Download this in PDF format here:
Why is a Guru-parampara Indispensable?
A guru parampara is an uninterrupted succession of devotees who have
surrendered to
their guru. Without such surrender there is
no Krsna -
yasya prasadad bhagavatprasado - yasyaprasadan na gatih
kuto'pi
(Gurvastakam - 8)
Krsna cannot be approached directly; Krsna
will not accept anyone unless he accepts the
attitude of a servant of His devotee in the
form of the guru.
The Srimad Bhagavata (10.14.29) states:
athapi te deva
padambujadvayaprasadalesanugrhita eva hi
janati tattvam bhagavanmahimno na canya
eko'pi ciram vicinvan
[Moreover, Lord, one who has been blessed
with a tiny bit of the mercy of your lotus feet
knows the truth of the your greatness, O
Blessed One. Not some other one pondering it
over for a long time. -Ed.]
and
diksa-kale bhakta kore atma-samarpana
"At the time of initiation the devotee
surrenders himself."(C.c., Antya, 4.184)
Srila Rupa Gosvami teaches in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.74) that the first of
the 64
means of devotion is sriguru-padasraya, surrender to a bona fide
guru, as well as krsnadiksadisiksanam,
"initiation and teaching in
Krsna-bhakti."
The Bhagavata (11.21.15) states mantrasya ca parijñanam - "the mantra is
purified by the
right knowledge." A mantra without
explanation is powerless, and Sri Visvanatha
Cakravarti writes in his commentary on this
verse that one cannot just take mantras or
their purports from books to reach the same
effect -
sadgurumukhat yathavat parijñanam
mantrasuddhih
"The mantra is really pure when it
emanates from the mouth of a bona-fide guru."
guruvaktrad visnumantro yasya karne
visatyayam
tam vaisnavam mahaputam pravadanti manisinah
(Brahmavaivarta Purana, Krsnajanma-khanda, 83.34)
74
"The wise call those persons in whose
ears the Visnu-mantra enters, as it emanated from
the guru's mouth, greatly sanctified
Vaisnavas."
Sri Narahari Cakravarti writes about Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu's receiving diksa mantra
from Sri Isvara Puri:
nija diksa mantra tañre karnete kohiya
loilena mantra bhumi pori pranamiya ||
(Bhaktiratnakara, 5.2103)
"Sri Isvara Puri spoke his own diksa mantra into the ear of
Nimai, who then fell on the
ground in obeisance."
Furthermore, in verse 2109 of the same
chapter it is said:
sampradaya-nivista hoile karya siddhi hoy
anyatra diksita mantra nisphala niscoy
"Success is achieved after entering a
sampradaya (official tradition), otherwise the mantra
in which one is 'initiated' certainly won't
bear fruit."
Success cannot be had by practising a mantra
attained from a book. Such accumulation of
book knowledge is an offence to the guru (guror avajña), which is the third
offence to the
chanting of the holy name. Thus people who
consider initiation unnecessary cannot get
the full benefit of chanting Hare Krsna. It
is also an insult to the vaisnava - pariprasnena
sevaya (Gita,
4.34). One should accumulate knowledge through submissive inquiry from
the saints and by serving them, otherwise
Krsna will never be pleased. Hence the mantra
should also be received in an uninterrupted diksa-parampara, which is at the same time
an unbroken siksa-parampara. The argument 'the holy name is
transcendental and
therefore not dependent on all these external
rituals' will not work, for on the path of
bhakti everything depends on a service
attitude, particularly towards the guru. The
argument that 'only the siksa parampara or bhagavata parampara matters' is also invalid,
for Haribhakti-vilasa (2.4) quotes this statement of Lord Siva from
theVisnu-yamala:
adiksitasya vamoru krtam sarvam nirarthakam
pasuyonim avapnoti diksavirahito janah
"All activities of a non-initiated
person are in vain. A person who is without initiation will
take birth as an animal."
The Brahmavaivarta Purana, (Krsnajanma-khanda, 93.79) states:
na gurur mantradat parah -
"No guru is greater than the
mantra-guru."
75
Sri Advaita Prabhu told His son Krsna Misra
Gosvami in Advaita
Prakasa (21.153-154):
vaisnavera madhye yei sampradaya hine
sampradayi madhye yei gauraga na mane
krsna bahirmukha sei korimu niryasa
"Again, amongst the Vaisnavas, I
consider those who have no sampradaya (and those who
do have a sampradaya but do not recognise
Gauranga) averse to Sri Krsna and I will oust
them."
76
No comments:
Post a Comment