англ. название записи: Q&A: The Importance and Power of Diksha in Gaudiya Sampradaya - 2025-04-04 - Sri Prem Prayojan
0:01Yesterday in the morning class when you were talking about Huru Tapa, I was thinking about how can we understand their reconciliation between Bhakti Vinod Thakur's Diksha Guru, which is Vipin Bihari, and, you know, Siksha Guru, Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj, and how he's not mentioning the Bhagavatam Parampara, and it seemed like the siksha guru was not giving prominence to the diksha guru, which is Vipin Bihari Goswami.
0:54That was, I think, maybe it's my confusion, misunderstanding. I was wondering if you can explain a little bit about that particular relationship. So, because sometimes people use that example of saying like, oh, diksha is not so important. First of all, you raise this question that people use this as a historical example to show that diksha is not so important.
1:18So, perhaps you remember yesterday, the question came, Jiva Goswami himself raises this question, that if harinama is not dependent on diksha, you know, in Padyavali, 'na dīkṣāṁ na ca satkriyāṁ', you should say, the holy name doesn't depend on purashcarana, on all types of rituals, including diksha. So, in the Diksha Mantra, it is nothing but the holy name also, but in the dative case, in chaturthi-vibhakti, in the dative case in Sanskrit, and also, there is a bija, and there is a word indicating praṇati, surrender, at the end, and when they are taken together, by the wish of the great sages who have manifested these mantras, the mantras have a special power to establish your sambandha, your relationship with Krishna.
2:13so the mantra, the diksha mantra has the power of the holy name and some also special power as well to establish sambandha; so if naam is not dependent on diksha then why would the diksha mantras even be dependent on diksha? So the answer is that the process of diksha is a pañca-saṁskāra, the five saṁskāras, and we discuss them in some detail, tapa and also what is the deep meaning of tapa, the deep meaning of ūrdhvapuṇḍra and so on nāma, mantra, and yāga. So these five saṁskāras, they're undertaken under the guidance of a guru. And what is the purpose of these five saṁskāras?
2:57paramaikānti-hetavaḥ, they're the cause of ekāgrata-citta, one-pointed consciousness. In other words, they remove from us two defects that we have, vikṣipta-citta, which is distracted mind, and kadārya-śīla, unvirtuous habits, some irreligious habits, which are not favorable, which also become the further cause of more vikṣipta-citta, distracted consciousness. So because the living entity has these two defects, so he cannot experience the actual power of the holy name or mantra. Why? Because what is the power of mantra? What is the power of the holy name? What does the divine śabda do? What kind of dharma does it have?
3:48Remember, what kind of dharma does śabda have? Remember? Yes, sphoṭa-dharma. Sphoṭa-dharma. That means it has the power to burst into your consciousness and self-reveal the divine reality. You see? So actually, dīkṣā means to impart transcendental knowledge, the realization of your Iṣṭadeva and your relationship with him. So this sphoṭa-dharma of mantra has to be experienced.
4:19But unless you come to an ekāgrata-citta, the steadiness of mind, you become free from the kṣipta-citta, the distraction, and free from kadārya-śīla, the irreligious and unvirtuous habits, then until you become free from those, you cannot experience sphoṭa-dharma of the holy name, you see. And that is why the process of dīkṣā consisting of five saṁskāras, which is done under the guidance in the anugatya of the dīkṣā-guru, it prepares your heart so that you can experience this sphoṭa-dharma.
4:57Now look at the second verse of Srimad Bhagavatam. What does it say?
