By His Holiness Danavir Dasa Goswami

SRINIVASA ACARYA FINDS HIS DIKSA GURU

Srinivasa Acarya, accompanied by a companion, traveled to Puri to see Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. During the journey, however, he learned that the Lord had disappeared from the world. Srinivasa was devastated and was prepared to commit suicide. Fortunately, that night Lord Caitanya and Nityananda appeared to Srinivasa in a dream. They consoled the grief-stricken young Srinivasa and bade Him to make his way to the Gopinatha temple in Puri to take shelter of Gadadhar Pandit.

Upon reaching Puri, Gadadhar Pandit told Srinivasa: "Just before Caitanya Mahaprabhu passed away, He instructed me to teach you the Bhagavatam. He knew that you would arrive in Puri one day and He asked me to explain Krishna-lila to you. I cannot teach you Bhagavatam at this time, O young Srinivasa, for the manuscript in my possession has now become illegible due to the profusion of tears that I have cried on its pages."

At Gadadhar Prandit's request, Srinivasa himself was sent back to Bengal to get the Bhagavatam. He procured the Bhagavatam from Narahari Sarakara Thakura but upon returning, he found out that Gadadhar has passed from the world. Although heart-broken he was encouraged by many eminent Vaisnavas to journey to Vrndavana and take shelter of Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis. Traveling by foot, he set off for Vrndavana. Only four days before arriving in Vrndavana, Srinivasa heard that Sanatana Goswami had recently passed away. Then when he reached Mathura, but one day's walk from Vrndavana, he learned that Rupa Goswami had passed away only three days earlier. Hearing this, Srinivasa fell to the ground crying like a madman. He felt that he was the most unfortunate person in the entire universe. Every step, from his proposed meeting with Mahaprabhu, to his studying Bhagavatam with Gadadhar Pandit, to his meeting with Rupa and Sanatana, had all failed.

Srinivasa sat beneath a tree and wished for his own death. At this time however, Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis appeared to him in a dream and encouraged him to proceed to Vrndavana. There he visited the temple established by Rupa Goswami, Radha-Govinda Mandira and met Srila Jiva Goswami. Jiva Goswami who introduced him to Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Later Srinivasa accepted Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami as his initiating spiritual master. Srinivasa was a contemporary and all but a few steps away from the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Gadadhara Pandit, Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatana Goswami. But They each disappeared from his sight, leaving him seemingly alone. If ritvik initiation had been an option, certainly Srinivasa would have been the most eligible candidate to partake of it. But ritvik initiation is not valid therefore Srinivasa continued his devotional service and ultimately approached the junior Gopal Bhatta Goswami.

We empathize with devotees who are pained at having missed the chance to take diksa directly from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, but they should follow the example of Srinivasa Acarya who proceeded on with determination, knowing that the Lord had a plan for his deliverance. It is further revealed by the acaryas that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Himself personally ordained that Gopal Bhatta Goswami would initiate Srinivasa. This further substantiates the fact that such arrangements are divine, not accidental or simply formality.

"I HAVE INSTRUCTED EVERYTHING IN MY BOOKS" — SRILA PRABHUPADA

"So I preferred to come to Vrindavana. If death takes place, let it take here. So there is nothing to be said new. Whatever I have to speak, I have spoken in my books. Now you try to understand it and continue your endeavor. Whether I am present or not present, it doesn't matter." (Arrival address: Vrndavana, May, 1977)

Since whatever he had to speak, he spoke in his books, let us then try to understand what's in Srila Prabhupada's books in regards to his disciples becoming diksa gurus:

"A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world." (Nectar of Instruction, 1)

kiba vipra, kiba nyasi, sudra kene naya

yei krsna-tattva-vetta, sei 'guru' haya

"As far as Krsna consciousness is concerned, everyone is capable of becoming a spiritual master because knowledge in Krsna consciousness is on the platform of the spirit soul.

"The word guru is equally applicable to the vartmapradarsaka-guru, siksa-guru and diksa-guru. Unless we accept the principle enunciated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, this Krsna consciousness movement cannot spread all over the world." (Sri Caitanya Caritamrta 8.128 Purport)

"One who is now the disciple is the next spiritual master." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.43 Purport)

"As already stated, Brahma is the original spiritual master for the universe, and since he was initiated by the Lord Himself, the message of Srimad-Bhagavatam is coming down by disciplic succession, and in order to receive the real message of Srimad- Bhagavatam one should approach the current link, or spiritual master, in the chain of disciplic succession. After being initiated by the proper spiritual master in that chain of succession, one should engage himself in the discharge of tapasya in the execution of devotional service." (Srimad Bhagavatam, 2.9.7 Purport)

WORD JUGGLING

Prabhupada: Yes, it is, this movement is started from Krsna.

Mohsin Hassan: Yes.

Prabhupada: Then, from Krsna, Narada. From Narada, Vyasadeva. From Vyasadeva to Madhvacarya, from Madhvacarya to Isvara Puri, Madhavendra Puri, then Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then His disciples, the six Goswamis, then Krsna dasa Kaviraja, then Baladeva Vidyabhusana. So we are taking account very rigidly from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and I am the tenth generation from Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Mohsin Hassan: Yeah, the tenth. After you, is it any decision has been made who will take over?

