BY: MAHANANDA DASA
Nov 16, 2011 — ALACHUA, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) — There are so many quotes by our beloved Srila Prabhupada. Tonight I received an email from Alachua’s newest bhakta, Michael Dunaway (who moved into the temple a few months ago and has inspired me by his sincere desire to serve the devotees) with the following quotes by my beloved Spiritual Master about initiation:
“…it is the duty of the spiritual master and the disciple to associate—that is the injunction of Sanatana Gosvami—for some time, and both of them should study. The disciple should study ‘whether I can accept this saintly person as my spiritual master.’ And spiritual master also will see ‘whether I can accept this boy, this person, as my disciple.’ That is the way. ”
(Srila Prabhupada Initiation Lecture, July 13, 1971, Los Angeles)
“First of all you find out the person, that one who is better than you. Then you submit. Therefore the rules and regulation are that nobody should accept blindly any guru, and nobody should blindly accept any disciple.
They must behave, one another, at least for one year so that the prospective disciple can also understand, ‘Whether I can accept this person as my guru.’ And the prospective guru also can understand, ‘Whether this person can become my disciple.’ This is the instruction by Sanatana Goswami in his Hari-bhakti-vilasa.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 13.1-2, February 25, 1975, Miami)
“Therefore, in the Hari-bhakti-vilasa by Sanatana Gosvami it is directed that the spiritual master and the disciple must meet together at least for one year so that the disciple may also understand that, ‘Here is a person whom I can accept as my guru,’ and the guru also can see that ‘Here is a person who is fit for becoming my disciple.’ Then the business is nice.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.16.25, January 21, 1974, Hawaii)
“Don’t make a fashion. First of all you test that ‘Whether I can surrender?’. Then try to understand.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 7.6.2, June 18, 1976, Toronto)
“Suppose you are going here. You are coming here to learn something. When you are convinced that ‘Swamiji knows the thing,’ when you are convinced, then you accept. Then you ask for initiation. Otherwise, don’t do it hesitatingly or knowing half.
Therefore, in the system it is enjoined that the spiritual master also observe the disciple at least for one year, and the disciple also studies the spiritual master at least for one year. So when both of them are convinced that ‘He can be my spiritual master’ or ‘He can be my disciple,’ then the relationship is established. We initiate our students.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 4.34-39, January 12, 1969, Los Angeles)
“Therefore, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya guru haya tara sarva-desa, tara ei desa. He’s asking everyone to become a spiritual master. So how everyone can become a spiritual master? A spiritual master must have sufficient knowledge, so many other qualifications. No.
Even without any qualifications, one can become a spiritual master. How? Now the process is, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya: ‘On My order.’ That is the crucial point. One does not become spiritual master by his own whims. That is not spiritual master. He must be ordered by superior authority.
Then he’s spiritual master. Amara ajnaya. Just like in our case. Our superior authority, our spiritual master, he ordered me that ‘You just try to preach this gospel, whatever you have learned from me, in English.’ So we have tried it. That’s all. It is not that I am very much qualified. The only qualification is that I have tried to execute the order of superior authority”.
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.2, August 3, 1973 London)
“So far designation is concerned, the spiritual master authorizes every one of his disciples. But it is up to the disciple to carry out the order, able to carry out or not. It is not that spiritual master is partial, he designates one and rejects other. He may do that. If the other is not qualified, he can do that.
But actually his intention is not like that. He wants that each and every one of his disciple become as powerful as he is or more than that. That is his desire. Just like father wants every son to be as qualified or more qualified than the father. But it is up to the student or the son to raise himself to that standard.
Every student is expected to become Acarya. Acarya means one who knows the scriptural injunctions and follows them practically in life, and teaches them to his disciples. …Keep trained up very rigidly and then you are bona fide Guru, and you can accept disciples on the same principle. But as a matter of etiquette it is the custom that during the lifetime of your Spiritual Master you bring the prospective disciples to him, and in his absence or disappearance you can accept disciples without any limitation.