5:32This verse is describing the Bhāgavata, the glories of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, and the way that the Bhāgavata-Guru-Paramparā goes on, the Bhāgavata-Sampradāya. So we have just discussed how the Pāñcarātrika-dīkṣā takes place. So if there's a Pāñcarātrika-guru and he gives mantra and he trains the devotee through the five saṁskāras, he removes those two faults, then that disciple can experience, he can have the darśana of the mantra, you see, and then he becomes qualified to then give the mantra to the next person and it becomes a Pāñcarātrika-guru-paramparā and all this is according to Vaidhī-bhakti, it's in arcana-mārga, right, but it's not enough to awaken Vraja-bhāva,
6:36This process of Pāñcarātrika-vidhi is not powerful enough to awaken the moods of the resonance of Vraja, for that Rāga-mārga is the Śrī-rāga-mārga, and that is the Bhāgavata-mārga, understand? So in the second verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said, sadyo means immediately, avarudhyate, atra, Krishna becomes trapped in the heart, that means becomes bound by your love, so Krishna Vṛndāvana is only bound by that love that comes from Rāgānuga, not from Vidhi, you see, Vidhi gives you Vaikuṇṭha-bhāva, and Krishna Vṛndāvana, he cannot be controlled by that, you see, so, and how is Krishna trapped within the heart, how is he captured by the spontaneous love that comes from Rāgānuga-bhakti, immediately, 'sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate 'tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tatkṣaṇāt', kṛtibhiḥ means by the refined persons, by the accomplished persons,
7:41śuśrūṣubhiḥ, when they hear this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then Krishna becomes trapped in their heart. You see? Now what does that mean? The question comes, what's the mean? Who are the kṛti? Who are the accomplished persons? Who are the refined persons? So it means those persons who have overcome vikṣipta-citta and the kadārya-śīla. And how did they overcome it? It may be that some person has already come to this level by his previous life. And in this life, he just may meet a Bhāgavata-guru and he'll get everything. But as a general sense, the Pāñcarātrika-vidhi works together with the Bhāgavata-mārga in such a way, let's say, you're a fallen person with a disturbed mind and bad habits. Then by the mercy of your Dīkṣā-guru, he takes you through the Anutāpa, the repentance, the turning towards the
8:44transcendental world, the ūrdhva, and nāma, and then you're cleansed a little bit and you're coming towards Madhyama-adhikārī, opens the door to Madhyama-adhikārī by giving the dīkṣā mantras and trains you in arcana, and in this way your heart becomes steady, you get to the stage of ekāgrata-citta, and then that guru passes away, he leaves this world. Now what will happen? If you, now you've become kṛti, an accomplished person, you've become refined by the process of dīkṣā, 'labdhvānugraham ācāryāt',
9:28kṛtibhiḥ, śuśrūṣubhis tatkṣaṇāt, it's from the 11th canto, Krishna said, the person who has labdhvānugraham ācāryāt, he is labdha, he has attained anugraha, mercy, ācāryāt, from the ācārya, how? tena-sandarśitāgamaḥ, he has been taught according to the āgama-śāstras, that means tantra, here, Vaiṣṇava tantra, what's the main Vaiṣṇava tantra? Pāñcarātra, Nārada Pāñcarātra, Brahma-saṁhitā is the Vaiṣṇava tantra, there are so many Vaiṣṇava tantras, okay, so he's been trained in this, and mahā-puruṣa-abhyarcana, he learned how to do arcana, to the Mahāpuruṣa, Supreme Lord, mūrty-abhimata-ātmanā, and he's serving according to his own abhimāna that guru has given.
10:17This is actually a relation to the Śālagrāma-śilā, because a devotee may have a Śālagrāma-śilā, but the Śālagrāma-śilā is not a svarūpa of God. Supreme Lord has no like a Rasagulla svarūpa incarnation, like a bull. So the Śālagrāma-śilā is not actually a svarūpa of God. The Shalagram Shila is called bhagavad-arka-adhiṣṭhāna, that means the place where the svarūpa of Bhagavan manifests.
10:46So let's say there's one Shalagram Shila and someone's worshipping that Shalagram Shila as Lord Narayan because they have a mantra to Lord Narayan. So according to his Abhiman, then in that Shalagram Shila the svarūpa of Lord Narayan will manifest.
11:07And gopala, O damadha, some svarūpa of Krishna all manifest, you see. At some point, not now, but maybe you could explain why is it that some Shalagram Shilas are called, for example, govinda shilas, damadha shilas and so on, shingashilas. Yes, yes, there are some marks on another side, but it may be a shila, it's very smooth, and the body is worth worshipping, it may not have so many distinguishing marks, but according to the diksha mantra and the sambandha given by guru, then you worship, and it's the place where the svarūpa of the Lord manifests, according, mūrtim abhimata-ātmanā, the murti will come according to the abhimat, mūrtim abhimata-ātmanā, you see, so, so this verse is just describing how one receives the mercy of the acarya by becoming refined, becoming kṛti, becoming accomplished person by receiving the pancha sanskars, now you're kṛti, so that person has overcome those weaknesses, he's in a position to immediately experience the spirit of the
