Satisfaction of the mind can be obtained only by taking the mind away from thoughts of sense enjoyment. The more we think of sense enjoyment, the more the mind becomes dissatisfied. In the present age we unnecessarily engage the mind in so many different ways for sense gratification, and so there is no possibility … Read more
On the 16th of February 1957 a meeting was held at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to discuss the above subject matter. Distinguished gentlemen from different categories spoke on the subject, but practically nobody could give us a definite direction as to what actually the matter was that was troubling the whole situation.
This feeling of pinching in the existence of our life is a good sign for progress. It is an urge for enquiry what is the wrong in the world that gives us trouble? This trouble is not a new thing but it is a matter of permanent settlement in all the days of life, but it may be felt at different times in different colour. The troubles are in varieties in relation with our mind and body, in relation with our dealings with other living beings and in relation with natural phenomenons.
“I recited all these verses like the blowing wind, how could you remember even one of them” The Lord replied “By the grace of the Lord someone may become a great poet and similarly by his grace someone may become a great sruti dhara, who can memorise anything immediately”.
So in this connection sruti dhara is a very important word. Sruti means hearing and dhara means one who can capture. Formerly at the start of kali yuga, almost everyone, espescially intelligent men, the brahmans, were sruti dharas. As soon as the student heard any of the Vedic wisdom from his teacher, he would remember it forever. There was no need to refer to books, therefore in those days there were no written books.
So the spiritual master delivered the Vedic hymns, along with their explanations, and the student remembered them forever. To become a sruti dhara, one who can remember by hearing is a great achievement for a student. In Bhagavad Gita Krsna says “Note that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of my splendour”. As soon as we find anything extraordinary, we should know this is the special grace of the Lord.
We have experienced from many perspectives how individuals and groups of devotees are dedicated to protecting Srila Prabhupada. We hear this sentiment from the ISKCON camp, from the Rtviks and from other camps outside of ISKCON. In fact, it’s almost become a platitude.
From my perspective, the real challenge lies in coming to agreement on a uniform definition of who Srila Prabhupada is, beginning at the very top level, meaning what spiritual platform he is on. In my mind, making such a determination begins with coming to a determination of whether he is a nitya-siddha or a sadhana-siddha. If out of sentiment one says that Srila Prabhupada is nitya-siddha, a designation popularly placed on Srila Prabhupada by some devotees, that in itself is at least a true statement. The question is, what is the level of realization behind the statement.
In the context of ISKCON the question is, what official presentation of Srila Prabhupada is being made that establishes Srila Prabhupada 100% in that position of nitya-siddha? In other words, what are all the symptoms or indications exhibited throughout Srila Prabhupada’s entire life and pastimes that lead us to believe that he is a nitya-siddha? Unfortunately, we find that ISKCON offers no such definitive statement.
Years ago I wrote my Sampradaya Acarya paper, in which I make the argument that Srila Prabhupada is a nitya-siddha, and not only that, but also a Sampradaya Acarya — one of only 32 members of the exclusive guru-parampara list set forth in the Introduction of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Without repeating the main points of that paper, which I encourage our Sun audience to read if they’re so inclined, the fact is that Srila Prabhupada was sent on a mission by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and/or Nityananda Prabhu to spread the Krsna consciousness movement around the world. And if one begins to train their mind to see Srila Prabhupada in that way, then their perspective will change dramatically.
I am very happy to see the new article on Sampradaya Sun by Raya Nitai dasa Vanacari on the new GBC ‘Parallel Lines of Authority’ paper. The points he made are very well presented and his article is well worth a careful reading. He has covered the main points very nicely, I just want to add one small observation.
When I joined ISKCON in 1986, the Zonal Acharya system was in full swing and ISKCON was preaching that their gurus were liberated, self-realized paramahamsas who were on the same level as Srila Prabhupada. At that time they had divided the planet into zones and in each zone, the ‘acharya’ was the supreme and absolute authority. In those days all the authority was with the Zonal Acharyas, and practically the GBC had no authority at all. Each zone was independently managed by the Zonal Acharya.
In the mid 80’s it became obvious to almost everyone that ISKCON’s so-called acharyas were not really pure devotees and were far, far below the transcendental platform of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Many of them fell down very publicly and embarrassingly for ISKCON. There was some confusion for some time and even a short period where many devotees in ISKCON rediscovered Srila Prabhupada and took shelter of him after their gurus fell down. Around 1996, in conjunction with Narayana Maharaja, the GBC published a paper stating that the guru does not have to be a pure devotee, does not have to be liberated, can be a conditioned soul, etc. Then the GBC elevated many of the devotees who were very anxious to get promoted to the platform of guru to the status of “non-liberated guru”. Soon there were more than 100 new ISKCON gurus.
