Fighting a War with Maya on Two Fronts

Taking seriously to the path of Krishna consciousness means to declare war against maya or illusion on two fronts. On one hand there is the war within, which is battling it out with our material desires, conquering over them by replacing them all with spiritual desires. Srila Prabhupada describes this internal battle front as follows:

"When we accept any process of self-realization, we are actually declaring war against maya, illusion, and maya is certain to place many difficulties before us."

On the other hand there is the war without, defeating the bogus materialistic propaganda that has completely conquered the human society. Srila Prabhupada describes this external battle front as follows:

"Preaching the cult of devotional service is something like declaring war against materialistic life.:

There is a wonderful synergy between these two battle fronts. The more you conquer the maya within you heart, the more you become empowered to successfully defeat the maya without. And the more you can strongly preach against and defeat the maya in the external world, the more you will find that the maya within your heart has been conquered. So, if you will enthusiastically fight this war against maya on both fronts, putting your full faith in Sri Guru and Sri Krishna, your glorious victory in awakening your dormant Krishna consciousness and in successfully spreading the Krishna consciousness movement to the sleeping souls of this world is solidly guaranteed.

Fighting the War Against Maya--Riga, Latvia--25 April 2015

Testimonial From Dvijamani Gaura Dasa Brahmacari

In 2008, I began to read "Thought For the Day," an important component of the Ultimate Self Realization Course. Every day at my job I would read the daily thought and listen to a lecture to keep myself reminded of the goal of my life. The routine of office work was so humdrum and pointless to me, and I needed someone to direct me along the path of achieving spiritual emancipation. I knew my life had a purpose, and I thought I could find it through independent study and exploration. But I felt myself being pulled along the currents of time, forced to accept the stereotyped mode of living and thinking in the material society. If I didn't find a truly enlightened person to lift me up, then I would continue tumbling down the path to oblivion.

After only a week of following His Grace Sankarshan Das Adhikari's course, I found life within myself. I rediscovered prayer, a practiced I'd abandoned in childhood. I felt that here was the answer to my life's dilemma. My dream of becoming a part of the solution to the fear and darkness covering the world's population was manifesting a tangible path before me. The more I read and listened, the more I was convinced that every fiber of this person's being was devoted to broadcasting the Absolute Truth without any tinge of a personally motivated agenda.

Since that time, His Grace has been expertly and lovingly encouraging me step-by-step down this glorious road of realizing my true identity, and has kindly accepted me as his disciple. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and feel that my life is simply meant for bringing others to the beautiful, peaceful state of consciousness that he has made available with this online course.

Hare Krishna.
Your servant,
Dvijamani Gaura Dasa Brahmacari
Rupanuga Vedic College

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: Is Srila Prabhupada the Only Spiritual Master?

All glories to you and Srila Prabhupada. I am new to Krishna Consciousness and your course. I only started in October 2014. I am confused about when and how one should accept a spiritual master. There are other websites saying that we shouldn't accept a spiritual master except for Srila Prabhupada because even though he has passed, he still lives on in his books. They say Srila Prabhupada never said for anyone else to be spiritual masters and only gave permission to eleven others to initiate on his behalf after he passed. Can you please explain the proper way of having a spiritual master?

Thank you for your time.

Hare Krishna.
James

Answer: Prabhupada Ordered His Disciples to Become Gurus

Once upon a time there was a fox who spied some really wonderful looking grapes high on a grape vine. Eager to sample those grapes he jumped as high as he could to try to reach them but fell short of the mark. He tried again and again pushing himself to jump higher and higher, but no matter how high he jumped he was still not quite able to reach the grapes. Finally defeated in his attempt to taste the grapes he declared that the grapes are sour and walked away.

Recently on this planet there was present the most influential and enlightened spiritual master in world history, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Through his books, his lectures, his letters, his conversations, and his example he revealed the highest truth of Krishna consciousness, which will take anyone who understands and implements it to the highest state of spiritual perfection. Not only did he act as a guru for delivering the fallen souls of this age. He also trained his disciples how they could become gurus as well to continue with the work of delivering the fallen souls of this age after his disappearance. He specifically instructed that after his departure from this world those of his disciples who are strictly following him should continue the disciplic succession by initiating their own disciples.

Some neophyte devotees who were not qualified to become gurus due to their not strictly following Srila Prabhupada's teachings became envious of those devotees who were empowered to become gurus. So they concocted a false philosophy to declare that nobody could be a guru except for Srila Prabhupada. "If I can't taste the grapes, the grapes are sour. If I can't be a guru, nobody can be a guru." Even though the number of these disobedient foxes is very small compared to the number of devotees who are obediently following Srila Prabhupada, through putting up many web pages on the internet they are giving the false impression that there is some substantiality to their concocted views. If you tell a lie long enough, foolish people will start believing it. But those who are wise take the time and trouble to find out what is actually true before they draw any conclusions.

The eleven you mentioned were instructed by Srila Prabhupada to initiate devotees as his disciples between July and October of 1977 when Srila Prabhupada was too ill to be involved with the initiations of new disciples. On 18 October 1977 just days before his departure Srila Prabhupada stated that he would no longer accept disciples, and he authorized his disciples to begin accepting their own disciples.

The proper way to have a spiritual master is to find someone who is a bona fide disciple of Srila Prabhupada, is loyal to the ISKCON institution that Srila Prabhupada created, and who has been blessed by ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC) to initiate disciples. You will know that he is bona fide by seeing that he is perfectly living and speaking the Absolute Truth which is taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. You should then take shelter of that spiritual master, become his initiated disciple, and fully dedicate your life to following his instructions accepting them as your very life and soul. In this way you will become fully absorbed in pure devotional service to Lord Sri Krishna and fully qualified to enter into the spiritual world when you depart from your present material body.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari