Spiritual Master FAQ



ACCEPTING A BONA FIDE GURU

ACCEPTING BABAJI AS YOUR GURU

REPONSIBILITIES OF GURU AND DISCIPLE

ISSUES WITH YOUR GURU








ACCEPTING A BONA FIDE GURU


Do I need a guru?

The importance of guru is given everywhere in Vedic literature:


Even if we are very intelligent and motivated, we cannot attain success in self-realization without satisfying the bona fide guru. This guru-paramparā is Kṛṣṇa's system, and if we want success in self-realization, we have to follow it to get His approval.

If you read Bhagavad-gita or any Vedic scripture without proper guidance, you are bound to misunderstand it. Most editions of Bhagavad-gita are published by authors who have no real understanding of it. They are not initiated into the disciplic succession from Krsna, so how can they understand it properly? Krsna says [Bg. 4.2],


This statement applies as well today as it did over 5,000 years ago when Krsna first spoke it. Even Krsna accepted Sandipani Muni as His guru, although He is the Supreme and is actually everyone's guru. He did this to set a proper example to the world.

So if one is not connected with the parampara (disciplic succession) from Krsna or His bona fide representative Maharsi Srila Vyasadeva, who recorded the complete Vedic literature in Sanskrit over 5,000 years ago, then it is not possible to understand Bhagavad-gita or any Vedic scripture properly. An esoteric scripture like Bhagavad-gita is not just an arrangement of words; it is a spiritual mystery and a state of transcendental consciousness, which can only be passed down from Master Teacher to students in a bona fide esoteric school.




Why does one serve a guru?

Our experience is that in spiritual life, as in most things, one gets what one pays for. Without a transaction or exchange of service, there is no flow of energy or transfer of value. The attitude and sincerity of the student is more important than the quality of the teacher, because the real guru is God, who sees all things and knows everyone's heart. The real spiritual teacher is simply God's servant, who acts as a transparent via medium between the qualified Student and the Lord, until the Student becomes sufficiently qualifed to contact the Lord directly.

The spiritual Master Teacher appears to facilitate the process of surrender and service to the Lord. Acting as the Lord's representative or ambassador, the Master Teacher accepts the Student's surrender on behalf of the Lord, and engages the Student in transcendental service according to the instructions of the Lord revealed by Him personally in the Esoteric Teaching.

Is surrender to a bonafide guru necessary when we have so many resources to learn about spiritual knowledge in this day and age? I feel I am in a pretty good place at the moment.

Here is a nice quote in this regard:


The fundamental issue in all these discussions is surrender to the guru and the Lord. Just as in Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, He showed great mercy to the devotees who surrendered to Him with love, but He was unsparing of the demons who refused to surrender. By the time He appeared on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, His message was clear: "Surrender or die." Even so, all who left their bodies at Kurukṣetra in His presence attained whatever form of liberation they desired. The point is that until that surrender occurs, there is no question of tangible spiritual progress.

Our conception of the eternal principle of guru reveals our level of advancement in spiritual life. One who accepts guru as a social fashion is the most neophyte. One who accepts guru to solve his personal problems is higher. One who accepts guru because such acceptance is mandated in the Vedic or other religious scriptures is better. One who accepts a guru to satisfy his curiosity about spiritual mysteries is still better. One who accepts a guru to reveal the path to transcendental knowledge and realization is very good. One who accepts guru because he knows that the blessing of a bona fide guru is the key to pure love of Godhead is the best.

Of course, one who refuses to accept guru under any circumstances is not even a human being in the full sense of the word. And one who rejects or tries to deceive a bona fide guru is a great offender.

Internet communication leaves much to be desired, which is why we try to supplement our written discussions with video and audio. The Internet allows us to contact many thousands of people to find the few who are really sincere. It is much more efficient than meeting people personally and canvassing them directly. Still, it is difficult to reach the required understanding remotely. At least we can respond to inquiries in nearly real time, which is a great advance. And we can have web video conferences with our students, which is very convenient.

Of course I would like to bring at least some of my students to the highest level of love of Godhead. But this is a long process depending on so many factors. Kṛṣṇa has to give His permission for someone to approach Him closely. The long journey begins with a single step; but we must also be cautious not to stop along the way. The journey to Kṛṣṇa passes through many beautiful places, and even though they are so nice, we must persevere to make sure that we keep going until we reach the goal.

Do I need a living guru? I went to the Bangalore ISKCON temple and they told me I can be initiated directly by Srila Prabhupada. Is this true?


That is nice you went to Bangalore ISKCON. I think you will find it is a very nicely run temple. You should know, however, that this particular temple is operated by a splinter group of ISKCON which does not accept our philosophy. They have made some changes in the philosophy of guru, namely that Srila Prabhupada is the only guru forever. Thus they have become like the Christians, that Jesus is the only guru forever and there is never a need for anyone else.

That philosophy is not correct. Our actual philosophy is that while Srila Prabhupada is the founder-acarya and the most prominent guru in recent times, there is still a need for everyone to have an individual guru for the purpose of diksa, or initiation. Srila Prabhupada has set the standards for the whole lineage, and his books and practices are used as standards by all the spiritual Master Teachers in his line. Therefore Srila Prabhupada is certainly the preeminent siksa-guru or instructing guru of our lineage for all time.

But still everyone must have some personal relationship with a contemporary Master Teacher for several reasons. One, you must be able to ask relevant questions and receive appropriate answers from someone who understands the present situation. The Esoteric Teaching is not a static process or set of rules which is learned by rote; it is a dynamic set of principles that require proper interpretation for specific circumstances. So a self-realized Master Teacher must be there to direct the students in the proper understanding and application.
 
Second, the Master Teacher must have a personal relationship with the Student to certify him or her for Initiation. Without knowing the Student's qualifications, someone may be admitted for Initiation who does not have the proper qualification, and this would be a disaster for both the Student and the Teacher.

Finally, the ancient system of the Esoteric Teaching is that it is passed down by means of the parampara, or disciplic succession. This is given in Bhagavad-gita 4.2:

So the Bangalore ISKCON temple are saying that one can be initiated directly by Srila Prabhupada, without a relationship with a contemporary Master Teacher. This is incorrect for the reasons given above.

Actually they are taking this position because of some abuses that were perpetrated by a group of ambitious leaders that became gurus prematurely, immediately after Srila Prabhupada's death, without fully understanding guru-tattva. Their position is in response to that situation; it is not really supported by our scriptures or philosophy. In other words, their motivation for being separatists is primarily political. What they are doing has never been done before in the tradition of the Esoteric Teaching, and therefore it is not really our philosophy or practice. It is better to remain friendly, but a little separate from them, because of this.

What are the different types of guru? What is the difference?

In the disciplic lineage of the Esoteric Teaching, there is both initiating (diksa) guru and instructing (siksa) guru. Typically if the initiating guru is a nitya-siddha (eternally perfect soul) descended from the spiritual world, he is also the disciple's siksa-guru. The best example of this is Srila Prabhupada, who is both diksa- and siksa-guru for his disciples. 

Generally, the initiating guru is a nitya-siddha, or one who is a perfected soul who has descended from the spiritual world to give association to fallen souls of the material world. The instructing guru is a Master Teacher who has attained an advanced stage of self-realization in this life. This is called sadhana-siddha. There is really quite a difference between the two. The Master Teacher may bring students to the Gate of Realization, but only the diksa-guru can let them in.

But in the case where the formal initiation is given by (at best) a sadhana-siddha, or a guru who attains realization by practice and perfomance of bhakti-yoga in this lifetime, then acceptance of a nitya-siddha siksa-guru is absolutely necessary to assimilate the correct siddhanta (ontological conclusion).

Consider for example, Srila Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis. They are often described as 'direct disciples of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.' But as far as we know, Lord Caitanya never gave formal initiation (diksa) to anyone. Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis were already initiated Vaisnavas before they met Lord Caitanya, probably by a kula-guru or family priest. In fact, Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis' diksa-guru has been lost to history, and only their siksa connection to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remains extant.
 
 I could go deeper and quote some esoteric verses from Caitanya-caritamrta, but this topic is quite advanced. If you want, we can continue this discussion on our community. The point I want to make here is that my work here is principally aimed at giving people access to siksa, or spiritual instruction according to the sastra, Vedic scriptures. I am just trying to educate and motivate the students so they can recognize and approach Srila Prabhupada as the real nitya-siddha siksa-guru.




Can a case be made for a guru to not necessarily be completely self-realized, but advanced enough to take his student up to a certain point, after which the student should be able to (and must) walk the final mile alone?

The scripture does not recommend that we accept someone who is not completely self-realized as guru. Nor does Srila Prabhupada:


You cannot find any scriptural quote advising a devotee to accept a neophyte or intermediate devotee as a spiritual master. There is an extensive discussion of this subject in Srila Bhaktivinod Thakura's Jaiva-Dharma, and also in Harinama-cintamani. You can look up many quotes there.




How does one know which Master Teacher to take instruction from? Does it matter? Is there some criterion for choosing?

Spiritual life is personal. When we sincerely desire to advance in spiritual life, the Lord knows this, personally arranges that we will find a suitable Teacher, and personally makes the introduction. This introduction may take place directly, or though a medium such as a book or website. It is not a matter of physical location, but of the harmony and resonance between the hearts of the Teacher and Student.
 
"When the Student is ready, the Teacher appears." If we try to choose a Teacher ourselves, we will choose wrongly, because we are in illusion. We should allow the Lord to arrange these things. Actually God is very kind and merciful, soft-hearted by nature. As soon as we sincerely desire to serve Him, He makes all arrangements for our welfare and progress. Lord Krsna states in the Esoteric Teaching:


So, somehow or other, let us all bow down before Krsna and surrender to Him in heartfelt devotion and love. This very simple method is actually the core of the Esoteric Teaching. All one has to do is bow down before Krsna with faith and say, “My dear Lord Krsna, I was forgetful of You for so long, for so many lives. Now I have come to consciousness of You. Please accept me.” That is all. If one simply learns this technique and sincerely surrenders himself to the Lord, his path is immediately opened. This is the aim of a real knower of the Esoteric Teaching.
 
