Q&A with HG Sankarshan Das Adhikari

[Guest guest]

Dear Srila Gurudeva,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

Thank for your wisdom. I heard that the installation of the deities in Mayapur this month marked the beginning of a period that would see a great growth in Krishna Consciousness. Is this true or is this country and world doomed to moral decay, decedence, and ultimate demise?

I don't know if I am asking you to predict the future, but lately I hear nothing but bad news on the radio and TV. I heard that it is good to avoid these things. Is this true?

Maybe you can ease my mind about these things.

Your servant

Mike

 

My Dear Mike,

Please accept my blessings.

Even the briefest foray into the realm of the daily news makes it painfully obvious that the world order is rapidly decaying, coming ever closer to the point of total collapse. But now Panca Tattva have so mercifully appeared to save the world in its darkest hour.

It's a fact that the installation of the huge, beautiful deities of the Panca Tattva at Sri Mayapur Dham in India does in fact mark a tremendous turning point in history. Now from Sri Mayapur Dham is flowing a huge tidal wave of mercy to drown everyone in the entire universe in an ocean of Krishna prema. No one will be able to escape the flood of mercy and soon the entire world will singing and dancing in the ecstasy of Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu's sankirtana movement.

Hoping this meets you in good health and in a cheerful mood,

Your eternal well-wisher,

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

[bhaktachris 0]

I was asking this devotee some questions about initiation and was shocked to hear him say something that Prabhupada deemed "approved" and S.D.A. called "bogus". So be carefull to only hear what is "approved" by Srila Prabhupada OUR most authorized Founder/Acharya of the Krishna consciousness movement. Accept no imitations!

 

[Guest guest]

"I was asking this devotee some questions about initiation and was shocked to hear him say something that Prabhupada deemed "approved" and S.D.A. called "bogus". So be carefull to only hear what is "approved" by Srila Prabhupada OUR most authorized Founder/Acharya of the Krishna consciousness movement. Accept no imitations! "

 

parampara continues, prabhupada teachs us to choose a pure present spiritual master and ask questions for our benefit

 

imitations are bad but also destroying of guru tattva and guru parampara is very bad

 

founder means that he founds and the movement continues, and a movement is a guru lineage... acharya means that he shows the behaviour and others follow

 

if you want to say that iskcon gurus are bogus it is a subject to discuss, if you say that parampara is ended and we have all to take initiation by prabhupada (without knowing if he accepts) it is ridicule

 

prabhupada is surely to praise, but prabhupada is also to follow.. if you say gaudya madhva prabhupada sampradaya you must let this parampara or sampradaya (=dinasty) continue

 

the fact that you have found bogus in iskcon is not a justification to pervert acharya's techings

[Guest guest]

what i don't understand is why prabhupada didn't elect someone to follow him after he left his body...surely then there would be someone to take the reins...

[Guest guest]

because it is natural that disciples become guru (if they feel themselves qualified and if some one accepts them as masters)

 

in my opinion they had (and have) to ask advices to more expert and older devotees of gaudya math and send disciples to get initiation to them

 

if the father passes away it is natural to take shelter from uncle

[Guest guest]

Only that this so called 'guru' said something was bogus where Prabhupada said it was approved.

 

Bhakta Chris did not say that the whole parampara should stop.

 

I do not see him destroying anything.

 

I see you destroying things since Prabhupada said this movement would go on unless we could not get along. With out letting people say what they want as a whole is not proper way of leading.

 

I agree with bhakta chris that all disciples should repeat what the founder/acharya said, not that they should contradict what he said.

 

Bhakta Chris is giving a warning to those easily cheated not to blindly follow this guru guy. If he does in fact say something is bogus where Prabhupada says o.k. then this guru must be rejected.

 

Hare Krishna, Muktavandya dasa

[Guest guest]

Bhakta Chris did not say that the whole parampara should stop.

--he's saying that prabhupada is the last and only acharya.. so it there's no more or there will be no more acharyas parampara is stopped like if krsna has decided to leave alone the material world without hope to coming back to him

 

Bhakta Chris is giving a warning to those easily cheated not to blindly follow this guru guy

--no one has to follow anyone blindly, but chris is simply a ritvik advocate.. no more gurus, prabhupada forced to give diksa from goloka vrindaban

 

Bhakta Chris is giving a warning to those easily cheated not to blindly follow this guru guy

--chris does not say what this devotee has said.. chris says that he did not like something said by him and he suggests to avoid this devotee.. bas.... not so satisfying...

[Guest guest]

This human form of life is not meant to be a state of suffering in which our entire existence is centered on eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. We are meant to realize our actual nature, our spiritual identity, which is situated far, far beyond this realm of birth and death. Such a liberated state of consciousness is inconceivable however to our materially entangled minds. Therefore the only way we can actually understand it and experience it is if we are fortunate enough to come into contact with someone who is already situated in that liberated consciousness who will mercifully reveal that transcendental dimension to us. That person who can reveal that liberated state of consciousness to us is known as the "bona fide spiritual master."

