Ecstatic Life on the Road

I can think of nothing sweeter than being on the road for the spreading the glories of Lord Sri Krishna all over the world. When we make Krishna the center of all of our relationships, there is no limit how much they can become deeper and sweeter. So all over the world I am tasting ever-increasingly wonderful relationships with so many great saintly Krishna conscious persons. This ever-expanding network of Krishna conscious relationships, in which the members of the Krishna consciousness movement participate, will grow more and more and more until it eventually engulfs the entire world.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Who is the Next Spiritual Master?

In the Bhagavad-gita As It Is Srila Prabhupada stresses the importance of following the bona fide spiritual master and the line of disciplic succession, which starts with Krishna and runs up to himself. Please forgive my ignorance for not being aware of the current situation with ISKCON. I am aware on some level there seems to be area of dispute on the way the organization should be run now that Srila Prabhupada has left his body to join Krishna. My questions is: Who follows His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada as the next in the line of disciplic succession? Please forgive my ignorance on such matters.

P.E.

Answer: The Faithful Disciples

When you are saying that the disciplic successions runs only up to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada your statement is incorrect. The disciplic succession does not stop with Srila Prabhupada. He instructed us, his disciples, that we are the next in the line of disciplic succession after him. He told us this as follows in an arrival lecture given on 18 May 1972 in Los Angeles:

"My Guru Maharaja is tenth from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, I am eleventh, you are the twelfth. So distribute this knowledge. People are suffering."

So the next in the disciplic line are all of those Srila Prabhupada disciples who are faithfully following his instructions. For those who have obeyed Srila Prabhupada to remain within ISKCON, there is no dispute as to how ISKCON should be run. The only dispute exists among those who disobeyed Srila Prabhupada by leaving the spiritual shelter of the wonderful ISKCON that he created. Disobeying the instructions of one's spiritual master is tantamount to spiritual suicide. So we are always hoping and praying that those who have left us will revive their spiritual lives by rejoining us. We are awaiting their return with open arms ready to warmly, lovingly embrace them.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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