12:08sphoṭa dharma of Harikata. So when he meets a Maha Bhagavat Vaishnava, who is the embodiment of Srimad Bhagavatam, and he's speaking, Venu-gita, Pranay-gita, gopi-gita, because he's refined, as that devotee is listening, it's just like going to the theatre, he's seeing it, he's experiencing it like that, and because he's experiencing it, and he's seeing Radha Krishna, he's seeing their associates, and his greed comes to follow the associates, and he enters into Raganuga Bhakti, it's a real thing, it's not speculation, bhakti has to depend on sphoṭa dharma, the progress that we make internally in our so-called bhajan, if it's not supported by the internal degrees of sphoṭa, internal degrees of revelation of the holy name, then we're relying on the prakrit mind, and that is called prākṛta-sahajiyā, that is the, we're relying on sahajiyā, that is the nature of the prakrit material elements, you see, so bhaktisvāmi-sūtaka,
13:12calls that putalikātā. Putalikā means like a mannequin or a doll. If there's a shop and they're selling clothes, they don't have live models in the window, right? They have a mannequin and they dress up the mannequin in the clothes. So it looks like a human, but it's not a human. It's an imitation of a human, you see? So when we internally try to do bhajan and manasik seva, but without taking the support of the sphoṭa dharma of the holy name, then it's actually not real bhajan, it's a mannequin, or a model, or imitation of real bhajan, so that's called pautalikātā, from putalikā, is the mannequin, or the doll, and pautalikātā, is that which has the nature of being an imitation of real life, but not real life itself, you see, so by the process of diksha, then you become a kṛti, you become a refined person,
14:14and then when you hear the Srimad Bhagavatam, just pure harikata, then one enters into ragamarga and can directly attain Krishna prema just by hearing. So it may be that your diksha guru refines you and then you hear a kathā from him and then you go into ragamarga. But in many cases the diksha guru will give diksha and then he'll leave because it may take a person a long time to go through the process of diksha and then later in their life they meet a Mahabhagavata and they just hear Harikata and boom. So then you can say well which is the prominent connection? Which is the prominent connection? Right? So the Diksha guru was essential and important but without the Bhagavat Guru the person you can only go to Vaikuntha. Even he's worshipping Radha Krishna but he'll go to Goloka not to Braj. Know the difference. The Krishnaloka planet it has an outer section that is called the
15:16Vaibhava of the Goloka planet, and that is called Goloka, and Radha Krishna are there, but they're married, and there's no Parakiya mood, it's Svakiya, it's like Vaikuntha, and the associates there also, they know that Krishna's God, the Vedas, personified, are offering prayers to him, that's what Krishna showed to the brajavāsis when he dunked them into the Brahma Hrad, and they saw, and it's like, oh, it's just like where we came from, but it's different somehow, Krishna's sitting on a throne, and he's serious, and the Vedas are in praise. Where are we? This is a strange place. Oh, there's no hunger here. If there's no hunger here, how will Mata Yashoda live? She has to feed Krishna, Makhan, every day. And they didn't like it. Why? Because it was Goloka, it wasn't Braja. It was the opulent manifestation of Braja. So that's the outer aspect of the planet that those who worship Radha Krishna in Vaidhi Bhakti can attain.
16:12But higher than that, inside that is Dwarka, and then inside that is Mathura, even higher, and then inside that, that is the Antarmandal, the inner portion of the Krishna Loka, that is actually called Braja, Gokula, or Vrindavan. This is explained in Laghu-bhagavatamrita.
16:42That place which is known as Goloka is the Vaibhava Prakash of Gokula, Gokula, O Vrindavan, where there's Parakīya-rasa, where no one even has a guess, they cannot understand that Krishna is God, he's just the son of Nanda and Yashoda, Lord Narayan can be God, that is our goal, an object, it can only be attained by Raganuga Bhakti, you see, and then outside of that is Mathura, and then Dwarka, and then Goloka, which is the Vaibhava Prakash, so Rupa Goswami directly described all these things in Bhagavatamrita, so here you see, the diksha was important to prepare the person, and Bhagavat Guru was the most important, because you would not attain the Raganuga Bhakti, and enter into the Braja and
17:40Siddhanta is there, we sing it every morning, so profound, you see, so don't let anyone take whatever, some historical circumstances say, this proves diksha is not so important, you know, it might not be so important, if you've got so many samskaras from your previous life, just meet the Bhagavat Guru, away you go, no problem, just like Shukadeva Goswami, he just heard the Bhagavatam, he didn't have diksha mantras and everything, he received a Brahmamantra, anupeta-kirtan means he never underwent all this kirti, this purification and refinement, because he was already a liberated soul before he appeared, the moment he was born, he went to the forest and renounced everything, so that's an example of a person for him, yeah, diksha is not important, right, but are you like that?
18:34Did you just, like, the day you were born, just take Sannyas, leave home, and completely absorbed in Brahman? No. So then, Diksha is important, and Diksha Guru is important, you see? But it may be that the person who gives you Diksha is also your Bhagavat Guru that takes you further, or it may be that it's someone else.
