Which Place Do You Like the Best?

Here in Kaliningrad at one my lectures I was asked, "You are traveling all over the world and experiencing many different places. So which place do you like the best?" My immediate reply was that since Krishna consciousness is a process of ever-expanding bliss every place I go to is experienced as the best of all places. Especially after I remain in a place for a few days it becomes so sweet that I wonder why I would ever want to leave such a place. How can every place be so relishable here in this miserable material world? This is because anyone who is engaged 24 hours daily in Krishna's service is not living in this material world. They are constantly living in the ever-blissful association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in his wondrous transcendental abode, the spiritual sky. Anyone in any part of the world can easily personally connect with God simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra.

Wisdom that Opens the Door to the Spiritual World 15 October 2011--Kaliningrad, Russia

Wisdom that Opens the Door to the Spiritual World 15 October 2011--Kaliningrad, Russia

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Is the Guru Parampara Still Alive?

‎Dear Gurudeva,
Namaste.

I would like to ask humbly the following question:

The tradition of the teacher disciple relationship continuity is known as guru-sisya parampara. The one who gives the spiritual knowledge is called teacher and one who receives that knowledge with proper attitude is called disciple. Thus the knowledge flows from teacher to disciple in succession spontaneously. This implies that in such successive transmission of knowledge there is no change either in content of knowledge or traditional method of communicating that knowledge. What is the present position in India and elsewhere?

Yours in yoga,

Janardan Mali

Answer: It's Almost Dead, But Is Being Revived.

The original spiritual master is Krishna. Therefore for a guru parampara to be bona fide it must be transmitting in a pure, unmodified form the original teachings of Lord Sri Krishna as He speaks them in the Bhagavad-gita. Sadly, in India and all over the world, the teachings of Lord Sri Krishna have been distorted so much that the genuine guru parampara is practically non-existent. For example in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says, "Surrender unto me", but the so-called gurus say, "Do not surrender to Krishna. Surrender to the unborn within Krishna and within everything."

The good news is that the guru parampara has not been totally lost. It has been kept alive in an unbroken disciplic succession coming down from Lord Sri Krishna and Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This guru parampara, known as the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya, is as follows:

1. Lord Sri Krishna
2. Lord Brahma
3. Srila Narada Muni
4. Srila Vyasadeva
5. Srila Madhvacarya
6. Padmanabha
7. Nrịhari
8. Madhava
9. Akṣobhya
10. Jaya Tīrtha
11. Jñanasindhu
12. Dayanidhi
13. Vidyanidhi
14. Rajendra
15. Jayadharma
16. Puruṣottama
17. Brahmaṇya Tīrtha
18. Vyasa Tīrtha
19. Lakṣmīpati
20. Madhavendra Puri
21. Isvara Puri, (Nityananda, Advaita)
22. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu
23. Rupa, (Svarupa, Sanatana)
24. Raghunatha das Goswami, Jiva Goswami
25. Krishnadas Kaviraja
26. Narottama das Thakur
27. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur
28. (Baladeva) Jagannatha das Babaji
29. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
30. Gaurakisora dasa Babaji
31. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Thakur
32. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
33. Disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Anyone who takes advantage of the above disciplic succession by becoming a submissive student of one of its present representatives will become spiritually perfect and attain the supreme destination of going back to home, back to Godhead. The influence of this sampradaya is being felt all over the world as it gradually brings about a global spiritual revolution.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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