 

Coming in contact with the bona fide spiritual master is the most important pre-requisite for achieving spiritual perfection. How will you meet him? If you are totally sincere to realize the Absolute Truth the Lord Who is seated within your heart will understand your desire and make a special arrangement for you to be brought in contact with that fully authorized and potent spiritual master who can deliver the highest truth to you.

 

When you meet you what are you to do? This is described by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita:

 

tad viddhi pranipatena

pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam

jnaninas tattva-darsinah

 

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth." Bg. 4.34

 

We must put forward submissive inquiries in order to properly understand what he is teaching us. And out of gratitude for his wonderful kindness we naturally will want to serve him as much as possible. The importance of taking shelter of the bonafide spiritual master is mentioned again and again throughout the Vedic literature. For example, it is stated in the Mundaka Upanisad:

 

tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet

 

"To solve the problems of life, one must approach a spiritual master." MU 1.2.12

 

The most important step you will ever take in your spiritual life is when you dedicate your eternal existence for serving your spiritual master. This conviction of total dedication to him is known as "practical initiation."

 

Of course one should not make such a commitment blindly because the world is presently full of bogus gurus who are not qualified to deliver their disciples from the clutches of birth and death. One should carefully study the Bhagavad-gita as it is to develop the power of discrimination for distinguishing between the bona fide spiritual master and the charlatans. The world's most authoritative edition of the Bhagavad-gita, the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, can be purchased from our online store:

 

http://www.ultimateselfrealization.com/store

 

When after careful deliberation and analysis you realize that you that have actually met that person who can deliver you from the cycle of birth and death, naturally you will want to follow him wholeheartedly. At this point you should inform him of your desire to surrender and enthusiastically take his guidance on how to conduct your life in perfection harmony with the will of God.

 

This mood of total dedication to carrying out whatever instruction your guru gives you is the real meaning of being his disciple. After some time of proving your steadiness he will formally initiate you as his disciple. You will receive a new name and he will relieve you of the karma you have accumulated in this material world over thousands and millions of lifetimes.

 

Although you are officially initiated at the initiation ceremony the practical initiation of totally giving your heart to your spiritual master is actually the most important thing because without that commitment there is no meaning to the initiation ceremony. This practical initiation of realizing, "Here is my guru. I must now please him by fully surrendering unto Him," is the real turning point in your spiritual life.

 

We see the importance of "practical initiation" in the devotional life of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. When he was a young man in Calcutta in 1922 a friend induced him to come and hear a saintly person visiting Calcutta from Mayapur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Srila Prabhupada (then known as Abhay Caran De) upon hearing him speak the absolute importance of spreading Krishna consciousness immediately accepted him as his guru, even though his formal initiation did not take place until 11 years later in 1933 at Allahabad. Srila Prabhupada describes this practical initiation in a lecture he gave in Los Angeles on 7 February 1969:

 

"So all the days I was thinking of this, 'Oh, I saw a very nice saintly person. But I am now off from Calcutta.' So I was thinking like that. Practically he initiated me because I was thinking of him always."

 

The greatest turning point of your life will be when you realize that you have found your guru and you then resolve to fully dedicate your life to him. This was certainly my practical experience. I can never forget that glorious day when I was hearing a recording of the London devotees singing the Gurvastaka (Eight Prayers Glorifying the Spiritual Master). The pure loving sentiments expressed so clearly in their singing awakened within me the desire to also taste that love they were feeling for Srila Prabhupada. As I was experiencing the intense sweetness of their pure love for their spiritual master I thought, "Wouldn't it be beautiful if I gave my life to Srila Prabhupada?" The powerful sensation of loving feeling that awakened at that moment within my heart was unlike anything else I had ever experienced in my life. I knew at that moment that the only way I could continue to taste that sweetest of all ecstasies was to fully surrender myself at the lotus feet of my eternal spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I resolved at that moment that from then on for all of eternity I would belong to him and to nobody else.

 

That was sometime in the spring of 1971. My formal initiation did not come until August 12th of that same year when Srila Prabhupada wrote me a letter from London formally accepting me as his disciple. I had to prove by practical absorption in chanting at least 16 rounds daily of japa mala and strictly following the regulative principles of devotional service that I was worthy of being accepted by Srila Prabhupada as his disciple.

 

If one has that experience of realizing, "Here is my eternal spiritual master," one should let the spiritual master know of your feelings so that he guide you appropriately how to take the necessary steps to formalize the guru/disciple relationship culminating in your being accepted as his formally initiated disciple.

There is only one way to be solidly fixed in Krishna consciousness. That method is to take complete shelter of the bona fide spiritual master. This is confirmed in many, many places throughout the Vedic wisdom, such as the following verse from the Srimad-Bhagavatam:

 

Tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam

 

"If one is actually serious in inquiring about the solution to material existence one must approach a bona fide guru." SB 11.3.21

 

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

 

Bhaktivedanta Ashram, Austin, Texas, USA

March 31, 2004