Bhakta Degree graduates who aspire to Hari-nāma Initiation are eligible for the Bhakti-Śastrī I Degree Program. Successful completion of this Degree Program grants the daivī-varṇa of Vaiśya. This is the continuation of the path to becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. In this Degree Program you will prepare for Hari-nāma initiation. This series of courses answers the questions: What does it mean to be a Bhakti-śāstrī [knower of the scriptures describing devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead]? What are the privileges and responsibilities of the title?
Bhakti-Śāstrī I Introduction
This is the continuation of the path to becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. In this Degree Program you will prepare for Hari-nāma initiation. This series of courses answers the questions: What does it mean to be a Bhakti-śāstrī [knower of the scriptures describing devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead]? What are the privileges and responsibilities of the title?
These courses cover the basic skills you need to be a Harināma-initiated devotee, a student of the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedas and a member of the Esoteric Teaching Bridge Community. Each course contains video, audio, links to reading material, assignments, exercises and questions to build and then demonstrate your mastery of the material. Real mastery of a subject means the ability to apply it in a variety of circumstances. So the actual goal of this course is that you are able to apply the principles and practices of bhakti in your life at a high enough standard to be awarded Hari-nāma Initiation.
Sādhana and Initiation
In this section you will receive instructions on maintaining your sādhana and preparing for spiritual initiation. While taking this course you are expected to maintain the following standard of personal sādhana:
- 4 regulative principles
- 16 rounds of mahā-mantra daily
- Chant Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma
- Regular scriptural study
- Weekly video web conference with your Teacher
- Regular donations to the Community according to your means
- Regular participation in the online Forums and daily Evening Darshan program
This routine will require approximately 3-4 hours per day. This is not difficult if you are willing to simplify your lifestyle to make time for it. Once you pass the Bhakti-śāstrī I examination, you will be awarded Hari-nāma Initiation, where you receive your spiritual name and begin your bhakti-yoga service under the direction of your spiritual master. Initiation means a lifetime commitment; there is no divorce court. If a disciple rejects his guru for any reason other than the guru's falldown from Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is a great offense that carries a severe reaction. So both guru and disciple must be confident in the relationship. If there is any doubt, then one should not accept initiation.
Sanskrit Pronunciation II: Mātrā
Sanskrit pronunciation has three main aspects: mantra [text], mātrā [rhythm] and svara [intonation]. In the Bhakta Degree Program you learned how to pronounce the mantra properly; in this section you will learn mātrā or rhythm. Our text will be Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma, because it contains every possible variation of the common anuṣtupa meter, used in Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and many other Vedic works.
Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma
This course covers the mantras of Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma, a very important stotra (Vedic prayer). You will learn to chant these mantras with precision. Chanting Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma is also a powerful spiritual practice that leads to the solution of all material difficulties and attainment of pure love of Godhead. Thus it recommended for all devotees. Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma is a very important classic Vedic stotra [prayer] which is also considered a mahā-mantra, because it is composed of 108 ślokas of the Holy Names of the Lord. It also contains an introductory Prologue and a Phala-śruti section detailing the results of chanting these thousand Holy Names of the Lord. In the Skanda-Purāṇa, Avantī-khaṇḍa there is an injunction stating that one who reads the thousand names of Viṣṇu can be released from all offenses. It also can cure all diseases and other material problems, and lead to the eternal felicity of complete self-realization, love of Godhead. One who learns to chant this stotra nicely also becomes expert in Sanskrit, because it contains all the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet, and also all combinations of mātrā [rhythm] in the common anuṣtupa meter.