18:56And so the two systems, the pāñcarātrika-mārga and the Bhagavat-mārga, they work. There are synergy between them that bring us to perfection. So before getting into the argument of the historical details of Vipina Bihari Goswami, Jagannath das Babaji, know Siddhanta first. How can you analyze, how can you interpret history if you don't know Siddhanta? And on the other hand, you can't just reverse engineer the Siddhanta by looking at the history, right? That's what the person's trying to do. They're trying to reverse engineer the Siddhanta by looking at the history and say, well, look, here's the situation, and it proves that Diksha's not so important, and that's the Siddhanta.
19:36You can't do that. Idea, history, that's not our, our Pramana is Shabda Pramana, Shastra. And that Shabda Pramana also can be interpreted, the Shabda Pramana, in a weak sense and in a strong sense. Like in a sādhāraṇa-rūḍhi-vṛtti, that is in an ordinary sense, and vidvat-rūḍhi-vṛtti. So Shabda is Pramana in an ordinary sense that we should know what's right and wrong from the scripture. Like Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita,
21:10and it gradually revealed to him Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, you see, so this thing, don't think I'm making up these words, sphoṭa Dharma, it's directly there in Srimad Bhagavatam about the appearance of the Shastra and how it gives direct internal realization and that's why it is Brahman, that's the, not the soft meaning, the hard meaning, we have to come to that level, you see, this is the difference between the Kanishtha Adhikari and the Madhyam, when your Kanishtha Adhikari Guru says, yes, chant Hare Krishna, remember Krishna, so you're chanting and you're remembering, but you're not really chanting and you're not really remembering, you just don't understand that you're not really chanting and remembering, but Guru cannot, because the kathā for Madhyam Adhikaris, it will crush you, if you hear it right in the beginning, it's just like, oh my god, it's impossible, right, so it's very, the kathā for the Kaniṣṭha Adhikaris, is the kathā of Arcan-marga, yeah, because Archan, what do you do, you come in front of Radha Krishna,
22:21and you say So if you're a Pujari, you have to serve the deity, you have to learn all of these verses.
23:10I'm doing smaraṇa, but this is arcana, it's not actually the anga-bhakti called smaraṇa, it's the sub-anga, it's a sub-limb of smaraṇa within the category of arcana, you see, that's why Gurudev said, when you do bhajan, it's arcana, you see, because it's not actual bhajan, he said, but when I do arcana, it's bhajan, because if Gurudev is serving the deity, he's not just remembering some mantras and thinking of what the meaning is, he's actually there in Vrindavan, in his svarūpa-mañjarī, and serving Radha and Krishna, you see, so this is the meaning, when you are doing bhajan, actually you're doing arcana, because what you're thinking is chanting, what you're thinking is remembering, it's not actually, you see, because some angas of bhakti, they're just one thing, let's say about 64 angas of bhakti, so for example it says, if the deity is going on procession in the street, you should follow the deity, so that anga bhakti is one thing, here comes the deity, let's follow, but some angas of bhakti, they're like a complex of many
24:13many different things. So, Arcana is one of those things. In Arcana, there is, you know, putting on tilaka, taking a bath, putting on tilaka, remembering your Gayatri mantras, cooking in the kitchen, for the deity is also Arcana, offering Arati, even collecting all the ingredients, the paraphane, it's all, these are all parts of Arcana. So, for the Kanishtha Adhikari, he's hearing, chanting and remembering, it's actually all parts of Arcana, understand? It's all, he's not actually doing about it, but he doesn't understand it.
24:47He doesn't have the capacity to realize what actual Sravan, Kirtan, and Smaran is. And therefore, when the Kanishtha Adhikari is described, what does He say?
25:05The Prakrita-bhakta, He has strong faith in Arcan. Now, someone may say that, okay, I'm not a Madhyam Adhikari, but I'm not so bothered about Arcan, and I like to do Bhajan and Smaran, all of these things. but it's not a choice, you don't have a choice between Archan and doing Bhajan in the Prakrita stage, your Bhajan is still Archan, because that's the Adhikari of the devotee in that stage, so this verse is correct, Arca-yām eva haraye pūjāṃ yaḥ śraddhayehate, he has faith in Archan, because he's bound, because that's who he can understand, so gradually after becoming śṛti, somewhat refined and accomplished, Then you can hear the katha, which is for the madhyam adhikaris. And then you start thinking, oh, this bhakti is not as simple as I, as I originally thought.
26:02Srila Prabhupada's translation of this verse, by the way, arcāyām eva haraye pūjāṃ yaḥ śraddhayehate, is fantastic. It's more of a bhav anuvad. He translates the verse what's there, but in the translation, he adds more things to bring out the meaning. He said, the Prakrita Bhakta has not yet made a complete and serious study of the Shastra in order to understand what the actual standard of pure bhakti is.