Prabhupada: Yes. All of them will take over. These students, who are initiated from me, all of them will act as I am doing. Just like I have got many Godbrothers, they are all acting. Similarly, all these disciples which I am making, initiating, they are being trained to become future spiritual masters.

Mohsin Hassan: How many swamis do you initiated, American? I'm speaking just on…

Prabhupada: About ten.

Mohsin Hassan: You have ten swamis. And outside of swamis, what's the lower…

Prabhupada: Now, they're competent. They can, not only the swamis, even the grihasthas, they are called dasa adhikari, and brahmacaris, everyone can, whoever is initiated, he is competent to make disciples. But as a matter of etiquette they do not do so in the presence of their spiritual master. This is the etiquette. Otherwise, they are competent. They can make disciples and spread. They can recruit more members in this. They do, but they are being trained up. Just like here in this meeting, one of my disciples, he is acting as priest. It is not myself; he is acting. So some of my students, they are acting as priests, some of them are swamis, so they are competent to make disciples.

Would you not agree that, in short, Srila Prabhupada is saying that he expects his disciples to become spiritual masters and accept disciples after his departure? But ritvik theory advocates say that none of Srila Prabhupada's disciples should take disciples. In fact, their newest wordjuggling leader pleads that when Srila Prabhupada says "granddisciple" he doesn't really mean the disciple of his disciple. Here is Srila Prabhupada's actual statement.

Prabhupada: They're his disciple. Who is initiating. He is granddisciple. When I order, "You become guru," he becomes regular guru. That's all. He becomes disciple of my disciple. That's it.(Room conversation: May 28, 1977)

I know it is a little cruel to my reader, but nevertheless I must include a portion of the word-juggler's argument just to demonstrate the extreme lengths to which people will go in order to rearrange concepts which they find unpalatable. Here is the juggler's interpretation of the above excerpt.

"Also there is no reason to suppose that Srila Prabhupada did say 'He's' as opposed to 'His', since such an interpretation would not make any sense. The pronoun 'He' (from He's) before the term 'grand-disciple' refers to the person BEING initiated, the initiate, or the 'grand-disciple'. However in straight-forward standard English the pronoun usually refers to the immediate antecedent (the term that the pronoun follows).

In this case that term is 'who is initiating'. It is obvious therefore that in this case the pronoun CANNOT be 'HE' because how can the INITIATE, the person being INITIATED, or 'grand-disciple', simultaneously be the person 'who is initiating'!…

Even if we allow for the antecedent that the pronoun refers to, to not be the most immediate, there is actually NO antecedent for the pronoun 'HE' to refer to in the whole conversation, since the speaker Srila Prabhupada has never previously mentioned nor alluded to the initiate, or the person BEING INITIATED, in the singular. The only time previously in the conversation that the speaker or the questioners, ever mention the initiate, it is ALWAYS in the plural. '(Yes, THEY are disciples.') Thus a speaker cannot just introduce a pronoun that has no antecedent. It does not make sense. In other words the 'HE' has to REFER to something. But it can not refer to something that has not yet even been mentioned…

However the use of 'His', does make sense, since this use CAN be consistent with the most immediate antecedent, 'who is initiating'. In this case the 'HIS' MUST refer to Srila Prabhupada since the 'ritvik' cannot have grand-disciples. Srila Prabhupada would then also be the person 'who is initiating'"

This is pure nonsense. The juggler cannot follow Srila Prabhupada's simple explanation. Instead, intending to rid the world of gurus, the juggler wants to make Srila Prabhupada the initiating spiritual master and the grand spiritual master at the same time. Must we accept this nonsense?

Lord Krsna's words get twisted too. Man-mana bhava mad-bhaktau:

"One need not submit to Krsna as a person, but to "the unborn within Krsna." Sripad Sankaracarya, the pure devotee Lord Siva incarnate, finally advised his followers to desist from manipulating grammatical suffixes and prefixes and just surrender to Lord Krsna, bhaja Govinda, bhaja Govinda, bhaja Govinda. In the same way, the sincere followers of Srila Prabhupada should stop wasting time hypothesizing about antecedents and instead get on with the duty of assisting Lord Caitanya's sankirtana mission by becoming qualified, bonafide gurus.

ONE YEAR MUTUAL EXAMINATION PERIOD

Did you know that there is a scriptural injunction for a one-year mutual examination period before taking initiation? Ritvik theory eliminates the mutual testing between guru and disciple. In ritvik theory, the guru has no say in the matter, only the self-appointed ritvik channeler calls the shots. This statement from Srila Sanatana Goswami defeats ritvik theory and shows how mutually personal the initiation process is.

"Therefore it is said in the Hari-bhakti-vilasa that one year should be taken to study one another, the guru and the disciple. The guru also will see whether the person is fit to become a disciple, and the disciple also will see "Whether this gentleman can become my guru." (Lecture: August 10, 1974)

"Before accepting somebody as spiritual master you must know about his bona fides. That time is allowed. It is said in the sastra that if you like to accept somebody as spiritual master, you should associate with him at least for one year, see how things are going. If you follow of course others, that is also good. But personally, it is advised that you just remain with the proposed spiritual master for at least one year, so that the spiritual master is also given chance to study you, whether you are acceptable. This is the process." (Lecture: January 30, 1974)

Originally published in http://www.oneiskcon.com/diksa-or-ritvik-part-three-2/