There is a very very beautiful passage in the Ramayana where Lord Rama declares, "As soon as someone surrenders unto Me, I take charge of him, protect him, and guide him so that he ultimately comes to Me in the spiritual world. He may forget Me, but I never forget him." This is the most important thing in the world, because it is the cure for all our material miseries. As Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita [6.22],


And it is true. For, as Krsna goes on to declare,


Freedom from all miseries is found in complete surrender to the lotus feet of the Lord. And what is the source of misery? Contact of the spirit soul with material energy, i.e., the body. So when we are surrendered to the Lord, we are no longer in contact with material energy, but we are situated in the spiritual energy of devotional service by the Lord's grace.
 
The spiritual Master Teacher appears to facilitate this process of surrender and service to the Lord. Acting as the Lord's representative or ambassador, the Master Teacher accepts the Student's surrender on behalf of the Lord, and engages the Student in transcendental service according to the instructions of the Lord revealed by Him personally in the Esoteric Teaching.
 
This is the ancient and hallowed system of the Esoteric Teaching, which has been coming down from time immemorial through the process of disciplic succession (parampara):


So that is my only qualification, that I have in turn surrendered to the Lord and taken shelter of my spiritual Master Teacher. I have dedicated my whole life to serving his instructions, according to my unique individual nature. And by his grace, I have seen the truth, and been relieved of the effects of all material misery.
 
Misery can only affect the body. The spirit soul is eternal, ecstatic, always energetic and happy by nature. We can only be overwhelmed by misery when we forget this fact. Therefore we need the constant association of the Holy Name of the Lord, the spiritual Master Teacher, and our fellow Students to remind us of the reality, and keep our hearts firmly fixed in full surrender at the feet of the Lord.





What should I ask a prospective guru?

Questions for a prospective guru:


You get the idea. Any delay or evasion is grounds for serious doubt. All the answers should be verifiable. Any bad vibes around verifying the answers is also grounds for serious doubt. A real guru is unattached, open and very liberal. Please also hear this podcast for more discussion on this topic.

I read this verse in Brhad Bhagavatamrta. I think it sums up, very simply,  the main way to recognize a pure devotee:

67. “Aho! Because you do not consider anything superior to the happiness of rendering service unto the Lord, you are certainly a pure devotee.

What is your opinion on this? Is this quality enough to distinguish uttama and madhyama devotees?

Well, this is certainly the criterion of a pure devotee. But how do we discern it? It is very difficult to understand a person's inner mood from their external activities. It is possible from their words, but this presupposes a high degree of self- realization on the part of the hearer.

A mahyama-adhikari is still striving for the perfection of liberation, therefore he still has some selfish personal desire, although this is very elevated. An uttama-adhikari or pure devotee has no such personal desire, because he has already achieved the result of liberation by the attractive power of his devotional service. Therefore a pure devotee has nothing to gain by any material activities or by karma, jnana or yoga. This detachment from anything material, combined with strong attachment to the happiness of devotional service, is the best way to recognize a liberated soul.




My question is about the purport of Bhagavad Gita, 7.14.

Siva is considered among the greatest devotees of Krishna. Isn't Siva also considered the Original spiritual master (I have heard and read this in places but do not really understand what that means)? Brahma is actually the head of the Gaudiya Sampradaya - the spiritual master at the top of this branch. Why, then, are they not qualified to release a conditioned soul from the clutches of maya?

It's my understanding that any sort of benediction is only due to the causeless mercy of Krishna, which he sometimes gives through His beloved devotees. Why not through Brahma or Siva?
 
First of all, there is a qualitative difference between the expansion of Lord Narayana sada-Siva who is the husband of Maya (the material energy) and Rudra, the expansion of Lord Siva in our universe. Sada-Siva is eternal, while Rudra is temporary. Being in intimate contact with Maya and under the influence of time, Rudra cannot help us get free from material nature. And sada-Siva is beyond the material universe, therefore we do not have access to him. Here is an article with a diagram about the positions of Sada-shiva, Lord Brahma, etc.

Lord Brahma is indeed the original spiritual master in the Brahma-sampradaya of which we are members, as Lord Siva is the original spiritual master in the Rudra-sampradaya of Vaisnavas. They are both great devotees of Krsna, but it is difficult for us to approach them. Therefore we must approach their contemporary local representative, the spiritual master, for instructions on how to satisfy Lord Visnu.

Narayanam paro'vyaktat: Lord Narayana, Visnu or Krsna are transcendental to this material nature. We must satisfy the Visnu-tattva with our devotional service. The great devotees and demigods may give transcendental knowledge and show good examples, and the spiritual master may give us personal guidance in self-realization; but ultimately we have to satisfy our chosen Visnu-tattva deity to gain release from material existence.

When Krsna, Narayana or Visnu accept our devotional service, then we are guaranteed spiritual existence in the next life. We will know when that happens because as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam and other authentic Vedic scriptures, the Lord will appear to us and give His blessings. At that time there will be no doubt in our minds that we have achieved our goal, because all ecstatic symptoms will manifest in our body, and the philosophy and practice of visnu-bhakti will be crystal-clear in our mind.












ACCEPTING BABAJI AS YOUR GURU


I am getting so many realizations from following your teachings and I have a strong warm feeling in my heart. What does this mean?

Thank you for your kind and sincere appreciation. I am just handing down the same Teaching that I received from my own guru. When I see students getting spiritual cognitions, then this is a cause of spiritual ecstasy. You must have a taste for the Absolute Truth, that you can recognize the Esoteric Teaching. The Gita is opaque; it must be read with proper guidance, for it is a great mystery. When you approach a qualified Teacher, then the whole Vedic literature opens up and is as clear as day.

The question of 'how to choose a guru' is answered above. But this is also a very good description. When your heart is drawn spontaneously and irreversably to a particular Teacher, then you have found your guru. It is not a matter of being born in a particular family or religious group, it is a matter of the natural transcendental attraction of God. God is also within the heart, and He gives clear indication when we are on the right track.



You are so kind giving all of this material for free. Am I able to help your mission?

My guru Śrīla Prabhupāda never charged anyone, in fact he supported me and thousands of other disciples. I can't do that but at least I can make the materials available for free. If you appreciate our work then like other students, offer some service or a donation. That is not required, but it will enhance your spiritual advancement.

Actually I am very selfish; I just want Śrīla Prabhupāda to be pleased, and I want Kṛṣṇa's mercy big-time. And also I want to live in a world where I am surrounded by strong, independent and highly self-realized people. If I had adequate resources I would establish schools and communities of the Esoteric Teaching all over the world.



Can I become your disciple?



Our test is the Esoteric Teaching site itself. At first one looks over the Esoteric Teaching website, and realizes that this is the authentic teaching of the Vedas. Usually then one tries to approach the subject matter independently, but quickly becomes overwhelmed by its tremendous scope and depth. We can give the student some pointers but ultimately, one must take shelter of the guidance of the spiritual master and the devotional community.

To make this easier, we have introduced the concept of the Bridge Community and the University of Higher Knowledge. One who sincerely wants to approach the Esoteric Teaching through our school should register for the courses and accept the personal guidance of our teachings and methods, gradually become qualified and earn the various degrees and varṇāśrama designations, serve and receive the benefits of spiritual training over a considerable length of time.

We cannot guide and encourage many students, especially over the Internet, without some kind of structure. Therefore we have created the University of Higher Knowledge and courses. When you are on a course you get a weekly personal live web conference with one of our advanced disciples or myself. This personal spiritual counseling is far more valuable than the nominal donation we ask for the course. So if you really want to advance by means of our association, then please register or the Bhakta Degree Program and go through the process like all our sincere students.




I am scared of offending you if I come to associate personally. How should I behave?

Well, to understand how to behave around devotees, you need to associate with devotees. Otherwise you are simply speculating about it and of course you're going to scare yourself. All the rules and regulations of the scripture are natural behaviors for someone who is in authentic spiritual consciousness. The rules are there to guide us in the beginning, when we are still contaminated by material consciousness. They help us act as if we were already pure. Sometimes this can help us understand real purity.

Of course, some people have made a career of acting as if they are pure, instead of actually becoming pure. Actual spiritual purity is attained when we develop pure love of Godhead, and then there is no more consideration about rules, because one automatically acts on the spiritual platform.



We are not very strict about following the rules and regulations in our daily program, other than the basics of abstaining from meat eating, illicit sex, intoxication and gambling, chanting the Holy Name regularly, studying the scriptures and associating with a self-realized soul. We find that if a sincere person follows this simple program, he gradually develops all the symptoms of a first-class devotee. It does not require a tremendous effort of complex rule-based worship. It is more like ordinary life, plus the basics of Krsna consciousness.

Again, the key is the daily association with a self-realized soul. Srila Prabhupada's early disciples made so much advancement quickly, because they had his association on a daily basis. Later on when there were so many devotees that his association was rare, the same devotees went astray and many of them fell down. I know many of these devotees personally, and most of them still do not realize what happened. In many cases they made offenses against their guru, the Holy Name and the Lord.

Our strategy is to keep our group small, so that my students always have my direct personal association, but keep the standard of association very high. Of course, to associate with us you have to get here to India. First go through the University courses and in time you will have that opportunity if you are sincere.

Coming to India requires a personal exchange and relationship. We are not a tourist resort; we want to know that you are sincere and making good advancement before we would want to be alone in the jungle with someone. You must be stable, otherwise you will freak out. We will be practicing on a very high platform, and without making some serious advancement now, it will be very difficult to meet the standard of practice in the retreat.

So I will want to get to know you and have an ongoing dialog with you before you can come here. Otherwise if you are too covered over with material consciousness, you would just be a disturbance to all the advanced devotees there.




How did you become such a great independent preacher?

Please, I am not great or independent; I am simply a humble servant of my spiritual Master Teacher Srila Prabhupada. I am also indebted to Srila Prabhupada and to all of you, my students, for giving me a chance to preach. Srila Prabhupada writes:


He also wrote to me personally:


I have taken these words to heart and made them my purpose in life, and I am very happy with the result. So my experience is that when one takes the words of the spiritual Master Teacher very seriously and applies them in one's life, then the result is very nice. Srila Prabhupada's room at Radha-Damodara Temple in Sevākuñja, Vṛndāvana near the samadhi tomb of Rupa Gosvami is like the center of the universe. He came from that exalted place to the polluted West just to glorify Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and to save the conditioned souls. This is our great good fortune, therefore we must not waste his most magnanimous gift by falsely adopting the renounced order, and frittering away his valuable bequest in mundane politics at the cost of others.