26:30Now, that's not actually in the Sanskrit of the verse, but Prabhupada mixed that into that verse to let us know the inner meaning and significance of that verse. Understand? That's why Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he says, shabḍārtha, shāstrārtha is not shabḍārtha. The meaning of the Shastra is not the meaning of the words. If you only take the words, you won't get it. You have to hear the words from the lips of Sri Guru to be properly orientated and have a properly adjusted understanding of the words of the Shastra. You see? So, I understand it. This is why I've come here.
27:11because the time has come, you have to hear the katha, which is the primer for the madhyam stage, so now, now we come, now we've made the platform of the siddhanta, now we can, but we should not interpret siddhanta through history, we have to interpret the history through the lens of siddhanta, now come to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was 42 when he received diksha from Vipina Bihari Goswami, he was 42 years old, Who's the older than 42 years old here? So you can imagine, his guru 42 years old, and his guru was how old? 30 years old, right? At the time. Yeah, yeah. Who's younger than 30? Can you imagine?
28:13Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's guru was about 30 or 31 years old, and he was 42. Now he was born in a very illustrious Goswami family in the line of Jahnava Thakura, in the community of the Goswami community of Bhaknapara, a very famous family he was born in, and he was a learned person, and he was a nice Vaishnava, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura at that time in his life was very inspired by him and he respected him so much and he's written very nice things about Vipina Bihari Goswami, Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written very nice things about him, so don't disrespect Vipina Bihari Goswami, so Bhaktivinoda Thakura was very grateful for that influence of Vipina Bihari Goswami in his life at that point in his life.
29:08We also have to say that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, being an eternal associate of the Lord, is having a pastime of going through the stages, you know, and in order to revitalize the whole flow of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's pure Siddhanta, among the communities where the Bhagavata marga was kind of forgotten and the emphasis was on the pancreatic marga and even though people speak about Raganuga Bhakti, Raganuga Bhakti, because they don't really understand Raganuga Bhakti, they confuse Raganuga Bhakti to be a kind of archan, you see, just like in the stage of archan, you don't really know what smaran is, but you'd be, but, to Vrindavanam, now I'm meditating on Vrindavan, right, you're really doing archan, so then the Kanishtha Adhikari, when he thinks of Raganuga Bhakti and he reads,
30:03He's thinking that this Smaran in Radha Marga is the same as the Smaran that he's doing. So basically he's doing Archan, but he kind of more Vrindavanizes it. He Astakalilaizes it. But doing the Archan style of Smaran, but taking the content which is meant for those in Radha Marga is not actually Radha Marga. It's Pauttalikata.
30:58Now yesterday we were discussing how when a yogi comes in the state of an ekagrata, if he thinks of something, his chitta transforms and becomes exactly that object. So what happens if you're in ekagrata and you're focusing on the associate of Krishna? Your chitta transforms and becomes just like them. Then you can follow the next verse.
31:48Right? So your eleven bhavas is not like to, in your mind, make a photo-fit image of what you're like in the spiritual world. That's not how you, that's not the meditation on the Siddha Deha. When you're in Eka-agrata, and you become absorbed, Krishna and an associate, when you put the emphasis on the associate, your citta transforms, and your citta becomes just like that associate, because that's the nature of the citta in that state.
32:14the technical term in the yoga sutra is called samapati and Naradmuni explains that in Srimad Bhagavatam, he says,
32:31Naradmuni, he says, there was one little worm called telkata, oilstone worm and he's trapped in a small hole by a bee, a wasp but the wasp is too big, he can't get into the hole but he wants to get in to eat him and so that worm is terrified, he's trapped and there's this big wasp there, you can imagine how terrifying it is for him and he becomes so absorbed in the wasp that he transforms and he himself becomes the wasp and then he flies out in a new body, you see, that's the example given by Narada Muni and that example is given by Jiva Goswami to explain how you get your Siddha Deha, it's by āveśa in remembering the associates, that's why
33:17Rupa Goswami only gives two verses to explain Raganuga Bhakti, sadhana, kṛṣṇaṃ smaraṃ janaṃ cāsya, remember Krishna along with the associate, residing, braj, enlist to kathā-rati, about their loving relation, and then, sevā sādhaka-rūpeṇa, and every, all the kanistha-adhikaras are scratching their head, well, how'd you get the siddha-rupa? So, I know what it must be, someone gives you a list, right? And without that list, you can't do Raganuga, you can understand the layers of confusion, they never heard prabhu-siddhanta, but how you, if you're actually in that stage you'll understand it clearly, of course if you become absorbed in the associate and your innate ananyata, then your chita just transforms and there's āvirbhāva, an appearance of your soul and then you follow the next verse, it's obvious to someone who's in that stage who's experiencing it or someone who knows, because if you're experiencing it then you can understand what the shastra is saying, actually, and explain to others, you see, so, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura,
34:22Therefore, in his pastime, because these misunderstandings, kind of, we can say, the archanization of Radha-marga had come about. Therefore, in order to change the whole and uplift and purify the whole Vaishnava society, he had to take diksha within the Vaishnava community as it was accepted at those times. We could say, in one sense, it was a kind of infiltration.
