Persons of Ideal Character

The greatest deficiency of the modern day society is the lack of persons of saintly character. Saintly character means to be solidly fixed in truthfulness, cleanliness, mercy, and austerity. Quite to the contrary, the current society is plagued by dishonesty, unchastity, cruelty, laziness, and hedonism. We are tortured by the administration of leaders who manipulate themselves into power by their expertise in cheating and lying. And consequently no one can be fully happy, peaceful and satisfied. Illicit sex life, meat eating, intoxication, and gambling are considered to be the very necessities of life even though they are wreaking ever-increasing havoc upon the human society. What can be done to put a stop to all this madness? The first step is that we ourselves must become persons of ideal character, persons who are truthful, clean, merciful and sense controlled. These saintly qualities are easily achieved if one regularly chants the holy names of God and associates with persons of saintly character.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Initiation

How may I be initiated?

Emmett

Answer: Become Qualified, Approach Guru

I am very happy that you have inquired from me regarding how you can be initiated. Receiving initiation from a bona fide spiritual master is the most important step that one can take in one's spiritual life. This is why the revealed scriptures mandate that one must become initiated. For example in the Srimad Bhagavatam we find the following verse:

tasmād guruḿ prapadyeta
jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam
śābde pare ca niṣṇātaḿ
brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam

"Any person who is seriously desirous of achieving real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of a spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and arguments and thus be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken complete shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters."
Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.3.21)

My spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has set the standard for initiation as follows: One must be solidly situated in the vow of chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mahamantra every day on japa beads along with strictly avoiding illicit sex life, intoxication, meat eating, and gambling. If you are solidly situated in the above items, then you are qualified for becoming an initiated disciple, and you should inform the spiritual master that now you are ready for initiation. He will then guide you regarding the necessary steps to take in order to become initiated as soon as possible.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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