Therefore I have dedicated my life to writing about the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, so kindly revealed by Srila Prabhupada, a nitya-siddha pure devotee of the Lord, sent from the spiritual world just to reclaim us and take us back to our real life. The past few years I have spent a great deal of time sat at my desk and writing, building the website into something of real transcendental value. Now some sincere disciples are coming, so it is time to move on to the next phase, performing austerities to help them attain self-realization as soon as possible.




Will you take on hundreds of students like other gurus?

In Śrīla Prabhupāda's early book Easy Journey to Other Planets, there is a very interesting list of practices by which a devotee can prepare himself to go to the spiritual world. #13 reads:

"He must not take on unlimited disciples. This means that a candidate who has successfully followed the first twelve items can also become a spiritual master himself, just as a student becomes a monitor in class with a limited number of disciples." [Easy Journey to Other Planets, 1]

This concept of 'monitor guru' is not broadly discussed in Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. Here is one mention:

Prabhupāda: In India the system is in the school that the best student is appointed... What is called in English? The chief student is called "minor," or... "M," beginning.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Monitor.
Prabhupāda: Monitor, yes. Monitor. So He was monitor.
[Room Conversation, Los Angeles 8/4/69]

The important point here is that in traditional Vedic education, there is a role of Monitor, where in the absence of the guru, the chief student monitors the class. I can recall other discussions of the Monitor Guru concept around the time of the early 1970s, but they do not appear in the Vedabase. It is likely that these discussions were suppressed by ISKCON managers because they did not like the idea of the Monitor Guru being merely an assistant to the actual guru. They were so ambitious to become full gurus, whether or not they were qualified. They wanted to be independent of Śrīla Prabhupāda's authority and oversight, and their many actions in defiance of Śrīla Prabhupāda's management instructions—not having elected GBCs with limited terms, not creating self-sufficient farm communities, not having Bhakti-śāstrī examinations for initiates, etc.—confirm this observation.

However, I consider myself and my service precisely in the role of Monitor Guru. I am not anxious to take many disciples; I will take only as many as I can instruct and care for nicely. Any more, and I would not be able to guide their spiritual advancement properly. This greedy idea of "Let me take as many disciples as Śrīla Prabhupāda" has to be driven out. This is the mode of passion, and it leads to all the abuses we have seen in ISKCON. I am simply a monitor, keeping the paramparā going until Kṛṣṇa sends a properly qualified ācārya to carry on the line.










REPONSIBILITIES OF GURU AND DISCIPLE


I have so many doubts and problems. Can you solve them?


Sometimes I get requests to fix a student's problem or resolve their doubts. But that is not my job; it is your job to do the research to resolve your doubts. The duty of the spiritual master is to present the Absolute Truth in the form of the Esoteric Teaching. The duty of the disciple is to apply the process and purify himself until he is fit to receive the blessing of the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. You cannot do my duty, and I cannot do yours.

I once quoted this lecture:


I can give the knowledge, but you have to apply it. You, and only you, are responsible for your condition. The body and mind you have got now is the result of your previous activities:


In 1970 when I was getting ready to join the ISKCON temple, I had some doubts about the leaders. I got copies of all of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, read through them carefully, chanted and contemplated and did the research to resolve my doubts. Once my mind was settled and my determination fixed (vyavasāyātmikā-buddhiḥ [Bhagavad-gītā 2.41]) then I joined the temple with the intention to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda, and Śrīla Prabhupāda alone. My Godbrothers tried in various ways to get me to compromise my principles and join their illicit schemes for money and power, but no one could deviate me from my duty. Thus in the long run I was successful, and they fell down.

Sometimes it happens that a student will contact me asking me to resolve their doubts or fix their problems. Then when I refuse, they get upset. But that is an unrealistic expectation. It is not going to work; it can never work that way, for the reason that Śrīla Prabhupāda explains above. I am not Superman; I am not Kṛṣṇa. I do not have mystical or magical super-powers. I am just a poor devotee of Kṛṣṇa. I am just repeating the instructions of Kṛṣṇa as I received them from Śrīla Prabhupāda. I applied them successfully to myself, but only you can apply them to yourself.

So if you have a body or mind that is giving problems, that is making obstacles on your spiritual path, no one can fix it for you. I can give you the theory but you have to make the application; I can give the tools, but you have to do the work. To think otherwise is just an excuse to prolong the problem or exacerbate the doubts. You, and nobody else, are completely and finally responsible for your condition. If you are having difficulty making advancement in spiritual life, you and you alone are responsible for solving the problem. I know it sounds tough, but it is the Absolute Truth.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's books have everything in them, from the very beginning up to the highest conclusions of the Esoteric Teaching. I have already written so many books and made so many hours of videos and podcasts. We have tried our best to adapt the Esoteric Teaching to the current condition of human society. Somewhere in all this material is the solution to your problem. It is your responsibility to find it and apply it to yourself, and make yourself fit to approach Kṛṣṇa. No one else can do it for you. So don't be lazy; stop complaining and get busy!



How can I pick your brain?

To 'pick my brain' you will have to recognize what you do not understand, and ask relevant questions. Then I will reply, and this usually leads to further questions, and so on. This dialog between the teacher and the student is very important. If you are listening to the podcasts, there must be many things that are unclear. You can and should ask questions about them, that is how Uddhava became so advanced. He simply asked questions about anything that was not clear in his own mind, and I responded. For example:


So this is an example of our dialog, picked more or less at random from our early exchanges of emails. You see how natural and free it is? This is how one should inquire from the spiritual master.

Many questions these days are pretty external, not very deeply personal. I have been trying to raise the quality of the discussion, but everything I try just seems to inhibit the communication instead. The students don't seem to realize that I have been through a lot and can relate to just about any state of human consciousness or emotions. Not that you have to pretend to be a perfect devotee or something.



As a Spiritual Master, can you help me become free from karmic reactions?

Yamarāja once asked Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, "What is the most wonderful thing within this world?" Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira replied (Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 313.116):

To me, one of the most wonderful and amazing things in the world is that every day we get about 700 views of the videos on our YouTube channel; every day people download about 40 of our videos and Darshan recordings from our blog; every day there are more than 1000 hits on our website; and yet, so few people are becoming students of the Esoteric Teaching and following the eternal spiritual practices that will free them from all suffering [NOTE: This was written in December 2008. Stats have increased since then].

This reminds me of an autistic child, who when you talk to him about one thing, responds by talking about something completely different. To me, it is not an appropriate response. Quite frankly, it seems foolish and a bit nutty.

Another really strange thing is that even after all this time, none of our students seem to be preaching. We have made it so easy by publishing so many video and audio recordings. You don't even have to preach yourself; just collect some people, show them a Sunday Satsang video and discuss! Yet somehow it doesn't happen. What's going on with that? Don't you want to help others get the same benefits that you are enjoying?


Every day you are working and performing so many activities. Each action you perform that is not an act of sacrifice for Viṣṇu binds you to this material world by creating karmic reactions. This is not my idea; it is stated on every page of the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas. If you want to be free from karma and rebirth, you have to find a way to link everything you do with the spiritual purpose of existence by offering it to Kṛṣṇa.

The spiritual master guides his students to live a karma-free life by constant engagement devotional service to the Lord. Attaining the platform of pure devotional service requires expert training and instruction; that's why we recommend that everyone dedicate several years of their lives to a monastic life of service, and get the training that will free you from material existence. But even the greatest spiritual master can't help you unless you surrender.




What are our general duties as disciples?

Being a Student of the Esoteric Teaching is not passive, like entertainment; it is an active engagement in spiritual service. I am constantly engaged in the service of teaching and helping others understand the Esoteric Teaching. Similarly, you will advance in spiritual realization in the exact proportion to the help you give others.
 
This is not a tricky way to enlist you in prosetylization; it is a spiritual fact. Spiritual things are different from material things. The more you give the Esoteric Teaching away, the more of it you will have. If you are lazy in this regard, you will advance very slowly, if at all, and may eventually give up your spiritual practices and fall away from the path.
 
As a Student of the Esoteric Teaching, you have three kinds of duties (listed in order of importance) that are all required parts of your spiritual practices (sadhana):

    * Service to God
    * Service to the Teacher
    * Service to others

Service to God
 
Every day you should chant the Holy Names of God. The best way to chant is with a string of 108 beads call
ed a japa-mala. One bead is one complete mantra; one time around the full mala is one round. Do at least one round, and gradually increase to as many rounds as you feel comfortable with. Then maintain this number as your regular daily practice.
 
Service to the Teacher
 
Every day you should watch one video or read one section of your assigned Teaching. Then you should think about it and clear up your misunderstandings. Clearing up your misunderstandings is very, very important. The lack of this one practice led to the failure of a worldwide organization dedicated to spreading the Esoteric Teaching. Clearing up misunderstandings is so important that we will discuss it in detail in a separate message. You must also report your progress and any difficulties regularly to your Teacher.
 
Service to Others
 
Each one of you in the group at present should start a local group for studying the Esoteric Teaching. Starting a group is easy: just find one other person who has a sincere interest in spiritual life, make friends with that person and get them to join us online. Then get together once a week for an hour or two. We will supply detailed materials for group meetings. A local group gives you regular association and helps maintain your enthusiasm. Practicing spiritual life without a group for association is very difficult. Our online group is not enough; you need real-time relationships with other people into the Teaching. Plus by sharing the Teaching, you will make much faster advancement.




I have been following your teachings through youtube for a while but feel stagnated. Why?

It is difficult to stay motivated as a spiritual student over a longer span of time.

According to Krsna, the duty of a spiritual student is to submit relevant inquiries to the spiritual Master Teacher:


How can I know what knowledge to impart unless you inquire? Am I supposed to be a mind reader? You see, I have no trouble coming up with any number of questions. What about you? Have you become numb to your own doubts and questions?

The other point stressed by Krsna is to render service to the Master Teacher. Without a meaningful exchange, the students will not value the knowledge they receive. If you do not offer service, eventually you will feel embarrassed because the spiritual Master Teacher is giving so much, but you are not giving anything in return. We cannot and do not demand that you give this service, but it is up to you to offer it spontaneously out of appreciation and gratitude for the irreplaceable service that the Master Teacher has rendered unto you: giving you the light of transcendental knowledge.