34:47He had to go in there, and be friends with everyone, and then together, uplift, and correct, the whole, because the sampradaya was going off the track, and the greater charit is common, and they do a course correction, you see, so that's what the seventh Goswami was doing, but what happened, he was very respectful, always, to Vipina Bihari Goswami, and Vipina Bihari Goswami himself, also promoted his, he was very proud of his disciples, Bhaktivinoda Thakura is so great, he really respected him a lot, and he promoted him a lot. And the preaching was going on in a very nice way. And they made together the Navadvipa Dhama Pracharini Sabha. But just before leaving this world, Bhaktivinoda Thakura in 1915, he told Srila
35:34Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he said, the corrupted seed of the conception of Rupa Kaviraj will enter into the Navadvipa Dhama Pracharini Sabha like the poison of a snake and it will spoil everything. And Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura said, I promise you, when that happens, I will do everything in my power to crush it and make sure that pure bhakti is still flowing.
36:02And so after Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura left, or even just before he left, he lamented that all the influence of Apasampradaya that he pushed down by his preaching was creeping back into the whole sangha. the sangha had expanded too fast, the sangha and his preaching was expanding exponentially, and what happens usually if you don't boil the milk, if you just expand without the training, more and more specific training, then what happens is, then all the apasampradaya tendencies, they creep back in, and that happened just before Bhaktivinoda Thakura left, and he warned Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura about this, and so then Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura afterwards, he broke away from his brother, Lalita Prasada,
36:47Thakura, and the Pracharini Sabha, and Vipinabihari Goswami, and so on, and established the Gaudiya Math, because he was trying to explain vidvat-ruti-vritti, an actual siddhanta, and to wipe away the tendency towards the Pautulikata, and Prakrita Sahajiyaism, but they were not listening, they had too many preconceptions about what bhakti is, they thought, I know, I know, and they weren't listening, and who are you, you're the, you know, we know Bhakti Vinoda Thakura, and we're the, you know, we're, and he his guru and everything, you're just his son, who are you, what do you know?
37:22So he broke away from the Navadvipa Dhama Pracharini Sabha, and said, okay, I'm going to start from scratch, and start with Gaudiya Math. And we were saying the other day, he gave a definition of the Gaudiya Math, he said, what is the Gaudiya Math? He said, in a world which is filled with the ajnana-rudi-vritti of sounds, the ignorant understanding of sound, just like the kanistha-adhikaris reads,
37:55They're still doing archana, they have not, they're not depending on the sabda-dharma, why, but why is the name not producing the sabda-dharma, because they're not kirtaniyas yet, they haven't been refined yet, and they're buried in so many nam-aparadhas, because they haven't deeply heard nam-tattva from a nam-tattva-vit guru, to free them, you know, if a person's tied up, they can't get out, someone who, only someone who's who's free can untie you and make you free. So when we're covered in the nam-aparadhas and because of that the name, the seed of the name isn't sprouting. You see the English word sprout comes from spout, it's a cognate. So that's not happening. So you're tied up by only someone who's free, whose nam-tattva-vit can come and delicately untie everyone and free us. You see? So, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura said,
38:51in the world which is filled with the ajnana-rudi-vritti of words, the Gaudiya Math is the place of the divine descent of the vidvat-rudi meaning of words, that's the definition of the Gaudiya Math, according to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, you see, so it's very, very important, and it was just his 150th anniversary, and so I translated this Gaudiya Darshan, and all the different details about vidvat-rudi, ajnana-rudi-vritti, sadhana, rudi-vritti, there, explained there. And even after 150 years, it was never translated into English before. So it's very important. This book is very important. Study it carefully. So, what happened was, after Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura left this world, due to the ajnana-rudi-vritti of understanding the scripture, there was so much confusion, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati established Gaudiya Math. Now, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has already discovered Mayapur, the location of Mayapur,
39:57Mahaprabhu's birthplace, but the community in which Vipinabihari Goswami was staying, they started to say, actually, Mahaprabhu was on the other side, in Ramachandrapura, on the other side of Rudradwipa, actually, and you can go there now, there's a temple, it says, Prachina, the original birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that temple that says, the ancient, original birthplace of Mahaprabhu, it didn't open until 15 years after Bhaktivinoda Thakura established the Yoga Pitha, A typical thing in India, you know, there's the real place, and then some competitor who wants to get the pranami in the donation box, you know, they set up next door and say, Prachina, this is the Prachina, the ancient, original place, so that's what happened, and so then, all that community, they're on the case of Vipinabihari Goswami, said, no, no, that's not the side, this is the side, and it became somewhat uncertain, you see, and so, and also, if the, if
41:02Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, if Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura had emphasized Vipinabihari Goswami, then they would have appropriated the charisma of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and his preaching success and said, you know, we are, you know, we are the real, we are the main line and so on. So because of the controversy, not that it happened while Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was alive, but there was a big controversy came after he passed away from this world.
