One Who Has Taken Bath In The Ocean Of Transcendental Sound, Is The Bona Fide Spiritual Master

[Gavin Swinden]

(so one has to take bath in the ocean of this transcendental sound, then he is bona fide spiritual master) 

 

"Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam (SB 11.3.21): one who has actually taken full bath in the ocean of transcendental knowledge. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Śābde means the transcendental sound. The Vedic words, hymns, are called transcendental sound, and the gist of all such sound is oṁ, or Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma . . .

 

so one has to take bath in the ocean of this transcendental sound, then he is bona fide spiritual master. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. And what is the symptom? Everyone can say that, "I have taken full bath in this transcendental sound," but the symptom is there. What is that symptom?

 

Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam: he has taken shelter of the Supreme Brahman, finishing all material activities. He has no more any material activities. He is simply after the Supreme Brahman, or Kṛṣṇa. This is the qualification."

 

(His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Lecture, April 13, 1969, New York)

[Tamohara dasa ADMIN.]

Then I have qualified since decades ago. Devotees usually put on the show of being so fallen aspiring neophytes, sometimes they even believe it.

After reading Gita As It Is, and attempting to apply same, mystic visions caused me to go join the Hare Krsna Movement and devote my life to that, age 17. So, actually, one who takes shelter of the spiritual master can be said to have at least gotten on the boat. It is like, one has gotten on the elevator to the top floor, then you get out and look around and start to see what is really there.

 

[Tamohara dasa ADMIN.]

Chanting is so powerful, that alone will drive one forward. There is also the special insider mercy that comes from formally taking diksha with a bonafide Vaisnava disciplic succession. Both are in fact necessary, like two rails to run a train on. 

Nimai Pandita was a perfect example. Lord Caitanya was a devotee, obviously, but showed exalted symtpoms only after taking formal Vaisnava diksha .