This is the law of disciplic succession. I want to see my disciples become bona fide Spiritual Master and spread Krishna consciousness very widely, that will make me and Krishna very happy.”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter to Tusta Krsna, December 2, 1975)
“I want that all of my spiritual sons and daughters will inherit this title of Bhaktivedanta, so that the family transcendental diploma will continue through the generations. Those possessing the title of Bhaktivedanta will be allowed to initiate disciples. Maybe by 1975, all of my disciples will be allowed to initiate and increase the numbers of the generations. That is my program.”
(Letter to Hamsaduta, January 3, 1969)
“I give you order. You, every one of you become a spiritual master. ‘Oh, I have no qualification. How can I become spiritual master?’ It requires high knowledge, Sanskrit understanding. No, you don’t require anything. Simply you speak krsna-upadesa. What is krsna-upadesa? Krsna says, sarva-dharmän parityajya mäm ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66]. You simply go door to door and say, ‘Please surrender to Krsna.’ Then you are spiritual master.
I have done this. What I have done? I have gone to your country to say this thing, that ‘Here is Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You surrender; you become perfect.’ That is being done. So it is not very difficult to become spiritual master. Simply you have to become very serious and sincere to the service of Krsna.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 2.1.1, November 4, 1973, Delhi)
“Take My order and you become a spiritual master. How? Simply speak Krsna consciousness, that’s all. Simply speak on Krsna’s message, krsna-katha. There are two kinds of krsna-kathas. One is the Bhagavad-gita, and the other is Srimad-Bhagavatam. So this is the propagation of Krsna consciousness.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, December 11, 1968 Los Angeles)
Srila Prabhupada always keeps it simple
“The instruction is there; you simply repeat and let them hear—you become guru. It is not difficult at all. So that is our preaching.”
Glories to Srila Prabhupada. May he bless sincere seekers like Michael Dunaway for all times.
Sincerely,
Mahananda dasa
I feel you have done dis-service since you gave incomplete quotes, when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave order become guru on my order, in many following KEY points as Srila Prabhupada has stated siksha and not diksha, and again although when his senior were pushing to become gurus, he encouraged them coly to push on preaching and to wait untill the spiritual master is no longer on the planet, at the same time he stated when ordered and where and when did he ever ORDER, rather he knew although his senior were advanced they were not QUALIFIED at all, rather just before his passing away he said trainning must continue, and he set up the RITVIK system, although unprecedented it is order we must follow without any challenge, this system was an emergency as none were self realised souls.
Srila Prabhupda is the Shinning Light.
First let me address quotes 1-5. Here Srila Prabhupada is stressing that the disciple must know who the guru is and the guru must know the disciple. It is the duty of the disciple to know if the guru is worthy of surrender. One should know whether your prospective guru has been involved in murder, child abuse, homosexual activities with disciples or young children, or if he has been covering up for any of these gurus. One should know if their prospective guru was appointed by a commitee that covers-up child abuse, child molesters, murderers and pedophiles. This is the duty of a disciple. If your guru is appointed by such people, then he is not a guru. Conditioned soul cannot appoint another conditioned soul to the post of Maha-Bhagavata. If the point being made is that the guru must know the disciple, well, he was reccomended by the temple president and he must still be reccomended for initiation. This has not changed.
Now the next six quotes talk about everyone becoming guru. Now we can look at this two ways. One if for the sake of argument we say Srila Prabupada is authorizing everyone to be a guru, then the GBC is disobeying this order by restricting the gurus to whom they chose. This would be a blatant violation of these instructions that everyone, all his disciples are automatically authorized to be gurus.
Now lets look at what Srila Prabhupad says about the idea of his own Godbrothers becoming gurus:
from
“PHALGUN KRISHNA PANCAMI By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada [Five prayers glorifying special characteristics of Srila 108 Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura. Presented on the commemoration of his appearance, by His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, at Radha Damodara temple, Vrindavana, India in 1961].
Third Vasistya
23. If everyone just initiates then there will only be a contradictory result. As long as it goes on, there will be only failure.”
So we can see that Srila Prabhupada did not like the idea of all of his god brothers becoming gurus and “everyone” just initiates. These arguments have all been defeated so many times, I cannot understand why Rocana continues to publish them. Again he is simply chewing the chewed. Srila Prabhupada is the Shinning Light by which everything becomes exposed.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Sri Mukunda dasa