41:34So, Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura, to not legitimize what was going on and conclusions in that community, which was against the location of the Yoga Pitha and the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, so he put the emphasis on Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja. So, generally, the Diksha Guru and the Bhagavat Guru, they're both very, very important, they're essential and they work together to bring us to perfection.
42:02But in this particular case, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura decided to put the full emphasis on Jagannatha Dasa Babaji as the Bhagavat Guru of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura because actually he was much more influential and especially playing the role of bringing Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura into Raghunatha. Of course, he's always in Raghunatha, but he's having a pastime.
42:26so in his life, Jagannatha Dasa Babaji was more influential and much more advanced, you know, Vipinabihari Goswami was in his thirties, Jagannatha Babaji Maharaja was in his hundred and thirties so there's no comparison, he was the Vaishnava Sarvabhauma, he was considered the greatest Vaishnava, Sarvabhauma means in all three dhams, Navadvipa, Puri, and Vrindavan, everyone saw his, who was the topmost, Vaishnava Sarvabhauma, you see, so there's no question in the stature and comparison, there's no comparison, he was the main person, most influential person. And it was Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja himself who had the vision and confirmed, yes, this is the birthplace of Mahaprabhu. And then he was walking, he says, oh, this is Srivasa Thakura's house, this is where
43:15the Chand Kazi's men broke the mridanga, this was the Advaita Acharya's house, this was Gadadhara Pandita's house, this was Chandrasekhara Bhavan. So Bhaktivinoda Thakura discovered the birthplace, Mayapur, but when he he brought Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja to give the stamp of approval, then he located all the others, and he even told Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura how to make the altars, make Gaura-Narayan in the center with Vishnu Priya and Lakshmi Priya, it's a Goloka Tattva actually, and then put the Pancha Tattva on one side and Radha Madhava on the other, there was many profound reasons why, if you come and perform Navadvipa Parikrama with us, we can discuss all of these things, please come on Navadvipa Parikrama next year, so, so Srila Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja,
43:58that's very much, there's no doubt about it, he was the most influential person, so the main connection is through him, you see, and, and actually, what happened was, just be, also just before Bhaktivinoda Thakura left, some of the Brahmins in the, that Bhagnapara Vaishnava community, they were saying, we are Brahmins, and the Brahmins are the gurus of everyone, you see, so Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Mahaprabhu gave him a Govardhana Shila, you know why, because he wasn't a Brahmin, so he's not qualified to worship Shalagrama Shila, This is a big insult. How can you say that Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, the Prayojana Tattva Acharya, the incarnation of Rati Manjari, is not qualified to worship Shalagrama Shila, but you are. This is a guru aparadha. Severe offense. And this type of philosophy was going in that, and it was a family line. Because you see, Varnashrama Dharma, archana is integrated with Varnashrama Dharma.
44:59There's a kind of overlap between the archana-marga and Varnashrama Dharma. And so because of that, because they were really pancharatrika in spirit, but they archanized raga-marga, so it wasn't really raga-marga. And because of that, they had the seminal succession. I'm a guru, my son is the next guru, and his son is the next guru, like that.
45:24So it was like a mixture of archana-marga and Varnashrama Dharma acting as if all this is the pure raga-marga, you see? And so only a person born in a Goswami family could have the name Prabhupada and everyone else was Vaishnava dasa anudasa. Now Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, our Srila Prabhupada of ISKCON also, Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura, Ramananda Raya, they were not from Brahmin families.
45:59You see? And also this is why Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura didn't give diksha to Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura because it would be like starting another family line. That's why he wouldn't give him diksha, you see? So he took diksha from Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji Maharaja and he was the role of like a Bhagavat Guru and Shiksha Guru to him. But he didn't give diksha because he didn't want to start another, a seminal line that's called Jati Gosai, Jati Gosai.
