Spiritual Master's Words are Disciple's Life and Soul

Srila Prabhupada explains as follows in his purport to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi Lila, Chapter 7, Text 72:

"Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja comments in this connection, 'One can become perfectly successful in the mission of his life if he acts exactly according to the words he hears from the mouth of his spiritual master.' This acceptance of the words of the spiritual master is called srauta-vakya, which indicates that the disciple must carry out the spiritual master's instructions without deviation. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura remarks in this connection that a disciple must accept the words of his spiritual master as his life and soul. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu here confirms this by saying that since His spiritual master ordered Him only to chant the holy name of Krishna, He always chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra according to this direction."

Therefore if we will follow the perfect example of Lord Caitanya by being fully obedient to the orders of our spiritual master, our spiritual perfection is guaranteed. Indeed, it is already there.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Srila Prabhupada Instructs His Disciples

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How is There a Disciplic Succession from Arjuna?

Respected HG Sankarshan Das Adhikari Prabhuji,
Hare Krishna,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I am a thirteen year old girl in Sacramento and I have recently (four weeks) subscribed to your e-course.

As I was reading the introduction of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, it was stated on page 4 : "Here the Lord clearly tells Arjuna that He is making him the first receiver of a new parampara (disciplic succession) because the old succession was broken. It was the Lord's wish, therefore to establish another parampara in the same line of thought coming down from the sun god to others, and it was His wish that His teachings be distributed anew by Arjuna."

Please help me understand the following: I think that according to this passage, all the acharyas who have appeared after Arjuna are in Arjuna's disciplic succession, since at that time , Krishna did not give instructions to anyone else. However, when we look into the list of gurus and disciples on page 34 of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, we see that the name of Arjuna is not mentioned anywhere. This is contradicting the passage in the introduction.

I am confused, and I would appreciate it if you could clarify this point.

Hari bol,
Your servant,
Arati Dasi

Answer: All of Krishna's Devotees are Followers of Arjuna

I am most happy to hear that you have joined our e-course. I hope that you find it helpful for the development of your Krishna consciousness.

Even though Arjuna's name is not mentioned in the list of our disciplic succession coming from Lord Brahma, we and all of our acharyas are in the disciplic succession of Arjuna because we are all following in his footsteps by surrendering ourselves to Krishna. Anyone who surrenders to Krishna is in the disciplic succession of Arjuna.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari