Spiritual Master and Disciple

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

Here in Mayapur, Satyadhana tells a story that he was going next door and one of Prabhupada's Godbrothers: Damadora Maharaja told him that:
"Prabhupada is your Diksha Guru and I'm your Siksha Guru'
..and then he came back later to Prabhupada and said that something really far out happenened: Damador maharaja told me this - and Prabhupada said: "You go back there and tell that I am your both Diksha and Siksha guru'
So generally the Siksha Guru becomes the Diksha Guru also implies that after the initiation take place the siksha also continues and then there is an on going siksha relationship as well, and that is what we see for all practical purposes mostly taking place in our movement, but is not always the case.
A lot of objection has been made or a lot of criticism has been there about the initiations that were maybe just formal diksha and that no training of the disciple and so on…but I think it's fine as long as the disciple is trained up by someone else - that is fine – it does not minimise the role of the Diksha Guru at all – because one devotee came and started to really lament and say:
"I have no relationship with my Guru, it's a very sad story, he never communicates with me and there is no exchange.' ...


The appropriate perspective on this situation is:
'That's fine, accept the mercy that you have received. He has the purity by his commitment to the Paramapara and has connected you to the Paramapara and has got you all the blessings from the Paramapara by the diksha - that is a tremendous blessing that you have got, and now the instruction you may have to get from somehere else.'
So it is a false kind of reasoning that:
'My Guru never writes to me, he doesn't answer my mail' and all these kind of things - it misses the point of understanding that the Guru has done a great thing; firstly by his purity by being connected to the Paramapara and secondly he is giving the blessings by diksha, and siksha may come by the community of the vaishnavas and that is actually fine – there is nothing wrong with that…it is part of the culture we have to have this - Of course there is an injunction that whatever a person learns from a Siksha Guru , it should get confirmed by the Diksha Guru just to avoid contradictions that may arise between the two authorities – but it is obvious in many cases that there will be a relationship with the siksha guru.
Now all these things are very intricate and very complex and I have sometime heard that devotees made a case that:
"We are the ones that are guiding these devotees on a daily basis and the spiritual master only comes from time to time and only sees his disciples some times and therefore the real siksha relationship, the real substance is more with us who are guiding the devotee on a more regular basis"
but that is also not always the case , it can't just be measured by quantity; it maybe that there are some who are guiding on a daily basis but it also maybe that the Diksha Guru, who probably became a Diksha Guru because of his maturity and experience, in those few moments that the meeting is taking place, giving instructions on a deeper level.
I am also remembering Brihat Bhagavatamrita, Gopa Kumar and his Spiritual master had an interesting relationship because his Spiritual Master appears from time to time in his life, and gives short instructions, doesn't explain them, sometime he is even ecstatic and can not express thing properly and Gopa Kumar is stuck with these instructions that he can not even understand properly.
Then he tries to follow them to the best of his ability – but it works because Krishna reciprocates with his sincerity in trying to follow the instructions of the spiritual master faithfully and he gives him the intelligence to somehow or other figure it out in due course of time.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

 

 

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