Sadhaka:
“I received diksha from Harikesa Swami in ’83. Then he left us and I don’t see any need to take shelter again to practice raganuga bhakti. I just read the purva acaryas granthas and thereby attain perfection.
There is anyway no true sat guru available for me poor Westerner and I don’t believe in siddha pranali anyway.
Krishna is in my heart, no need to have a living sadhu guiding me.”
Tarun Govinda das:
“I too received initiation from Harikesa Swami in 1991. And yes he left his position as “guru” in 1997.
Fortunately, I was not devastated by his leaving that position. In fact, I was VERY happy for him to be able now to live the life he always wanted to live.
This statement above needs to be seen on different levels.
I can fully understand if devotees felt devastated or betrayed by the guru leaving and giving up his guidance as such.
But Sri Guru is not just a weird “person-cult”-thing. Sri Guru is a “tattva”, “guru-tattva”.
I for my part am very thankful to Harikesa Swami for the mercy he bestowed upon me.
It is utterly unfortunate for both, the disciple AND the guru if the guru decides to leave his position as a guru. Shastra per se doesn´t mention a remedy for such a situation because Sri Gurudeva, if truly qualified, will NEVER leave his position as guru or worse, bhakti altogether.
But shastra highly recommends to again take shelter of a true sat guru and again receive proper diksha initiation from a realized soul.
Srila Jiva Goswami elaborates on the details about a disciple´s decision to leave a guru in a “not-good-standing”…what to speak if Sri Guru gives up being guru or leaves bhakti…
The definitions of a bona fide Guru given by the sastras are as follows:
1) He is filled with realisations about the Personality of Godhead due to his firm faith and his firm adherence to the worship of the Lord. He has attained the grace of his own Guru by being similarly devoted to his Guru`s lotus feet.
2) He is very learned in the Vedas and in bhakti-scriptures that outline the Vedic purport such as Srimad Bhagavata. Thus he can destroy the doubts in his disciples.
3) Because he has transcendental realisations about Sri Krishna, he has attained His mercy-potency. Thus he has become so powerful that he is able to bring the disciple onto the path of bhakti and infuse this power within him.
4) He is not overcome by vices like lust and greed.
A saint who is endowed with such attributes and who is filled with parental love for his disciples, can attain the position of a bona fide Guru. Such a true Guru is able to destroy different obstacles the disciple may find in his bhajana, bless him with prema and bring him to the lotus feet of Sri Krishna. On the other hand, a person who desires to be known as a Guru may have many virtues, like high birth and so on, but if he does not have the above mentioned characteristics, he will not be counted amongst the bona fide Gurus. Therefore a faithful person who is eager to do Sri Krishna-bhajana should take shelter of the lotus feet of a maha purusha who is endowed with the right qualities, receive initiation into Sri Krishna-mantra from him and learn bhajana from him.
So, guru-tattva is a very important and the most vital tattva within bhakti and the process of receiving proper diksha ist completely mandatory.
What is meant with diksha, or initiation? In his Bhakti Sandarbha (283) Srimat Jiva Gosvamipada quotes the sastras to describe the glories of initiation –
divyam jnanam yato dadyat kuryat papasya sankshayam
tasmad diksheti sa prokta desikais tattva kovidaih
“That which bestows divine knowledge and destroys all sins is called diksha by the acaryas who know the truth.”
Sri Jivapada adds: divyam jnanam hyatra srimati mantre bhagavat svarupa jnanam tena bhagavata sambandha visesha jnanam ca – “Here divine knowledge means the knowledge about the Lord`s intrinsic identity which lies within the mantra, along with specific knowledge of the living being`s relationship with the Lord.”
The Hari-bhakti-vilasa is the king of Vaishnava scriptures dealing with the rules for behavior. At the very beginning of this book, the rules for initiation or diksha are given, based on the Krama-dipika, a work by Keshavacharya. There it is said:
vinā dīkṣāṁ hi pūjāyāṁ nādhikāro’sti karhicit –
Without being initiated, no one has the right to engage in deity worship.