Why do we open every Sunday Satsang with this prayer? We are eternally grateful to the spiritual Master Teacher for sacrificing his security and comfort, and freely giving us the incomparable gift of transcendental knowledge. For this we owe him an eternal debt of gratitude.

Srila Prabhupada did not have to leave his comfortable quarters at Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, the most sacred place on this planet, travel at great personal risk and inconvenience to the benighted West, deliver the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas, and help us materialistic fools attain Krsna consciousness. Yet he did so out of an unquenchable sense of compassion for the conditioned souls rotting in the deadly embrace of illusion.

Similarly we want to see others get the same profound benefit that we have obtained through the mercy of our spiritual Master Teacher. When someone gets a big inheritance or attains a great fortune by business dealings, their duty is to create some charitable trust to help others who are less fortunate. Our fortune is not in terms of money or other material assets, but we have inherited a vast fortune of transcendental knowledge from our Guru Maharaja Srila Prabhupada. So we want to give that knowledge to others, but what knowledge do we give? Therefore you have to inquire and render service, or Krsna will not be pleased and your devotion to the spiritual master and the Esoteric Teaching will dry up.

Many of the advanced students are naturally offering service out of their feeling of gratitude for this great Teaching. Some students give financial support according to their means, and because of this they are getting lots of spiritual advancement. Others offer services such as transcribing Darshans and Satsangs. Finally, my personal disciples have given everything to help me personally with their full-time service. Because of this direct personal service to their guru, Krsna will give them His complete mercy. There is no doubt about it. They are already becoming very advanced in spiritual understanding because of their full surrender.

This is all because Krsna reciprocates with us according to the degree of our surrender to Him.


In other words, what you get from this Esoteric Teaching is proportional to what you give. If you remain simply a passive spectator, then the benefit you receive will be minimal. But if you actively involve yourself in the exchange of inquiries and service, you will reap a great windfall of positive blessings. On the other hand, if you become an offender, then you can destroy yourself.

Srila Prabhupada once said, "This Krsna consciousness is like a sharp razor—you can get a nice clean shave, or you can cut your throat." If we perform the process of sadhana-bhakti nicely, then gradually we become purified of all material contamination. But if we offend the spiritual Master Teacher, the Vedic literature or Krsna, then we can not only lose all the benefits of our spiritual culture, we can be cursed and fall down into a hellish condition of life.

Throughout the history of the community we have had to deal severely with some offensive personalities on this forum. We do not feel offended if people criticize us personally; after all we are full of so many faults. But when envious people minimize, criticize or ignore our spiritual Master Teacher Srila Prabhupada, or Krsna's instructions in the scriptures, then we become extremely offended. We do not want to associate with such disrespectful people.


So we love and serve the Supreme Lord in His many aspects, are friendly to the sincere devotees and try to help them, give freely of our time and energy to uplift the fallen souls suffering in material consciousness, but we simply ignore and neglect the envious sinful people. We are especially neglectful of those who pretend to be devotees, but actually do not follow the principles and philosophy of the Esoteric Teaching. Their association is very dangerous, because they appear to be pious but maintain an envious attitude toward the advanced devotees who have sacrificed everything to help suffering humanity.

A poisonous snake may have some nice colorful designs on its body, but that does not make it less dangerous. So people who pose as devotees, but try to use political arrangements to propagate devotional service and the Esoteric Teaching, changing it from a transcendental devotional esoteric school to just another mundane religion in the process, are most dangerous. They are responsible for perverting the means of escape from the material trap into yet another means of entrapment.

We must develop the philosophical discrimination to know what is spiritual and what is material, and apply that understanding to the process of spiritual life, so we can see which paths lead to liberation and which lead to simply increasing our material bondage. In other words, we must learn to see which spiritual paths and teachers are genuine and which are false. People who fail to develop this fine spiritual discrimination are always misled and cheated, and ultimately become offensive to the authentic spiritual teachers and teachings. We should not associate with such unfortunate persons, because it will damage our faith.

Ultimately this whole process is based on developing faith in the real sources of transcendental knowledge, and then practicing that knowledge until we develop the same realizations for ourselves. That is why I try to protect our community from influences that will diminish our faith. If we go down the wrong path, then we will not experience the ultimate in self-realization that is available from this Esoteric Teaching. Please take this advice very seriously, and understand that we are always thinking of your spiritual benefit.




When we say that we are "dependent on the mercy of Guru," what is meant? What is the disciple's responsibility and what is the Guru's role? What does it mean to "surrender to Guru"? What did Prabhupada mean by "surrender with intelligence, not surrender your intelligence"? What is meant by "each one should bear their own cross"?

There is a distinct difference between the vaidhi-bhakti stage of regulated devotional service and the raganuga-bhakti stage of spontaneous devotional service.

In the neophyte stage, the disciple is completely dependent upon the inspiration, direction and guidance of the spiritual master. His devotional service is completely a result of the mercy of the spiritual master in taking the trouble to preach and make disciples. The beginner tends to regard devotional service from an external platform, and thinks of spiritual advancement in terms of external, quantitative activity: how many rounds, how much service, etc. Without constant guidance from the spiritual master, he deviates from the authentic path of devotional service and falls down.

The more advanced devotee conceives of spiritual life internally, in terms of qualitative advancement in consciousness. As this shift in consciousness occurs, the disciple becomes less dependent on the constant guidance of the spiritual master and becomes able to take guidance directly from the scriptures. He can take responsibility for his own spiritual life and advancement, and needs less direct guidance. He is still always seeking his guru's mercy; but internally, in the sense of attaining the same state of consciousness as the self-realized soul.

The guru does indeed take on the burden of the disciple's karma. This does not require any mysticism to understand. The guru-disciple relationship is a lifetime commitment. Just like in marriage, a business partnership or any other significant relationship, there is an exchange of promises and expectations. The disciple promises to accept the guru's instructions and discipline, and the guru promises to lead the disciple to complete self-realization. For this relationship to be meaningful, the guru must have actually attained self-realization. Otherwise he is a 'guru' in name only, for how can someone share something that he does not possess? Naturally, if the disciple brings a lot of problems to the relationship, the guru will suffer accordingly.

As we advance in spiritual consciousness, Krsna reveals Himself more and more to the aspiring disciple. The whole point of the Esoteric Teaching is that the properly initiated and practicing disciple has direct access to Krsna through His Holy Name. The conception that the disciple has access to Krsna only through the guru is an artifice of organized religion; it arises from the desire of self-interested, un-self-realized religious functionaries to become middlemen between the disciple and God. This is completely against the spirit of the Esoteric Teaching and the Vaisnava path.

Such politically-motivated interference in the spiritual life of the disciple has the tragic effect of blocking his spiritual advancement and keeping him in the neophyte stage. This may appear to benefit the religious organization in the short term. But ultimately it leads to frustration and falldown; absent the ontological shift in consciousness, the disciple feels (quite correctly) that he is not making any advancement. Of course not: his so-called 'guru' is blocking his way! Please read the excellent and inspiring essay Organised Religion by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, where these points are elaborated with all due consideration.

When we "surrender our intelligence," we allow someone else to think for us. This is always dangerous, even with the best intentions; such an arrangement can only limit our spiritual growth. When we "surrender with intelligence," we take advantage of the guru's instructions to duplicate his exalted state of consciousness.

In my experience, one of the most difficult struggles in teaching spiritual life is to motivate the student to think for himself. Material consciousness conditions us to accept the pre-digested thoughts and opinions of leaders and authority figures; thus we can be exploited by unscrupulous leaders. Authentic spiritual life requires us to think for ourselves about the deep issues of life, spiritual growth and consciousness until we reach conclusions in harmony with the scriptures, and thus attain spiritual independence and freedom through self-realization.

To be completely responsible for controlling numerous disciples is a great and artificial burden on the guru. A bona fide spiritual master is not supposed to become entangled in management, but to set a healthy direction for his spiritual community by offering spiritual guidance. I never want to be a dictator in my students' lives; my attitude has always been that if a student learns how to think independently about the wisdom given in the Vedic scriptures, he will automatically perform very nice devotional activities.

Two or three years ago while preparing to accept the role of spiritual teacher, I made a comprehensive survey of Srila Prabhupada's teaching style, particularly in the early days of ISKCON. One of the most striking observations from this survey was that Srila Prabhupada appeared to be teaching the paths of vaidhi-bhakti and raganuga-bhakti simultaneously. Prabhupada taught that one does not have to wait for some indeterminate future to enjoy the bliss and independence of spontaneous devotional service in love of God; one has only to engage one's passion in devotional service through karma-yoga. This has been borne out in my experiences with my disciples, and therefore I advise everyone to contemplate these ideas very seriously.



What does "constant guidance" in the neophtye stage involve? How did Prabhupada give constant guidance to so many disciples?

In this context 'constant guidance' means that the spiritual master is more or less always accessible to the disciple and can clarify issues that cause him confusion and doubt. It is essential that every Vaisnava have some authority, whether diksha or siksha-guru or a senior devotee, available to clear up questions. In personal spiritual matters, often it is very difficult to see for oneself what almost anyone can observe from outside. Therefore it is essential that one find an adviser one can trust.

Ours is a descending process of receiving instruction from the spiritual master. In the early days of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada's new lecture and morning walk tapes were rushed to each temple, and we spent most of our waking hours listening to them while performing devotional service. There was very little loose talk, and speculation was actively discouraged by the senior men. Srila Prabhupada guided his growing movement by transcendental sound vibration. This was possible because we were willing to hear from him constantly. If devotees today would follow this standard they would have much less difficulty.




How do we serve guru when he leaves this world?

There is a difference between serving the spiritual master in person and at a distance. Service of the physical form of the guru is called vapuḥ; and that is certainly valuable, but service of the instructions of the spiritual master [vāṇī] is even more important.


The body is only temporary, so if your realization or steadiness in service is dependent on the physical presence of the spiritual master, then when he disappears you will be in trouble. It is better to simply execute the instructions, then because the instructions are eternal and absolute, your object of service will be unconditional.




