Prabhupada : When the brahmana asked the woman who the man lying on the floor was, she answered that he was her spiritual master and that she was perplexed about who to do in his absence. At such a time the Supersoul immediately appears, provided the devotee is purified in heart by following the direction of the spiritual master. A sincere devotee who follows the instructions of the spiritual master certainly gets direct instructions from him from Supersoul. This is confirmed in Caitanya-caritamrta : guru-krsna- prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija. If the devotee serves his spiritual master sincerely, Krsna automatically becomes pleased. Yasya Prasadad bhagavad - prasadah. By satisfying the spiritual master, one automatically satisfies Krsna. Thus the devotee becomes enriched by both the spiritual master and Krsna. The Supersoul is eternally the friend of the living-entity and always remains with him. The Supersoul has been ready to help the living-entity, even before the creation of this ma
MASTER (14)
"So in the material world the varieties are reflection of the spiritual world. Here is also father, but this is imitation father. But there is also father, but that is not father..... It is imitation father. A friend is imitation friend. Real friend is Krsna. Real father is Krsna. Here husband, imitation husband. Real husband is Krsna.
Master, imitation master. Real master is Krsna. We have to give up this imitation."
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.2 – January 10, 1968, Los Angeles
Subject: Fw: Srila Prabhupada speaks: Yes. A spiritual master must have seen Kṛṣṇa. Without seeing, he cannot be spiritual master.
Srila Prabhupada Speaks out:
Yes. A spiritual master must have seen Kṛṣṇa.
Without seeing, he cannot be spiritual master.
Srila Prabhupada..."Yes. A spiritual master must have seen Kṛṣṇa. Without seeing, he cannot be spiritual master. But how Kṛṣṇa can be seen? Kṛṣṇa can be seen by love. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena [Bs. 5.38]. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. Just like if you are in love with somebody, you can see him constantly—he is always on your eyes, anyone you love—so similarly, Kṛṣṇa also can be seen by development of love. Otherwise how we can see Kṛṣṇa? He is so great, unlimited. Your eyes, your senses, are all limited. You cannot see the unlimited by your limited sense perception. But you can see... Not you can see, but svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. When you are developed in the sense of love o
Christopher Grimmette shared a post.
Christopher Grimmette
Most of you must of seen this picture of the 11 conditioned souls pretending to be gurus tormenting a picture of Srila Prabhupad our true spiritual master. The destruction of "ISKCON" started with these 11 poisonous vipers.
It was clearly a mistake letting these false gurus languish in their egotistical ways. Loving the devotion of the misguided devotees. Yes it makes one sick.
Now here is the point. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada did not make mistakes. So all you "cult of the guru" lovers who state he ordered these eleven, be elevated to Guru status are grotesquely wrong. You drink from the septic feet of imposters.
Srila Prabhupad looked at them and knew the truth. None of them were suitable. Therefore he proposed a "ritvik" system (priestly instructers) and stated that this was his wish. It was the wish of a spiritual master so high above any of us and they ignored it.
In the decades that have followed
Srila Prabhupada - "If there is no chance of directly serving the spiritual master,
then the devotee does serve him by remembering his instructions only.
There is no difference between the spiritual master's instructions and the spiritual master himself."
We should always remember that a person who is reluctant to accept a spiritual master for initiation is sure to become baffled in his endeavour to go back to Godhead. Such person who is not properly initiated may present himself as a great devotee but in fact he is sure to encounter many many stumbling blocks on his way of progressive march towards spiritual realisation and the net result is that he has to continue the term of his material existence without any relief. Such helpless person is compared with a ship without a rudder as such a careless ship cannot reach her destination. It is imperative therefore to accept a spiritual master if at all anyone desires to gain the favour of the Lord. Service of the spiritual master is esse
Hanumān: Excuse me; I have a lot of questions. I would like to ask you why we are so fortunate to have such a nice, genuine spiritual master as you, and some other have bogus spiritual master. Is it something of karma, or is this the pure mercy of yourself?
Prabhupāda: No, that you can think—your spiritual master is nice, others bogus—but they do not think like that. (laughter) They will think their spiritual master is good, your spiritual master is bogus. But... there is standard who is spiritual master. Spiritual master means who is the best servant of God. One who does not agree the existence of spiritual ma..., ah God, he is bogus because he's not bona fide. Mūḍhā. One who does not accept the existence of God, he is mūḍhā. He's a rascal. He cannot... A rascal cannot become spiritual master.
Hanumān: How come we come to you?
Prabhupāda: That is another thing, but first of all we have to know who is spiritual master. The spiritual master is he, samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (M
Lokanātha: ...five thousand years back, until now, there's only thirty ācāryas...
