I finally have begun to really apreciate the importance and need for Guru and a genuine disciplic succession after so many years grapling with trying to understand Krishna concousnness. I am 55 years old now. I realized from practical experience Only taking shelter of a genuine Guru and disciplic line can get us through all the obsticals. For me the only Guru I loved with all my heart and soul has been Prabhupada from the very beginning. He attracted me to Krishna concousness no one else had such power. He was not on the planet in 1980 so I took a zonal acharya as Guru and lost all my feeling for KC. Years later reading a verse in SP books awakened my love for him again and my service to his mission. To make a long story short in essence what I discovered is that it is love for a bonafide Guru living or departed that can help us emensly on the path. If we dont naturally love Srila Prabhupda we need to find some Transcendental Guru at some point in this life or the next to complete our journey back home. We need to serve Guru from the heart out of love and affection eventually and not because some regulation says to do it. I hope this helps<WBR>

All answers can be found in the Bhagavad-gita.

"All of them - as they surrender unto Me, I reward accordingly." (BG 4:11).
So, obviously, the greater your surrender, the greater your reward.

In the Bhagavad-gita, chapter 12, verses 8 through 11, Krishna says, in a nutshell, "if you can't do this, then at least do this other thing... and if you can't do that, at least try to do..."

So, IMHO, you can't be any more inclusive than the words of Krishna. I don't know ISKCON's position. Maybe they are more hard-line than Krishna.