Can I be a Spiritual Master one day?

Anyone can become a spiritual master; all you have to do is attain complete self-realization. Then if it is your nature to share and teach your knowledge, Kṛṣṇa will inspire you with so much realization that you will have to write and teach; you won't be able to stop yourself. Śrīla Prabhupāda once said, "When you become self-realized, you automatically write volumes of books." I also wanted to be a spiritual teacher from a young age. So if you cultivate this desire then Kṛṣṇa will arrange it.











ISSUES WITH YOUR GURU

I have had some nice experiences following your instructions but a member of ISKCON told me you are not a real guru. Why should I follow your presentation of the teaching?

One of the weak points of organizations like ISKCON, for example, is that they try to use political pressure to make people follow the regulative principles. Our experience in life and preaching is that when people do not want spiritual life, you cannot force them to take it. Even Krsna never uses force to make us worship Him. That will always backfire.

Therefore our attitude is to offer the knowledge, and if people want it, then they can take it; if not, then we simply neglect them and don't put any energy into rejecting them. Then our consciousness is not dragged down by their association.

Our good consciousness and activities are the proof that we are devotees. Like once when some devotees were criticizing me, I asked Uddhava how he could still have faith in me after hearing all these accusations. He said, "I see the preaching work you're doing, trying to educate people in spiritual life; and so I can understand that you must be self-realized, or you could not do that kind or quality of work."

A real devotee does not return accusation for accusation or seek revenge or to defeat his enemies. He simply tries to engage everyone in pure devotional service. Whether they take it up or not is their business, their choice.

This material world is a meat-grinder; a slaughterhouse that chops our consciousness up into thousands of pieces and scatters them in every direction. Consciousness is meant to be whole, and we are meant to enjoy the bliss of divine love. But in this world we are torn apart by thousands of desires, and lost in a cruel denial of our real self.

Every once in a while, a soul appears with the qualifications to attain liberation from this horrible world. Such a rare soul has the latent knowledge of spiritual freedom within him. Therefore he searches relentlessly until he finds the door, knocks on it, and is rescued by the compassionate Lord Himself.

Of course, the Matrix of the material world is self-healing. So as soon as a fortunate soul attains liberation, it begins to close the way to those who would follow him. It does this by manufacturing an illusion so convincing, a lie so plausible, that he is not really liberated, that he is in fact a rogue like everyone else in this damned world.

Anyone who believes this lie loses his faith, and becomes yet another victim of the pitiless intrigues of Maya. But as all con-men know, the mark falls for the ploy and is exploited by the con-game only because of his own greed. In this case, it is the false hope that somehow the illusion of Maya is real, and that lasting material happiness and sense enjoyment are just around the corner.

There is no way to ascertain that the spiritual teacher is genuine from external features. In fact, this is a sure way to be cheated. The only real test is that when we follow his instructions, we feel relief from the suffering of material existence and causeless bliss from spiritual advancement. Of course, the bona fide spiritual teacher, knowing that he has only limited intelligence, simply repeats the instructions of Krsna in Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures. So naturally his instructions have potency.

Organizations and their representatives who claim to represent the esoteric teachings of the Lord are actually false; they themselves are creations of Maya, and can never help the conditioned souls attain the spiritual freedom they seek. In fact, they exist only to enthrall gullible seekers in various kinds of exploitation. This is not our assertion, but the teaching of our guru's guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, who said of such organizations:

The attainment of real spiritual progress depends on faith. This faith is ultimately in ourselves and our own positive experience of spiritual truth. If we lose this faith in our own spiritual experience, we are lost, and again become a victim of Maya. Do not let those who would discourage you steal your soul.

The gopis, being discouraged by Krsna with tricky arguments in the arena of the rasa dance, refused to go home. Their determination was first-class, because it was based on unconditional love. Therefore Krsna praised their selfless service:

And that is the real lesson: if we are motivated to pursue spiritual life out of selfish desire, we will eventually be deceived by our own greed and fall down. Only those whose motivation is completely pure will persevere to the end, and be blessed with the eternal reward of their glorious activities of pure devotional service to the resplendent Lord.

After hearing some criticism about you from ISKCON I had a bit of a freak out and also looked for faults in you. How can I know what they are saying isn't true?

Uddhava also went through a similar crisis of faith in the beginning. But then he also finally understood that a realized spiritual Master Teacher is not bound by the rules and regulations of organizations or limited by the expectations of conventional religious people, but follows a higher principle of revealing the transcendental truth to anyone and everyone. There is a saying in Bengali, "If you see Lord Nityananda coming out of a liquor shop, it doesn't mean He is a drunkard"; in other words, He is going there to save the drunkards.

Another saying of Jesus is "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick" [Mark 2:17]. Similarly in my activities as a preacher, sometimes I have associated with people who were not following the rules and regulations of religion. So what? My detractors cannot produce a shred of actual evidence or single material witness to the immoral acts they accuse me of. It is nothing but hearsay and unsubstantiated gossip.

My real sin is that I have not tried to make a big reputation for myself within the society of orthodox devotees. I have not cared for the name and fame of taking sannyasa or attaining a position in some spiritual organization. And I have tried to bring the Holy Name, the movement of Lord Caitanya and the process of devotional service to all kinds of people that they reject and neglect. For this, the neophyte devotees condemn me and spread all manner of vicious lies about me.

I take this as a great honor and a blessing. It means I will never have to maintain the pretense of being a great religious personality with a pompous title and false prestige. Instead I can remain an ordinary man, and simply devote all my time and energy to actually serving my spiritual master and the Lord, and actually helping my students instead of maintaining some phony identity, false reputation and position. Let the propagandists blaspheme me and the fault-finders criticize me, it's fine. It just means that they lose all preaching potency and prepare their path to hell. And anyone who believes them instead of getting to know me directly can go associate with them. "Birds of a feather flock together." Srila Prabhupada writes,


Some so-called devotees waste their valuable time and risk their spiritual lives by compiling and publishing every bit of negative gossip they can find on anyone who tries to preach. They have never contacted me to confirm or verify this information, instead they blindly spread their poison to any fool who will listen. They do not preach or teach the Vedic Esoteric Teaching, nor do they try to introduce innovations to help anyone and everyone approach the platform of spiritual life. They simply criticize. So let the crows pick at the garbage, but the swans will glide undisturbed among the lotus flowers in ponds of pure crystalline waters.


My activities in spreading the Esoteric Teaching are predicated on Srila Prabhupada's direct instructions to me. I have no need for the approval of any other authority or organization. In fact, if any of the Vaisnava organizations would approach me to offer some position in exchange for my endorsement, I could not accept, for the same reasons given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and quoted in the other messages on this thread. If my param-guru does not approve their activities, how can I? Every so-called Vaisnava organization I have seen is infected with illegal business activities, sexual perversion and vicious politics. This is a natural consequence of pretentious religious organizations. The big leaders posing as saintly persons know all about the illicit activities of their followers, but do nothing to stop them. Meanwhile honest men are disgusted, but if they say anything, they are driven off by the gang leaders. This is the unfortunate condition of the so-called religious organizations. Yet they make black propaganda about people like me?

Uddhava and I had a discussion once about the difference between the neophyte vaidhi-bhakti platform and the stage of spontaneous love, raganuga-bhakti. The neophyte devotees on the platform of vaidhi-bhakti are always in danger of falling, because their devotional service is only external imitation of the realized soul. The raganuga-bhaktas are passionately in love with the Lord, so even if they externally seem to disregard the rules and regulations, they cannot fall down. If a neophyte devotee criticizes or wrongs a realized soul, he can lose his taste for spiritual life and fall down. We have seen this so many times.

The external rule-followers actually cannot follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures, yet despite their pretentiousness, they want to measure everyone's devotional and advancement on how well they follow the regulative principles. Only devotees absorbed in spontaneous love of the Lord can actually follow the rules and regulations of the scriptures, because they have purified their hearts of all material desire. But sometimes they temporarily ignore those rules for the service of a higher principle, such as spreading the devotional service of the Lord to unqualified people. Just like a great artist or writer sometimes ignores the rules of design or grammar to accomplish a higher artistic purpose. The neophyte artists cannot imitate them because they are not yet masters of the principles. Only one who has mastered the rules perfectly can understand why, when and how to transcend them.

The distinctive feature of Lord Caitanya's incarnation is that He makes no demands, but simply awards ecstatic love of Godhead to anyone who sincerely approaches Him. Nevertheless, so-called followers of Lord Caitanya do not approve of this, and spread vicious false gossip about those who actually follow Lord Caitanya. Actually they are incapable of understanding the mercy and activities of Lord Caitanya.


So all of our students should carefully consider these points. An ill-motivated person can find fault with anyone, even a pure devotee of the Lord. But we have to judge who is who by their actual activities. For many years we have been fully engaged in spreading the glories of the Lord and trying our best to convince people to engage in devotional service. Although there are so many other occupational activities that we could perform, and though we have had to endure so many hardships, even at the hands of our Godbrothers, we stick to this work without deviation, because it is the best kind of work for the benefit of all kinds of living entities. This is our real qualification.




Whenever I listen to yours or Srila Prabhupada's spiritual music, watching videos, or even looking at pictures of you and Srila Prabhupada, I get insulting thoughts toward you injected in my mind. Why?

This phenomenon is your vain, proud mind trying to defend itself from the Esoteric Teaching. The mind knows that if you actually accept this teaching, then it is finished; it cannot control your life anymore. So Māyā is filling your mind with negative, envious and offensive thoughts. Just keep chanting and they will go away.



I consider you my guru but have some issues I am trying to work out and don't really want to discuss them with you. Will these be resolved by themselves?

Well you are acting in a political way. Instead of straightforwardly revealing your issue, you are simply alluding to it offstage, but not discussing it directly. How can we resolve your doubts if you won't reveal what they are?

‘niṣiddhācāra’, ‘kuṭīnāṭī’, ‘jīva-hiṁsana’
‘lābha’, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhādi’ yata upaśākhā-gaṇa

“Some unnecessary creepers growing with the bhakti creeper are the creepers of behavior unacceptable for those trying to attain perfection, diplomatic behavior, animal-killing, mundane profiteering, mundane adoration and mundane importance. All these are unwanted creepers." [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.159]

From the Purport

...Kuṭīnāṭī, or diplomatic behavior, cannot satisfy the ātmā, the soul. It cannot even satisfy the body or the mind. The culprit mind is always suspicious; therefore our dealings should always be straightforward and approved by Vedic authorities. If we treat people diplomatically or duplicitously, our spiritual advancement is obstructed."