Prabhupāda: Chain is broken when there are false spiritual masters. Otherwise it is not broken. Chain is broken if a so-called spiritual master speaks something manufactured. Then the chain is broken. Otherwise chain is not broken.
Morning Walk -- September 2, 1976, New Delhi
Sudip Nair said; almost the entire population of young devotees get preached to remain humble, not criticize and not expose anything with the fear of committing Vaisnava Apradha. The poisoners use this tactic to keep them under their control so that no one sees through their deception. And even 99.99% of them ....., have no guts to openly expose the poisoners with the fear of getting...... blocked"
Joshua Davis “It is the duty of the disciples to take charge of the mission of the spiritual master and execute it properly. Otherwise the disciple should decide to die along with the spiritual master. In other words, to execute the will of the spiritual master, the disciple should be prepared to lay down his life and abandon all personal considerations.”
(Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.28.50, purport)
PURPORT
"...This indicates that a devotee’s wife must be prepared to act in such a way. Similarly, a devoted disciple of the spiritual master would rather die with the spiritual master than fail to execute the spiritual master’s mission. As the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes down upon this earth to reestablish the principles of religion, so His representative, the spiritual master, also comes to reestablish religious principles. It is the duty of the disciples to take charge of the mission of the spiritual master and execute it properly. Otherwise the disciple should decide to die along with the spiritual master. In other words, to execute the will of the spiritual master, the disciple should be prepared to lay down his life and abandon all personal considerations.
TEXT 50
citiṁ dārumayīṁ citvā
tasyāṁ patyuḥ kalevaram
ādīpya cānumaraṇe
vilapantī mano dadhe
SYNONYMS
citim—funeral pyre; dāru-mayīm—made with wood; citvā—having piled up; tasyām—on that; patyuḥ—of the husband; kalevar
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
Gurudas Guru said; "We will establish hundreds of temples, and they will all be very opulent. But if we do not follow the instruction of the Spiritual Master, they will just be showbottle. Do you know what showbottle means? It means colored water in a bottle which looks just like medicine, but which does not work."
(Srila Prabhupada, Room conversation NY July 1970)
"It is to be understood that when Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chanted and danced, He did so by the influence of the pleasure potency of the spiritual world. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu never considered the holy name of the Lord to be a material vibration, nor does any pure devotee mistake the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to be a material musical manifestation. Lord Caitanya never tried to be the master of the holy name; rather He taught us how to be servants of the holy name. If one chants the holy name of the Lord just to make a show, not knowing the secret of success, he may increase his bile secretion, but he will never atta
30. Our master said to preach. Let the neophytes stay in the temples and ring the bells.
Srila Prabhupada wrote for Vyasa Puja , 1961
Picture; Moscow
Courtesy Ines Naradic, ie Naradakunda devi dasi; Meaning of Perfect
Prabhupada: Yes. Acarya is explained, bhakti-samsanah: “One who’s preaching the cult of devotional service, he’s acarya.” Then why should you find any discrepancy?
Jayadvaita: Because we see … For instance, sometimes the acarya may seem to forget something or not to know something, so from our point of view, if someone has forgotten, that is an imperfection.
Prabhupada: Then you do not understand. Acarya is not God, omniscient. He is servant of God. His business is to preach bhakti cult. That is acarya.
Jayadvaita: And that is the perfection.
Prabhupada: That is the perfection. Hare Krsna.
Jayadvaita: So we have a misunderstanding about what perfection is?
Prabhupada: Yes. Perfection is here, how he is preaching bhakti cult. That’s all.
Satsvarupa: Prabhupada, in one purport in the Bhagavad-gita, you write that a disciple of a bona fide spiritual master is supposed to know everything.
Prabhupada: Yes, if he follows th
The Nectar Of Instruction is exactly that, instructions for leading a nectarean life in Krishna Consciousness. We begin the path by controlling the senses: Chanting, eating prasadam, having KC children, Krishna Katha, Sankirtan. We advance further by submitting to a spiritual master, who brings us further on the path to KC. By offering up everything to Krishna, we advance. The highest form is prema, total dependence on Krishna, just like Radharani and the gopis.
How does one recognize a spiritual master? The spiritual master is kind and compassionate to all jivas, even animal-bodied ones. The spiritual master works for the upliftment of jivas, desiring all to reach Goloka-Vridavan. But most importantly, the true spiritual master is all about Krishna. The spiritual master can use the most mundane things for the glory of Krishna. The spiritual master turns the dross of material life to the gold of spiritual life by revealing how to follow the regulative princip
