WARNING: Deities of today's ISKCON are not bona-fide.
If the spiritual master is not bona fide, then is the Deity also not bona fide?
Prabhupāda: Daṇḍavat class(?). Surrender means you must abide strictly the orders, sad-dharma-pṛcchā, ādau gurvāśrayam. To accept a guru means... Śiṣya means one must agree to be governed by the spiritual master. That is called śiṣya. Śiṣya... Śās-dhātu. From śās-dhātu all these terms—śāstra, śiṣya, śāsana. These are words derived from the root śās-dhātu. Śās-dhātu means śāsana, governing. The governing is done by military, governing is done by lawbooks, governing is done by personal instruction, so many things. So śiṣya means who voluntarily accepts to be guided or being governed by the representative of God. That is śiṣya. Yes.
Devotee (3): In regard to worshiping arcā-vigraha form, you have explained that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master who is not bona fide, that mantra has no effect. So I would like to ask if one is worshiping a Deity and his spiritual master is not bona fide, so that Deity cannot be considered the Supreme Lord?
Prabhupāda: Well, first of all, thing is if the spiritual master is not bona fide, how his mantra can be bona fide? Your statement is contradictory. If you say the spiritual master is not bona fide, then how his mantra becomes bona fide? If he is bona fide, then his mantra is bona fide.
Devotee (3): Then why is he giving instruction to worship the Deity? If the spiritual master is not bona fide, then is the Deity also not bona fide?
Prabhupāda: I do not follow. What does he say?
Devotee: His idea is that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master, if the spiritual master is not bona fide...
Prabhupāda: Then there is no question of mantra. There is no question of worshiping Deity. These are all bogus things. If you are not... Just like here is a young medical man. If he has not received instruction from a bona fide medical college, so what is the value of his medical, being... That is... What is called? What is the technical name?
Devotee (4): Quack.
Prabhupāda: Quack! (laughter) (pronounces like "quark")
Devotees: Quack.
Prabhupāda: A quack is not a medical man, however he may show all red bottles, white bottles. There is a Bengali proverb, naj jal yac curi tini ei daktar.(?) One stethoscope, naj(?), and some bottles, jala, and talking all nonsense, he becomes a doctor. That means the quack doctor, not a... Qualified doctor, he knows what is what. So naj jal yac curi tini ei daktar(?). In Bengali they say. And mostly in villages they go on like that. But of course, they have got some experience. I know in Allahabad there was a doctor, Kabhir, a Dr. Kabhir. And because in my previous household life I was a chemist and druggist, I was supplying medicine, so he was my customer. So he had that... This Dr. Kabhir was a compounder. Later on he practiced. So he had very, very big prac... He was my biggest customer. He was purchasing medicine like anything. But he had experience. He learned from an experienced doctor. He cannot be called a bogus, because whatever he learned, he was... But generally, one who is not a bona fide doctor, he is called a quack.
So anything, experience required, not that you have to go to the medical college. If you are trained under a bona fide doctor, then also you can get the quality of a doctor. Similarly, the whole thing is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). One should go to the bona fide spiritual master to learn this transcendental science.
Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.41-42 -- Surat, December 23, 1970
Comments
"So anything, experience required, not that you have to go to the medical college. If you are trained under a bona fide doctor, then also you can get the quality of a doctor. Similarly, the whole thing is tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). One should go to the bona fide spiritual master to learn this transcendental science."
Simple and easy anywhere Vaisnava prayers...
Mantra prayers to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates should be spoken before chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra
sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu-nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara
srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
I offer my obeisances to Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasa and all others in the line of devotion.
Mantra prayer to Srila A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Chaitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
Mantras for applying sacred tilaka.
om keshavaya namah
om narayanaya namah
om madhavaya namah
om govindaya namah
om vishnave namah
om madhusudanaya namah
om trivikramaya namah
om vamanaya namah
om sridharaya namah
om hrishikeshaya namah
om padmanabhaya namah
om damodaraya namah
Prayers for Offering Food to Krishna
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-paschatya-desa-tarine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Chaitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
namo maha-vadanyaya
krishna-prema-pradaya te
krishnaya krishna-chaitanya-
namne gaura-tvishe namah
O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.
namo brahmanya-devaya
go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya krishnaya
govindaya namo namah
My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world.
You can also chant the Pancha Tattva and Hare Krsna mantras three times:
sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu-nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
“I offer my obeisances to Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasa and all others in the line of devotion”
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Prayer to say before eating a meal.
sarira avidya-jal, jadendriya tahe kal
jive phele vishaya-sagare
ta’ra madhye jihva ati-, lobhamay sudurmati,
ta’ke jeta kathina samsare
krishna bada dayamay, karibare jihva jay,
sva-prasadanna dila bhai
sei annamrita pao, radha-krishna-guna gao,
preme dako chaitanya-nitai
O Lord, this material body is a lump of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death. Somehow, we have fallen into this ocean of material sense enjoyment, and of all the senses the tongue is most voracious and uncontrollable; it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world. But You, dear Krishna, are very kind to us and have given us such nice prasadam, just to control the tongue. Now we take thisprasadam to our full satisfaction and glorify Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, and in love call for the help of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda.
Prayer to devotees.
vancha-kalpatarubhyas ca
kripa-sindhubhya eva ca
patitanam pavanebhyo
vaishnavebhyo namo namah
I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. They can fulfill the desires of everyone, just like desire trees, and they are full of compassion for the fallen souls.
Hare Krsna...Jaya Srila Prabhupada.