So until you bring out your real issue and state it directly, you are neither participating in a dialog nor working toward consensus; you are acting unilaterally, dictating to us, and we do not accept that. The spiritual master is supposed to help the disciple solve his spiritual issues and make progress; but we are not mind readers. If you take shelter of diplomacy and do not submit your doubts in plain language, then how can anyone help you? The disciple, never thinking himself independent of his spiritual master, should submit to him all doubts:

"I saw that I had become mad by chanting the holy name, and immediately submitted this at the lotus feet of My spiritual master." [Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 7.80]

PURPORT: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as an ideal teacher, shows us how a disciple should deal with his spiritual master. Whenever there is doubt regarding any point, he should refer the matter to his spiritual master for clarification. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that while chanting and dancing He had developed the kind of mad ecstasy that is possible for only a liberated soul. Yet even in His liberated position, He referred everything to His spiritual master whenever there were doubts. Thus in any condition, even when liberated, we should never think ourselves independent of the spiritual master, but must refer to him as soon as there is some doubt regarding our progressive spiritual life.

You cannot solve the problems of life on your own. Arjuna realized this on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, and thus he submitted his problem and surrendered to Kṛṣṇa:

kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ
pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ
yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me
śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

"Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me." [Bhagavad-gītā 2.7]

These verses apply directly to your situation. If you go to ISKCON or any of the big religious organizations, you will not even get to talk with your so-called guru, what to speak of submitting your doubts for clarification. Clarification of doubts according to scriptural revelation is the purpose of guru. That is why in all cases we supply scriptural references. Even guru is not independent, but is simply the most advanced servitor of the Lord.

So if you are really sincere and want to resolve your doubts and issues, then you must straightforwardly submit them for discussion and clarification, otherwise you will have to take shelter of your rascal mind, remaining confused and unable to perform pure devotional service.




Sometimes I find myself disagreeing with what you say and feel I can figure this stuff out myself. I want to join your mission but I notice I have a lot of false ego. Could this be detrimental when in personal contact with you?


We once had a personal disciple who had been experiencing trouble in his spiritual life for many weeks, and at first was not creating any disturbance. Unfortunately he became duplicitous and started making politics. As you know, I am very much against politics in spiritual life. At that point, I could no longer tolerate his nonsense. I tried to correct him but he chose to leave instead. I defeated his mind from every side, but still he did not surrender. This shows the power of offenses to devotees and the spiritual master to destroy one's intelligence. Śrīla Prabhupāda often compared devotional service to a sharp straight razor: you can use it with skill to get a nice clean shave, or you can be careless and cut your throat.

There were many similar conversations between Śrīla Prabhupāda and his errant disciples. Being chastised by Śrīla Prabhupāda could be a life-changing experience. He often corrected his disciples, and they became better devotees because of it; but the senior disciples chose to suppress the conversation recordings because they did not want to be seen by newer devotees as flawed neophytes. The false ego of a conditioned soul is very strong.

The lesson we have learned from this is to better screen our prospective community members, especially at this early stage of development. As Uddhava wrote me after the incident,


Also when Śrīla Prabhupāda was preaching, many devotees came and left. Śrīla Prabhupāda's understanding was that we were in a war against Māyā, and that many devotees would become casualties:


As long as we are covered by this illusory energy in the form of material consciousness, we cannot perceive the transcendental reality. Therefore when we come to a spiritual master, we have to give up this false ego and simply follow his instructions. Yes, it is difficult; that is why so very few are fit to actually attain self-realization. Many will come and go. Only the most sincere will remain.

My position is that Śrīla Prabhupāda blessed me to continue his movement and teachings purely. My nature is such that I cannot compromise the purity of this teaching. I have seen my Godbrothers ruin everything by compromising with political considerations instead of remaining firm in the Absolute Truth. Somehow they have managed to keep a few of the temples open, but in the process, the spiritual integrity of the mission has been lost.

But somehow by great mercy, Śrī Kṛṣṇa has revealed Himself to me. I attained the summit of self-realization by Divine Grace alone. Now I see everything clearly; there is no more need for sādhana and sacrifices, for I have reached the goal. This spiritual certainty is the only reason I dare to act as guru. I do not need to impress or please anyone, therefore I do not try to imitate Śrīla Prabhupāda or put on some holy front. Either a student can recognize from my words and activities that I have direct knowledge of the Absolute Truth, or they cannot. If not, then they have no business joining this saṅga, because they will not be able to stay; they will commit offenses, come under the influence of Māyā and being punished by her, fall again into illusion. We have seen it again and again on this forum and in our preaching activities.

So we want to impress very clearly on our students that while we have great affection and care for our students and disciples, if they cannot maintain our high standards or if they endanger the purity of our mission, we will have to correct them. If they cannot accept correction, then they will be in serious spiritual difficulty. The guru must be accepted as absolute; that is the meaning of surrender, śaraṇāgati. Śaraṇa means protection, and gati means to go; so real surrender means to take shelter of the protection of a bona fide spiritual master. Once under this shelter, māyā cannot attack; but if one leaves, then that protection is lost.

One can remain under the protection of the spiritual master even in separation if one follows his order and accepts his instructions; but if he transgresses the instructions, especially in the personal presence of the guru, then he is lost. In his beautiful collection of songs titled Śaraṇāgati, Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākur gives eight principles of surrender:


It is very difficult for Westerners, raised on pride and independent spirit, to accept a position of humility; yet this is only the first stage of real surrender. Complete surrender means that we do not have any interest separate from Kṛṣṇa, and there are many stages in between. All of these mean that the devotee does not hold a separate opinion or interest from Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master. So this independent spirit has to be given up, and it is in our best interest to do so. Otherwise Māyā can catch us again and we are lost.

So please check yourself and try to remove this false ego of pride and independence, for it is very dangerous to your spiritual progress. To think "I know better than my guru" is the beginning of the fall from spiritual life. This attitude is not only arrogance, it is deeply speculative. Just like a person who has eaten meat his whole life has no idea what it is like to be vegetarian, and just as a person who has never read the Vedic literature has no idea of the riches of transcendental knowledge, one who has never given up his false pride in material false ego has no idea how wonderful is the state of complete surrender.

Real peace comes to one who has laid down his life and soul at the lotus feet of a self-realized soul. Uddhava Prabhu is so peaceful and happy because he realized this early on, and surrendered everything. Many times he said to me, "Everything, whatever I have, is yours." As a result of this extraordinary trust in his guru, he can sit in his room and chant, study and make transcendental music all day, and remain perfectly content. Others who still maintain some separate interest cannot be so peaceful; their agitated mind and senses drive them to seek some external engagement. But this is not pure devotional service, it is at best devotional service mixed with fruitive activity.

So our mission is based on the standard of pure devotional service. If you still have a taste for sense gratification and speculative knowledge, it will be very difficult for you to remain with us. Please be very certain before you come to join our mission that you are willing to really surrender.

The disciple I mentioned at the beginning of this answer had everyone fooled by flashing his intellect around. He really was quite an intelligent boy; but when someone misuses their God-given intelligence to deceive and mislead others, their falldown is not far away. The four steps of self-realization are duplication, understanding, contemplation and realization. One who can duplicate the philosophy of the Esoteric Teaching is intelligent, but not as intelligent as one who can think it through for himself and realize, "Oh, this applies to me!"


In this famous śloka from His Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu specifically uses the word amāninā, which Śrīla Prabhupāda translates as "without being puffed up by false pride". False pride means being puffed up based on material bodily qualities such as intelligence, physical beauty, etc.

As soon as I tried to correct the disciple, he became angry and left our association. He could not tolerate being told that he was wrong in any way. But how can we learn unless we admit that we do not know? Of course everyone likes to be right, but this is not the attitude of a servant. A servant is always willing to be corrected by his master.

Advaita Ācārya was always praised by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but He wanted to be treated as a servant. Therefore He even started teaching Māyāvādī philosophy so that the Lord would punish Him, thus accepting Him as a servant in a subordinate position.


So if even Advaita Ācārya is so ecstatic to be a servant, then we should also be happy in such a role. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:


But if they will not accept the role of a servant, then we cannot consider them to be authentic followers and disciples of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So anyone who resists becoming a servant cannot be considered a real Vaiṣṇava. That is the conclusion of śāstra and our spiritual master Śrīla Prabhupāda.

I had a tough time in my life after accepting you as my Spiritual Master and then neglecting you. Could you give further explanations on the danger of leaving a Spiritual Master?

It's good to see you're back. So many prospective students leave over this same issue: they think they can make advancement on their own, without a spiritual master. Never mind that I have a spiritual master, and my spiritual master has a spiritual master, and so on, going all the way back to Kṛṣṇa. People are so proud they think they can approach God on their own. Of course, this is a grave mistake.

"Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has quoted the following śruti-mantra in this connection: vijita-hṛṣīka-vāyubhir adānta-manas turagam. "By the very senses and life air one has conquered, the uncurbed mind will again drag one away." According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura the meaning of this verse is samavahāya guroś caraṇam: if one rejects the lotus feet of one's spiritual master, all of one's previous spiritual advancement becomes null and void. This has already been indicated in the previous verse by the words guru-devatātmā. Unless one accepts a bona fide spiritual master in the authorized paramparā as one's worshipable deity and life and soul, there is no question of overcoming the duality of material life." [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.38 Purport]

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa it is stated,

bodhaḥ kaluṣitas tena
daurātmyaṁ prakaṭī-kṛtam
gurur yena parityaktas
tena tyaktaḥ purā hariḥ

"One pollutes his own intelligence and exhibits severe weakness of character when he rejects his own spiritual master. Indeed, such a person has already rejected the Supreme Lord, Hari."