46:30It's one of the, it's one of the, it's one of the, it's one of the, it's one of the, it's one of the, that you think the parampara has to be based on birth, so that community was involved in this big controversy, and Bhaktivinoda Thakura was supposed to go there and enter into a debate with them, but because of his respect for his diksha guru, he didn't want to do that, and he had a pastime of illness, so he sent his young son to go and represent him, and that's where Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura gave the lecture called Brahmin and Vaishnava.
46:59Have you read that lecture? It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And he won the debate and defeated everyone and established that a Vaishnava is superior to a Brahmin and anyone from any caste, when he becomes a Vaishnava, he can worship Shalagrama Shila. So, there was a lot of, let's say, controversy in that community, and we're not going to hold Vipinabihari Goswami responsible, but he's kind of inseparable from the Baghnapara Goswamis, who, and even today, I'm not giving any blame on them. I know many of them, and I have great respect for them.
47:37But at that time, there was a controversy, so Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura, he decided that he would emphasize, put the emphasis on Jagannatha Dasa Babaji Maharaja, and not on that family line, and thereby invest them with the type of historical authority over his descendants, over his Anugata-jana in the future, you see. Now, the Bhagavat Guru Parampara, first of all, the Bhagavat Guru Parampara is described, the principle of Bhagavat Guru Parampara is described in the Sandarbhas of Jiva Goswami. If you want, you can watch, I was on the Nama Ras podcast, you can see that episode, and I go into a lot of detail, giving many pramanas from Shastra on that subject. So that's a subject for another day, next year when I come, if you want, we can have one day only on that subject, Bhagavat Guru Parampara.
48:29So the concept wasn't invented by Bhaktisiddhanta, it's an eternal truth, but those who are in arcana-marga don't understand it, and that's why they say it doesn't exist, even when it's written in the Sandarbhas, they can't see it.
48:44Even one person said to me, oh, this Bhagavata Guru Parampara which is described, it just means the line in which the book was passed down. What are you talking about? The Bhagavatam himself says, when you hear the Bhagavatam, you smell the lotus feet of Krishna, that you become touched by the fragrance of the kumkum from the breast of Radhika that's on the lotus feet of Krishna when you listen to Harikatha, that's what the Bhagavatam says, and you're saying, passing down the Bhagavatam means giving the book to the next generation, that's what you're talking about, the Bhagavatam himself said,
49:20You see? So they can't, they're clueless. They don't even understand that they're two margas, two paths, and they're different. And even the criteria for Kanishtha, Madhyama, and Uttama are described differently in Shastra, whether it's the pancaratrika-marga or the Bhagavata-marga. So Jiva Goswami described all of these things. So what happened is, what I'm saying is, Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura didn't invent this.
49:46It was already in Shastra, the principle, but the actual instantiation of that principle, that is the names of the acaryas in our Bhagavata Guru Parampara, that also didn't come from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura, because what happened is, when this controversy came up that Raghunath Das Goswami couldn't worship the Shalagram-shila, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was disgusted, and he took a pen and paper, and he wrote: Rupa Goswami, Raghunath Das Goswami, Krishnadas Kaviraj, Narottama das Thakur, Vishvanatha Thakur, Baladeva Vidyabhushana, Jagannatha das Babaji, like that, and himself, he wrote it on a piece of paper and he stuck it on his door. He himself wrote the specific Bhagavata Guru Parampara that we follow. And Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura just took that and then extended it until we come to the present day. You see, that's the history of it.
50:47So, we don't want to say Vipina-vihari Goswami is bad, we don't want to say the Diksha Guru is unnecessary, first understand the Siddhanta, and then with a very generous heart, being very gracious, and with great respect to Vipina-vihari Goswami, and also without diminishing or minimizing or delegitimizing the present-day Goswamis of Bhagavata Guru Parampara, we honor them, but if there's some mistake or misunderstanding in Siddhanta, it should be corrected in a gentle way, and in an encouraging way. We don't want to offend because they're also Vaishnavas. Even a Vaishnava whose understanding is not perfect is also a Vaishnava. We should be very generous to everyone. So don't use this type of historical controversy to try the purity of Siddhanta and don't use it as a hammer to beat people over the head and persuade them about something or make Vaishnava aparadha to anyone. Be respectful to all Vaishnavas. Interpret the situation through the lens of Siddhanta.
51:47But no, there was some controversy, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura did what was in the best interest for their, those who've taken shelter of them, to progress. And what they did was always exactly in line with pure Siddhanta, okay?
52:05Gaura Premanande!
