My dear Satsvarupa Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. I have been instructed by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada to reply your letter dated July 25th, 1977.
"Srila Prabhupada explained the difference between first and second initiation as follows: “Why do you believe in rumors, that first initiation is not so important as second? I have already said that it is equally important, but you say rumor. Actually first initiation is more important. You can go without second initiation; if the first initiation is executed very thoroughly that is sufficient. First initiation stands strong. The spiritual master accepts the disciple’s sinful reactions upon giving first initiation. The Vedic system was to give the sacred thread at the first initiation. We are following Pancaratriki. Vedic initiation was given to a person born to a brahmana. That is not possible in this age. Therefore he has to be prepared by Hari Nam initiation and then second initiation. He is given a chance. Therefore others protest that I am giving initiation: He is not born of a brahmana, how can he be initiated?”
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YOU MUST TAKE DIKSHA, OR YOUR SERVICE IS USELESS !
"Unless one takes shelter of a bonafide, fully Krsna conscious spiritual master, there is no chance of understanding Krsna... ....Only one who has surrendered to a pure devotee of Krsna can understand Krsna." [SB 7-5-32]
"Unless one is initiated by a bonafide spiritual master, ALL his devotional activities are USELESS.
A person who is not properly initiated can again descend into the animal specie." [Madhya Lila 15 .
"One should take initiation from a bonafide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, who is AUTHORIZED by his predecessor spiritual master. This is called dikshan-vidhana. [SB 4.8.54]
"Unless one takes shelter of a bonafide, fully Krsna conscious spiritual master, there is no chance of understanding Krsna.... Only one who has surrendered to a pure devotee of Krsna , and has taken the dust of his lotus feet can understand Krsna..... One must take shelter of a self-realized spiritual master, that is the way to return home, back to Godhead." [SB 7.5.32 purport]
According to the Vaiṣṇava regulative principles, one must be initiated as a brāhmaṇa. The Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (2.6) quotes the following injunction from the Viṣṇu-yāmala:
adīkṣitasya vāmorukṛtaṁ sarvaṁ nirarthakam
paśu-yonim avāpnotidīkṣā-virahito janaḥ
“‘Unless one is initiated by a bona fide spiritual master, all his devotional activities are useless. A person who is not properly initiated can descend again into the animal species.’”
Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (2.10) further quotes:
ato guruṁ praṇamyaivaṁsarva-svaṁ vinivedya ca
gṛhṇīyād vaiṣṇavaṁ mantraṁdīkṣā-pūrvaṁ vidhānataḥ
“‘It is the duty of every human being to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master. Giving him everything — body, mind and intelligence — one must take Vaiṣṇava initiation from him.’”
"One should not proudly think that one can understand the transcendental loving service of the Lord simply by reading books... One must accept a Vaisnava guru (adau gurv-asrayam), and then by questions and answers one should gradually learn what pure devotional service to Krsna is. That is called the parampara system." (Cc. Antya-lila 7.53, purp.) — AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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