"The bona fide disciple should always remember that his entire understanding of Vedic knowledge is coming through the mercy of his bona fide spiritual master. If one superficially or whimsically accepts and rejects a bona fide Vaiṣṇava spiritual master, sometimes becoming attracted to another spiritual master, one commits a vaiṣṇava-aparādha, a great offense against the devotees of the Lord. Sometimes a foolish neophyte mistakenly thinks that the relationship with the spiritual master is meant for the sense gratification of the disciple, and therefore in the name of spiritual aspirations such a fool gives up a bona fide Vaiṣṇava guru. One should understand oneself to be the eternal servant of the guru." [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.48 Purport]

sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair
uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ
kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi

"The spiritual master is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord, because he is the most confidential servitor of the Lord. This is acknowledged in all revealed scriptures and followed by all authorities. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is a bona fide representative of Śrī Hari [Kṛṣṇa]. By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement." [Śrī Gurvaṣṭaka, 7-8]

If we have any credit, it is that we have surrendered our entire life to the service of our guru Śrīla Prabhupāda. One may agree with our interpretation or presentation of the Absolute Truth, or not; but no one can argue that we have a little devotion to our spiritual master. And we freely admit that this is the cause of whatever good fortune that we have. So if this is true for us, then it is also true for everyone: whatever good fortune one has in life is due simply to the blessings of the bona fide spiritual master. One who rejects the mercy of the spiritual master does so at his peril.




I find it hard to really "love" guru as we are often instructed to do in scripture. How can I?

A close disciple writes:


He is right. In the beginning we do not know guru or Kṛṣṇa, but by serving them we come to both know and love them. It is no accident that the words 'love' and 'service' occur together 4427 times in Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, the word 'serve' occurs 10112 times and 'love' occurs 24318 times.




I have a mental illness and I heard on a Satsang that I would not be able to join your physical community right away. Why not? I feel lost and confused.

First of all you should control your mind and stop lamenting. Lamentation never helps to solve problems; it just wastes our time and energy, and that makes things worse. If you accept that you are mentally ill, then you are in the bodily conception of life. Actually you are a spirit soul: perfect, immortal and indestructible. Nothing in this temporary world of illusion can hurt or destroy you. So stop lamenting.

The purpose of our community is to teach spiritual life. We are basically declaring war on Māyā; therefore everyone involved in our community must be fit to fight the illusion of material existence. How can you fight if you are weak and lamenting? When soldiers join the army, they go through very tough training to get them ready for battle. Do you think that you could get through our training in your present condition?

We are in an emergency condition because my Godbrothers did not do their duty. They did not follow Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions and create self-reliant farm communities. So now we are almost out of time, therefore if we are going to be successful we can take only the strongest people. We need people who are officer material. Once we are well-established, maybe then we can think about helping weaker people who have serious problems. But if we try to accept anyone and everyone in the beginning, then the whole thing will fail.

ISKCON had so many problems because they accepted people who were sociopathic, power hungry, child molesters, criminals, homosexuals and others in the lower modes of nature. And then in 1972 when Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed them to stop recruiting and train the devotees up to a high standard, they refused to obey him. We cannot afford to make that mistake.

I'm sorry if it means that you have to wait, but there are so many things you can do until our community is strong and well-established enough to help you. You can read and chant; you can download the MP3 of Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma and burn it to a CD. You can download the text and print it out. If you can't figure out how to do these simple things, then how are you going to make it in our community?

If you are suffering, it because of the karma from your past activities. You have to change your activities before your condition is going to improve. You are the only person who can really help you. As soon as you start to follow the principles of spiritual life, your condition will improve. Once you get into a condition of strength, you will be fit to associate with devotees and help us in the battle against Māyā. So stop lamenting stop complaining, stop your material activities and get busy hearing and chanting the Holy Name. The more you concentrate your energy in hearing and chanting, the sooner Kṛṣṇa will help you solve all the problems of life.





I think you should present the teaching in "this way," not the way you are already. I feel the community discussion is not very structured. Why won't you listen to my suggestion to do "this" or "that?"

Are you prepared to put in the work required to implement your plans? No? This is my point: if you want to "talk the talk," then you have to be ready to "walk the walk." Otherwise you wind up having to back down and "eat your hat." If we separate theory from practice, then anyone can become an instant armchair expert, regardless of qualification or lack thereof. Opinions without action are useless politics.

For example my Godbrothers have all kinds of opinions about our work and community, but they cannot show by practical preaching results that they have a better idea. So they can make all kinds of noises and maybe scare some of our weaker students, but can they offer a better practical alternative? Not really. So this is just empty criticism with no real benefit for anyone.

We are ready to accept any constructive critical suggestions from anyone, but they better be ready to back them up with action. Otherwise it is simply an attempt to become guru in the presence of guru, which is offensive and useless. All the gurus in our line are united in purpose, opinion and method, because we follow Kṛṣṇa's instructions. There is no conflict because we serve the central point.

It is very difficult to create one curriculum for a group like this because everyone has different needs. The Vedic scriptures themselves do not present their ideas in a gradient succession, because any audience is mixed and some people will be bored while others will be lost completely. The linear idea of education is Western and as such, an arbitrary superimposition on reality. However, we also present our teaching systematically through our bhakta course and other university programs.

One must hear very patiently from a self-realized soul for a long time, and also put his instructions into practice. Only then can one understand the transcendental science. Application of the method of duplication, understanding, contemplation and realization as discussed in my book Search for the Absolute Truth will provide good results. Always strive for practical application of the knowledge given in the Esoteric Teaching, harmonize your words and deeds, and very quickly you will become self-realized.




After you did not listen to my suggestion, I could not keep my false ego in check and fell down. I missed Ekādaṣī and it all went from there really, with meat-eating to illicit sex.

This is typical; we have seen this particular dance so many times. When you made a suggestion about our preaching work, you didn't get the response you wanted, and out of pride you became angry. That was the offense. Don't you think that Kṛṣṇa knows your heart? Missing Ekādaṣī and so forth was part of the reaction, not the cause.

If you have an idea for service or preaching, it is your inspiration from Kṛṣṇa; so it is your responsibility to put it into action. Don't expect anyone else to do it for you, and certainly don't become angry if they don't. Kṛṣṇa has given that inspiration to you; now, if you express it and other devotees encourage you, or even are enthusiastic about helping you, that's fine. But don't expect them to take the responsibility for your inspiration. Only you can do that.

My having that realization is what led to the creation of this saṅga. Even though I had the order, I was reluctant to take the responsibility. Kṛṣṇa had to personally appear to encourage me to do it. Now just see the result.




There are areas where I feel much of the Vedic essence is missing in your community discussion. e.g. there is no talk of the Ramayana. Similarly, it seems to me that the disciplic succession is watered down. B.g. as it is listed about 32 of these. The real guru as I see it it Swami Prabhupada of ISKCON. The number of new gurus that sprang up since seems to be getting larger and larger. Some are obscure and difficult to fathom. These things confuse me.


Yes, you are confused, because you have no association of bona fide guru. If you did, then everything would be clear. We already told you: if you want to talk the talk, then walk the walk. If you want to glorify Lord Rāma, then you need to start a series of posts on Rāmāyana. Don't just criticize because no one else is doing what you want; you take the responsibility and initiative, and you do it. Don't just sit on the sidelines and criticize.


Our lineage is coming from Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu; Rāmāyana is in a different line. We have immense respect for all of the Vaiṣṇava lineages; but we are not initiated into that particular lineage. The pastimes of Rāma-līlā are described in the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in summary form. But we concentrate on Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa-līlā because that is our lineage.

If you want to participate in this school, then you have to be willing to study and follow Kṛṣṇa's instructions in Bhagavad-gītā. These instructions are nondifferent from Lord Rāma's instructions in Rāmāyana, but they are more practical and accessible for people today; after all, Lord Rāma appeared in the Treta-yuga about 1.6 million years ago, and Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā about 5,000 years ago.

You do not understand the principle of guru-paramparā. The 32 gurus in the disciplic succession listed in Bhagavad-gītā As It Is are our Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya sampradāya. Each one of these gurus has made a profound contribution to the heritage of the lineage, and we benefit from their contributions to this day.

Now tell me, what profound original contribution has any of the official ISKCON committee-appointed gurus made to the heritage of the lineage? Have any of them translated or made an original commentary on any of the important books of the Vaiṣṇava tradition? Out of the 11 original ISKCON self-appointed gurus, already 10 have fallen down, resigned, been kicked out, been murdered, died in violent car crashes, been assaulted, gone mad, or otherwise met an undistinguished end; and the same is true of the vast majority of their committee-manufactured gurus.

This leads to the question, "Who is really an ācārya?" The complete answer demands a deep understanding of guru-tattva; but the simple answer is, "Whoever receives the blessing and confidential order of the previous ācārya." For example, it is narrated in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta that Śrīla Īśvāra Purī received the blessings of Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī because of his sincere and unflinching menial devotional service to his guru. In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya 8.28-31 it is stated:

īśvara-purī gosāñi kare śrī-pada sevana
sva-haste karena mala-mūtrādi mārjana

nirantara kṛṣṇa-nāma karāya smaraṇa
kṛṣṇa-nāma kṛṣṇa-līlā śunāya anukṣaṇa

tuṣṭa hañā purī tāṅre kaila āliṅgana
vara dilā kṛṣṇe tomāra ha-uka prema-dhana

sei haite īśvara-purī premera sāgara

"At the last stage of his life Śrī Mādhavendra Purī became an invalid and was completely unable to move, and Īśvara Purī so completely engaged himself in his service that he personally cleaned up his stool and urine. Always chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and reminding Śrī Mādhavendra Purī about the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa in the last stage of his life, Īśvara Purī gave the best service among his disciples. Thus Mādhavendra Purī, being very pleased with him, blessed him, saying, 'My dear boy, I can only pray to Kṛṣṇa that He will be pleased with you.' Thus by the grace of his spiritual master, Śrī Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī became a great devotee, an ocean of ecstatic love of Godhead."

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī states in his Gurv-aṣṭaka prayer, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi: "By the mercy of the spiritual master one is blessed by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master one cannot make any advancement." Similarly, Śrīla Prabhupāda received the confidential blessing of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī at Rādhā-kund during their final meeting. This is the authorized process to become guru in any authentic Vaiṣṇava lineage.