Bhagavad-gītā Introduction through Chapter 9
This course covers the Introduction to Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by Śrīla Prabhupāda. We use only the original 1972 Macmillan edition because it was the only edition personally signed and approved by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Other editions contain thousands of unauthorized spurious posthumous changes made by un-self-realized editors. Śrīla Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā As It Is is the expression of a revolutionary premise: what if we don't interpret Bhagavad-gītā, but simply take Kṛṣṇa's direct meaning based on the standard dictionary definitions of His words? The result is so spiritually potent that it made thousands of people into devotees of Kṛṣṇa. There have been many editions of Bhagavad-gītā both before and since Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, but none of them has had such a profound impact. This is because Bhagavad-gītā As It Is strictly follows the authorized disciplic lineage from Kṛṣṇa Himself. All the others are based on someone's personal opinion or imaginary interpretation; and of course the faulty products of limited human intelligence cannot be compared with the power of the actual words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Kṛṣṇa Book, Part 2: Mathurā-līlā
This section helps you to study Śrīla Prabhupāda's book Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa Book, as it is often called, is a summary study of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is the substance of all Vedic knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda's expert condensation and explanations bring the exalted subject within the understanding of neophytes, but its sweet narrations are just like nectar even for advanced devotees.
Kṛṣṇa Book answers the question "Who is Kṛṣṇa?" I recall vividly when I was a young devotee, I had read Śrīla Prabhupāda's Śrī Īśopaniṣad and Bhagavad-gītā, but still did not have a clear idea of Kṛṣṇa's character and personality. When I read Kṛṣṇa Book, that changed completely. Kṛṣṇa Book awakened my attraction to Kṛṣṇa and made me a devotee. Whether Kṛṣṇa's pastimes described in Kṛṣṇa Book were historically true or not had no bearing on my decision; I was attracted to Kṛṣṇa's values, personality and qualities.
Kṛṣṇa has threefold pastimes: the Braja-līlā, Māthura-līlā and Dvārakā-līlā. In the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are ninety chapters, which describe all these līlās. Chapters Thirty-eight through Forty-nine recount Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in Mathurā, the capital of His father Vasudeva. They describe Kṛṣṇa's going to Mathurā and killing the demoniac Kaṁsa, His Vedic education in gurukula and the extraordinary guru-dakṣinā He gave to His Teacher, and His efforts to please the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana who were suffering separation from Him.
Vocational Training: Vaiśya-varṇa
Completing the Bhakti-śāstri Degree Program gives you the privilege of acting as a Vaiśya in the varṇāśrama-dharma society of the Bridge Community. This means that you will be able to organize and manage a self-supporting community business in the area of your interest and expertise. In our Esoteric Teaching Bridge Community, only Śūdras work for someone else; Vaiśyas are qualified as tradesman and business managers, and they employ Śūdras as necessary in their businesses. Of course, to do this successfully requires knowledge of the unique Bridge Community economic theory, policy and practices. Therefore, several courses in those areas are also provided. As part of your Vocational Training, you will design, create and manage an independent business project. You may opt to delay this project until you actually reside at the Bridge Community; but if you can complete this part of your training while living outside, you may be able to quit your job and have your own independent business.
Ghandian & LTV•K Economics
The contemporary global economic system based on multinational corporations and banks is a cheating process designed to concentrate wealth in the hands of the bankers. Value is created by human labor (work). Even the intrinsic value of resources like gold is realized only because of the work of the miners who extract and purify it. Modern economic systems, whether based on capitalism, socialism or communism, separate the value (product) from the source (workers) and concentrate it in the hands of others. This is fundamentally unfair; and the bad karma from these unfair practices eventually leads to the collapse of the economic system, as we are now experiencing all over the world.
Business Development
This section will be a hands-on project of planning, creating, developing and managing your own small business. You will have regular support from your Teacher and help from other Bhakti-śāstrī students.
Economic Management
In addition, the corrupting force of the unfair economic practices contaminates any organization, society or country that accepts it as the normal way of doing business. Therefore we have designed an alternate economic system, based on the village structure, that reinvests the results of work in community-owned and managed infrastructure that benefits the workers. We derived this system from the work of Gandhi and a modified form of the Labor Theory of Value, therefore we call it LTV·K. You will learn the principles of this new economic theory so that you can function as a productive tradesman and business manager within it.
Click here to register for the Esoteric Teaching University Program
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