Chapter Six, Journey of Self-Discovery, by HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
“Contrary to popular belief, current statistics show that the earth produces enough food to easily support its entire population. Yet greed and exploitation force over twenty-five per cent of the world’s people to be underfed and undernourished. Srila Prabhupada condemns unnecessary industrialization for contributing to the problem of hunger and for creating unemployment, pollution, and a host of other problems. In the following speech, recorded on May 2, 1973, in Los Angeles, he advocates a simpler, more natural, God-centered lifestyle.
ime jana-padah svrddhah supakvausadhi-virudhah vanadri-nady-udanvanto hy edhante tava viksitaih
[Queen Kunti said:] “All these cities and villages are flourishing in all respects because the herbs and grains are in abundance, the trees are full of fruits, the rivers are flowing, the hills are full of minerals, and the oceans are full of wealth. And this is all due to Your glancing over them.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.40)
Human prosperity flourishes by natural gifts and not by gigantic industrial enterprises. The gigantic industrial enterprises are products of a godless civilization, and they cause the destruction of the noble aims of human life. The more we increase such troublesome industries to squeeze out the vital energy of the human being, the more there will be dissatisfaction of the people in general, although a select few can live lavishly by exploitation.
The natural gifts such as grains and vegetables, fruits, rivers, the hills of jewels and minerals, and the seas full of pearls are supplied by the order of the Supreme, and as He desires, material nature produces them in abundance or restricts them at times. The natural law is that the human being may take advantage of these godly gifts of nature and thus satisfactorily flourish without being captivated by the exploitative motive of lording it over material nature.
A Son helps his Mother Prepare for the Ultimate Test
ARE YOU READY to hear about a miracle? Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with yet another story about some pseudo-miracle-worker. This story is about a seventy-nine-year-old woman completely set in her ways who, at the most difficult time of death, had a change of heart that brought her from the brink of terror to tears of joy.
The woman was my mother. Born Nadine Alma Eastlack, she was conservative to the extreme. Her early life read like a chapter from John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Her family narrowly escaped the dust bowl by migrating from Grinnell, Kansas, to the “Promised Land” of Southern California, landing in the fire of the Great Depression. After struggling to put herself through college and marrying a minor war hero, Leslie Waldo Beck, she attained middle-class status.
While raising me, their only child, in the northern California town of Oroville, my parents both worked — he as a parts manager of a local car dealership, and she as a high school teacher of sewing, cooking, and home economics. My parents watched with pride as their only son excelled in music, scholarship, and athletics, achieving numerous awards culminating in the “Young Man of the Year Award” for the class of 1964 at Oroville High. After high school, I attended UCLA, graduating with honors in 1968 and landing my first job as assistant to the studio manager at Columbia Pictures. About a year later, however, shortly after sweeping my mother off her feet with a whirlwind tour of the studio, I left that promising career, disillusioned with the superficiality of the Hollywood scene.
“My creative urges aren’t being fulfilled,” I thought, so I packed up and moved north to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to pursue a career as a professional musician.
Srila Prabhupada explains that the chanting of the Holy Names of God is not a vibration of this material world and that it is all auspicious and congenial to the human society. It does not matter whether people like it or not. The Holy Name is imported from the spiritual world and thus it … Read more
Sarajevo April 19, 1996 Although we had taken rest at 1 a.m., we rose at 3.30 a.m. to begin a six-hour drive to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. We left Split Temple in a caravan of two vans and four cars, with a total of 32 devotees. Heading south along the coast, we … Read more
GURU-PARAMPARA: THE LIST OF 32
nama om visnu padaya krsna presthaya bhutale srimate bhaktivedanta swamin iti namine namaste sarasvate deve gauravani pracarine nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya desa tarine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krsna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvati Gosvami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
PREFACE
During the ISKCON lila pastime of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, most devotees simply accepted the list of 32 names found in the Introduction of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. There was little discussion about the significance or meaning of this list. A few devotees who had direct access to Srila Prabhupada did question him about it, and we have his recorded responses, such as the letter to Upendra das. We can see by these responses that Srila Prabhupada did not go into an elaborate or extensive explanation of the list.
One could say that we were all such neophyte disciples that Srila Prabhupada concluded we were not capable of truly comprehending the intricacies or the deep philosophical significance of this list. But on the other hand, if today we had the same surrendered attitude towards Srila Prabhupada that we did back then — if we appreciated his position as a truly qualified member of the List of 32 Sampradaya Acaryas — then we would not have to go through the exercise of discussing the significance of the list.
Because Srila Prabhupada is not accepted, even by many of his so-called followers, as a rarified Sampradaya Acarya, there have been many disagreements which have resulted in many problems, both within and without the preaching mission that he established. In presenting this paper, we hope the reader will ultimately come to the same conclusion we have — that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada is unquestionably qualified to be included in the rarified strata of Sampradaya Acaryas, of which there are only 32 going back to Lord Brahma.
By reading this presentation, you will begin to see how what appeared in the beginning to be such a simple thing, has become quite a complicated matter and the source of much conflict. In fact, this phenomenon has likely repeated itself since the beginning of the Sampradaya, particularly manifesting after the disappearance of great devotees like those mentioned on the List of 32. Upon their departure the question arises: who is qualified to be on the guru-parampara list, and who is not? Arriving at an answer to this question is something each devotee must do for himself. We are simply hoping to help the reader make this unavoidable decision, which is essential for spiritual advancement.
We encourage the devotees to reflect upon the expansive period this list encompasses, going right back to the time of Lord Brahma, for whom the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Vaisnava Sampradaya is named. We believe the Sampradaya Acaryas who compose these lists invite us to do just that — reflect upon just how far back the list goes, so that we can see how qualified one would have to be in order to have their name included on the list. The guru-parampara list of 32 cannot be taken lightly or insignificantly.
Rocana dasa April 4, 2012
