Conflict Resolution
As long as we remain on the platform of "my opinion" and "your opinion" there will be at least sometimes, if not at all times, conflicts between us. But all conflicts are immediately resolved as soon as we lay aside our opinions and agree to accept as authoritative the opinion of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the only doable formula for conflict resolution. We must educate the human population to understand and implement this because this and nothing but this will bring peace and happiness to all.
Roman
Answer: Don't Take a Guru in the Air
Sometimes we hear it said that one can achieve spiritual perfection by accepting as one’s spiritual master a guru who has physically departed from this material world. The argument we hear is that all you have to do is carefully study his books and follow them to the best of your ability, that this will be just as good as if you surrendered unto him in his personal presence. Although on the surface this sounds like a very reasonable proposition, when we minutely analyze the details of this approach to the guru/disciple relationship this becomes an obvious impracticality.
This impracticality was confirmed by my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At the end of a lecture he have gave in London, England on September 3, 1971 the following conversation ensued:
Indian Lady: How does one contact the spiritual master? Through a book can you contact the spiritual master?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, through books, and also personal. Because when you make a spiritual master you have got personal touch. Not that in air you make a spiritual master. You make a spiritual master concrete.
Srila Prabhupada made it very clear that although one can associate with a spiritual master through his books, personal association is also required, not that simply in the air one takes a spiritual master. Why is it important to have this personal contact with one’s spiritual master? It is essential to have direct personal interaction with one’s guru so that one can make sure that one is actually satisfying the spiritual master by one’s attitude, one’s words, and one’s actions.
Satisfaction of the realized spiritual master is the secret of success in spiritual life. So we have to assuredly know without any doubt that we are pleasing him. If we simply read books and imagine that the spiritual master is pleased with us, our imagination can be wrong. We could be thinking, acting, and speaking in ways that are very much displeasing to him. Without his personal association we would not know for sure whether he is pleased or not.
In May of 1977 Srila Prabhupada met with ISKCON’s leaders and instructed them that after his departure the new devotees would be the disciples of his disciples. In other words, his disciples were to become initiating gurus and have their own disciples. Then as his health deteriorated on July 9 1977, he named eleven of his disciples who would act as his representatives to initiate new devotees as his (Srila Prabhupada’s) disciples while he was still
on this planet. Because Srila Prabhupada was very ill he had to let these eleven handle all of the aspects of initiating the new devotees, who would then be Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. And then just prior to his departure from this world, on 18 October 1977, Srila Prabhupada implemented the system that he had described in May of 1977. He ended the ritvik system of having these eleven representatives initiating the new devotees as his disciples and began the system that now his disciples would become the spiritual masters of their own disciples. As per Srila Prabhupada's order, this is the system that is now in place in ISKCON today. The new devotees accept one of Srila Prabhupada's disciples as their initiating guru and have Srila Prabhupada as their grand spiritual master. Just like you have a father, and his father is your grandfather, in a similar way, you have a spiritual master, and his spiritual master is your grand spiritual master (param guru). Srila Prabhupada said that just as the grandfather is more affectionate than the father, similarly the grand spiritual master is especially affectionate to his grand disciples. In this way the new devotees who join ISKCON get the extra special mercy of Srila Prabhupada and do not miss out in any way on receiving his mercy.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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Answers by Citing the Vedic Version
Question: Is a Living Guru Required for Initiation?
Did Srila Prabhupada ever say that we have to take diksha (initiation) from a living guru? And did Srila Prabhupada on 9 July 1977 set up a system of 11 representatives who would initiate new devotees as disciples of Srila Prabhupada?Roman
Answer: Don't Take a Guru in the Air
Sometimes we hear it said that one can achieve spiritual perfection by accepting as one’s spiritual master a guru who has physically departed from this material world. The argument we hear is that all you have to do is carefully study his books and follow them to the best of your ability, that this will be just as good as if you surrendered unto him in his personal presence. Although on the surface this sounds like a very reasonable proposition, when we minutely analyze the details of this approach to the guru/disciple relationship this becomes an obvious impracticality.
This impracticality was confirmed by my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At the end of a lecture he have gave in London, England on September 3, 1971 the following conversation ensued:
Indian Lady: How does one contact the spiritual master? Through a book can you contact the spiritual master?
Srila Prabhupada: No, you have to associate.
Shyamasundara: "Can you associate through a book?" she asked.Srila Prabhupada: Yes, through books, and also personal. Because when you make a spiritual master you have got personal touch. Not that in air you make a spiritual master. You make a spiritual master concrete.
Srila Prabhupada made it very clear that although one can associate with a spiritual master through his books, personal association is also required, not that simply in the air one takes a spiritual master. Why is it important to have this personal contact with one’s spiritual master? It is essential to have direct personal interaction with one’s guru so that one can make sure that one is actually satisfying the spiritual master by one’s attitude, one’s words, and one’s actions.
Satisfaction of the realized spiritual master is the secret of success in spiritual life. So we have to assuredly know without any doubt that we are pleasing him. If we simply read books and imagine that the spiritual master is pleased with us, our imagination can be wrong. We could be thinking, acting, and speaking in ways that are very much displeasing to him. Without his personal association we would not know for sure whether he is pleased or not.
In May of 1977 Srila Prabhupada met with ISKCON’s leaders and instructed them that after his departure the new devotees would be the disciples of his disciples. In other words, his disciples were to become initiating gurus and have their own disciples. Then as his health deteriorated on July 9 1977, he named eleven of his disciples who would act as his representatives to initiate new devotees as his (Srila Prabhupada’s) disciples while he was still
on this planet. Because Srila Prabhupada was very ill he had to let these eleven handle all of the aspects of initiating the new devotees, who would then be Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. And then just prior to his departure from this world, on 18 October 1977, Srila Prabhupada implemented the system that he had described in May of 1977. He ended the ritvik system of having these eleven representatives initiating the new devotees as his disciples and began the system that now his disciples would become the spiritual masters of their own disciples. As per Srila Prabhupada's order, this is the system that is now in place in ISKCON today. The new devotees accept one of Srila Prabhupada's disciples as their initiating guru and have Srila Prabhupada as their grand spiritual master. Just like you have a father, and his father is your grandfather, in a similar way, you have a spiritual master, and his spiritual master is your grand spiritual master (param guru). Srila Prabhupada said that just as the grandfather is more affectionate than the father, similarly the grand spiritual master is especially affectionate to his grand disciples. In this way the new devotees who join ISKCON get the extra special mercy of Srila Prabhupada and do not miss out in any way on receiving his mercy.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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