I have got my disciples, so in the future these many disciples may have many branches of disciplic succession. So in one line of disciples we may not see another name coming from a different line. But this does not mean that person whose name does not appear was not in the disciplic succession. Narada was the Spiritual Master of Vyasadeva, and Arjuna was Vyasadeva's disciple, not as initiated disciple but there was some blood relation between them. So there is connection in this way, and it is not possible to list all such relationships in the short description given in Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Another point is that disciplic succession does not mean one has to be directly a disciple of a particular person. The conclusions which we have tried to explain in our Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the same as those conclusions of Arjuna. Arjuna accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we also accept the same truth under the disciplic succession of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another. This is an axiomatic truth. So there is no difference of opinion of understanding Krishna between ourselves and Arjuna. Another example is that a tree has many branches, and you will find one leaf here and another leaf there. But if you take this leaf and the other leaf and you press them both, you will see that the taste is the same. The taste is the conclusion, and from the taste you can understand that both leaves are from the same tree.

 

Regarding the problem with your father, it is not good to fight with one's father, but if he is not going to give you the money, it may be necessary to take legal steps. Since the money is to be used in Krishna's service, you should try to get it.

I have heard from Syama Dasi that she has infected her finger, and I will be glad to know of the particulars so I may give her advice in this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

NB: I understand from Hayagriva that you have at New Vrindaban an edited manuscript of Easy Journey To Other Planets. Send this copy to me immediately because in London, Mukunda is attempting to have this published and I would like to read the edited version and send it on to him. So far as your idea of editing the lectures which you started to edit in Montreal, the idea is very nice. ACB

P.S. You will be pleased to know that I have got now my immigration visa card (___ Blue Card) ACB