Can any of the present ISKCON or other gurus show or testify that they received a direct personal order from Śrīla Prabhupāda to become guru after his disappearance form this world? Actually there is a long gap, from January to June 1977, where there are no published room-conversation recordings of Śrīla Prabhupāda. The reason is because Śrīla Prabhupāda was trying to discipline his sannyāsī disciples, and he intended to terminate the sannyāsa order in ISKCON because of their independent spirit, politics and other nonsense. Anxious to hold on to their leadership positions, the sannyāsa disciples led by Tamal Kṛṣṇa suppressed the recordings of those conversations. Under the circumstances, it is hardly likely that Śrīla Prabhupāda then changed his mind and ordered them to become gurus one month later in July 1977 as they claim. The July 9th letter itself is very inconclusive; it only orders them to become ṛtvik priests under Śrīla Prabhupāda's direction. By definition, the ṛtvik can only officiate at a sacrifice for a person who is present; there is no example on the Vedic tradition of a ṛtvik acting for a person who has left this world. We discuss this point with evidence in post 1424 of the forum compendium.

Try to understand: they have taken a political solution to the spiritual problem of the guru succession. They have not waited and given Kṛṣṇa a chance to reveal His own chosen representative. Sensing a political opportunity, they impatiently rushed into the gap and created havoc by establishing a false political standard for who can become guru. The same is true of other gurus as well. Nārāyaṇa Mahāraja's guru Śrīla Keśava Mahārāja (who is also Śrīla Prabhupāda's sannyāsa-guru) once explicitly instructed him never to become a guru. As far as I can see, of the Gauḍīya gurus Govinda Mahārāja is the only one who attained his position legitimately, by appointment of Śrīla Śrīdhāra Mahārāja.

So almost all the so-called gurus are in defiance of the orders of their spiritual masters. If ISKCON were picking stock trades, and 10 out of their first 11 picks were losers, would you continue to follow their advice? With such a track record, is it any wonder there is so much confusion over the question of who is actually guru?

Our disciples are not in confusion because every day they experience directly the association of a self-realized soul. We do not try to force anyone to accept us by political means; there is ample evidence on this website of our preaching activities during the last several years, since by some unimaginably great good fortune we obtained the mercy of Kṛṣṇa in 2002. You may believe or not believe, it makes no difference to us; but it makes a huge difference to your future spiritual prospects.


In our experience, those who doubt the scriptures, the lineage or the self-realized soul are just trying to make excuses for their own inability to control their senses and follow the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you are taking meat, garlic and onion, indulging in illicit sex life, and if you are not chanting at least an hour every morning, then you will never have the purified intelligence necessary to understand this Esoteric Teaching properly. First you have to walk the walk; then you get to talk the talk. That is the real meaning of guru.




I surrendered to an ISKCON guru a few months ago, but now that I understand more about the organization today I want to leave him. Can I and become your disciple?

This is a very sensitive issue for everyone concerned. I would advise you to think it over very carefully before taking a position on it. After all, your guru may be a fine devotee and a good preacher. My only concern, as you have expressed, is his association with ISKCON and public standing as an ISKCON-approved spiritual master.

Did Gaudiya Math have to approve Srila Prabhupada before he could take disciples? No, he just started preaching and his potency was revealed by his wonderful spiritual activities in spreading Krsna consciousness all over the world. In the same way, we are working independently, without approval or sanction from any organization. So what is the difficulty?

It is our position that no organization can approve or disapprove the activities of the pure devotee acting as guru; it is up to Krsna Himself to accept his service and give him facility, or not. Organizational approval is a political matter, not a spiritual one. After all, an organization is not a real entity in the sense of Bhagavad-gita 2.16; it is an abstraction, a collection of agreements among its members. So how does an organization acquire the authority to approve the activities of a devotee acting as spiritual master? This is an ontologically nonsensical idea, as are most non-Vedic political concepts.

The best outcome, as far as I am concerned, would be that you enter into a scripturally-based dialogue with your guru, and convince him to renounce his affiliation with ISKCON and preach independently. However, I would be disinclined to accept you as a disciple myself as I do not want myself or our group seen as competing with ISKCON for disciples.

Actually I already have enough disciples, and my mood is to accept only exceptionally qualified individuals in future. So while I can offer you good advice and counsel according to my understanding and realization of scripture, I would not be able to offer you diksa, Vaisnava initiation.

You are most welcome to continue as a student here. You have not said anything wrong or offensive. I am just trying to make everything crystal-clear, since many others may be reading this exchange, and I do not want them to get any wrong ideas about our policies or intentions.

I am not really fit to be a spiritual master or acarya; but Srila Prabhupada personally ordered me to carry on the disciplic lineage, so I have to do it. Actually my nature is more artistic and brahminical than like a typical leader or preacher. I am actually very retiring and meditative by nature. My only qualification is my spiritual master's instruction. Nobody is following so it has devolved onto me. Therefore I decided from the beginning to accept only a few very qualified disciples. But they will go on to do very great things in the future.

My principal aim is to clarify the distortions introduced into our lineage by the temporary expedient of religious organizations, required to introduce Krsna's teachings and devotional service into Western society, and to restore the original Upanisadic form of spiritual life to our disciplic succession. After all, what is the meaning of Krsna consciousness if it becomes subjected to the management of an institution?

No, Krsna is always independent; and as a representative of Krsna, so is the spiritual master. Guru is dependent only on Krsna; that is the real meaning of Krsna consciousness. Any organization is just the expression of the potency or facility given to the guru by Krsna, so it must be secondary or dependent on the guru, not the other way around. That is the transcendental science.

I do wish you the very best in spiritual life and advancement, and I hope Krsna rewards your sincerity by inspiring you with an equable solution to your predicament.

A student has also offered nice words of advice in regards to this issue:

For the sake of argument, I will play the Devil's advocate and use the Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta and other arguments to lay out reasons why it's inappropriate for you to consider a split with your Guru.

1. In all the verses that I linked two, there is only one verse that says when it is acceptable to give up one's spiritual master. I quote:

However, if the spiritual master:

*acts envious towards 'isvarebrantah', that which is
connected with the Supreme;
*is bewildered regarding the Supreme Personality of
Godhead;
*is averse to expanding the fame of Lord Krsna;
*personally refuses to accept hearing or chanting about
the glorious pastimes of Lord Sri Krsna;
*has become totally bewildered, listening to the false
praise of ignorant persons and day by day is more
materially contaminated and fallen
___then the spiritual master must be renounced.

[Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta Verse 64]

If your Guru is not guilty on any of these counts, then where is the problem?

Being affiliated with ISKCON is not, by itself, any cause for lamentation. If we simply paint everyone in ISKCON with the same brush then we are un-sane in our analysis. That is a lazy attitude that many people adopt, which externalizes everything and lumps it into a convenient punching bag. It dulls our power of discernment. I have met some very wonderful and sincere devotees in ISKCON that inspire my own flagging devotional service. Srila Prabhupada was strictly affiliated with ISKCON, even at a time when there were abominable things going on within the organization. Is that reason to reject Prabhupada as Guru? No, because it is blindingly clear that there is a difference between Prabhupada as a person and Prabhupada as the abstraction "Founder-Acarya of ISKCON". The relationship with the Spiritual Master is a very personal relationship, it is not a relationship with an abstraction or an organization. So while your Guru may have organizational affliations, the only thing that should matter to you is whether or not he is able to guide you appropriately on your personal spiritual journey and inspire in you a love for Radha-Krsna. On your part, you are to render service to the spiritual master. It is the quality of that personal relationship that has to be assessed, in my humble opinion. The personal qualities of a spiritual master are transcendental and eternal; however, his political designations and affiliations don't even really exist because they are only abstractions and are neither real nor eternal.

Note that the Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta is not written on any sort of institutional platform, but rather deals with the position of the Guru on a personal level - which is the way it is meant to be. Between him as a person (in th role of spiritual master) and you as a person (in the role of disciple), what is the problem?

2. Some more quotes:

[...]Similarly, a disciple may hear some instructions from another advanced Vaisnava but after gaining that good instruction he must bring it and present it to his own spiritual master.  After presenting them, he should hear the same teachings again from his spiritual master with appropriate instructions.

Even if the performance of one's devotional activities one has
disobeyed the spiritual master, still one should not give him up,
but should remain faithfully with him, because all authorities say
that the shelter of one's own spiritual master is best and perfect (even if another spiritual master is more powerful).

Just as if, during daily life, the brothers (older or younger) of
the father criticize him, still one takes shelter of one's father,
similarly, one remains under the shelter of one's own spiritual
master, even if he is criticized by his older or younger god brothers. Just as one depends upon one's father for one's livelihood, one must depend upon the strength of the spiritual master for advancing in devotional service.

[Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta Verses 48, 51 and 53]

These quotations make it clear that is is perfectly alright to also take spiritual instruction from other advanced Vaisnavas (such as Babaji) while remaining under the shelter of one's own Guru. It is not that if you find some valuable instruction from someone other than your Guru, you need to make a choice between your Guru or this other advanced Vaisnava. Of course, it is also recommended that this new instruction be presented to one's own spiritual master and heard again from the Guru. On the spiritual plane, this should not be a problem because all advanced Vaisanavas have the same aim - to instruct the fallen souls that they may come to the platform of perfect love for Radha-Krsna. Their message is one.

The Vedas enjoin us to seek out a guru; actually, they say to seek out the guru, not just a guru. The guru is one because he comes in disciplic succession. What Vyāsadeva and Kṛṣṇa taught five thousand years ago is also being taught now. There is no difference between the two instructions. Although hundreds and thousands of ācāryas have come and gone, the message is one. The real guru cannot be two, for the real guru does not speak differently from his predecessors. [...] The genuine guru has only one opinion, and that is the opinion expressed by Kṛṣṇa, Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Arjuna, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and the Gosvāmīs. ['What is a Guru' from'The Science of Self Realization']

So ideally there should not be any disagreement between two bonafide Vaisnavas on spiritual subject matters. Of course, there may be differences in their relative methods of explaining this message and they may do so from different platforms according to their personality and nature. In this way, they also attract different kinds of disciples. But their transcendental aim and essential message should be the same. 

So those are some arguments that I'm putting out there for your consideration to maybe get you to think about it in a different way. It's not that I'm endorsing one view over the other, but simply that since you're taking one stance I took the opposite so that all sides of the situation can be examined in the open.

< Prev		Next >