(HBV 2.2)
ato guruṁ praṇamyaivaṁ
sarva-svaṁ vinivedya ca
gṛhṇīyād vaiṣṇavaṁ mantraṁ
dīkṣā-purvaṁ vidhānataḥ
(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 2.10)
“It is the duty of every human being to surrender to a bona fide spiritual master. Giving him everything-body, mind and intelligence-one must take a Vaiṣṇava initiation from him.”
adikshitasya vamoru kritam sarvam nirarthakam;
pashu-yonim avapnoti diksha-virahito janah.
(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 2.6)
“Unless one is initiated by a bona fide Spiritual Master, all one’s activities are useless. A person who is not Initiated will surely descend again into the animal species in his next life.”
tathātrādīkṣitānāṁ tu mantra devārcanādiṣu
nādhikāro’sty ataḥ kuryād
ātmānaṁ śiva saṁstutam
A person who has not received Vaishnava initiation has no authority to chant the mantra or to worship the deity form of the Lord. Therefore one should take initiation, by which he will become praised by even Lord Śiva.
(HBV 2.3-4, Bhakti-sandarbha 283)
tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta
jijṣāsuḥ śreya uttamam
śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ
brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam[SB 11.3.21]
“Any person who seriously desires to achieve real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation.The qualification of his spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters.”
CLAIM:
“I don’t see any need to take shelter again to practice raganuga bhakti.”
Now, RAGANUGA-BHAKTI is a sadhana like VAIDHI-BHAKTI. Both these paths run parallel. It is not that RAGANUGA-BHAKTI is the advanced learner´s course and VAIDHI-BHAKTI is the beginner´s course.
It may be that the sadhaka starts practicing VAIDHI-BHAKTI and then later on starts practicing RAGANUGA-BHAKTI.
ajata-tadrisa-rucina tu sad-viseshadara-matradrita raganugapi vaidhi-samvalitaivanushtheya |
tatha loka-samgrahartham pratishthitena jata-tadrisa-rucina ca |
atra misratve ca yatha-yogyam raganugayaiki krityaiva vaidhi kartavya ||
(Bhakti-sandarbha 312)
“Those in whom such taste (ruci) has not awakened, but who have a special interest for it, should engage in a mixture of raganuga and vaidhi. For the sake of establishing an example for the people of the world, the one in whom such ruci has awakened will do the same. Therefore, as appropriate, raganuga should be performed together with vaidhi.”
vaidhi raganuga ceti sa dvidha sadhanabhidha ||
(Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, 1.2.5)
“Practice is of two kinds, namely vaidhi and raganuga.” The word “vaidhi” is derived from the Sanskrit word “vidhi”, referring to the commandments of the scriptures. The word “raganuga” is a compound of two words, namely raga, “loving attachment”, and anuga, “following in the wake of”.
Srila Rupa Goswami in his Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu mentions three main stages within BHAKTI:
sadhana-bhakti, bhava-bhakti and prema-bhakti.
sa bhaktih sadhanam bhavah prema ceti tridhodita ||
(BRS 1.2.1)
“This devotion is said to be of three kinds, namely practice (sadhana), feeling (bhava) and love (prema).”
This applies to BOTH paths. It applies to VAIDHI-BHAKTI and to RAGANUGA-BHAKTI.
There is
– vaidhi-sadhana-bhakti
– vaidhi-bhava-bhakti
– vaidhi-prema-bhakti.
And there is
– raganuga-sadhana-bhakti
– raganuga-bhava-bhakti
– raganuga-prema-bhakti
kriti-sadhya bhavet sadhya-bhava sa sadhanabhidha |
nitya-siddhasya bhavasya prakatyam hridi sadhyata ||
(BRS 1.2.2)
“That which is accomplished through the functions of the senses, and through which a loving devotional feeling (bhava) is attained, is called devotion in practice (sadhana-bhakti). The appearance of an eternally perfected feeling within the heart is called the stage of the attainment of perfection.”
So, clearly BOTH paths start with Srila Rupa Goswami´s glorious instruction:
guru-padashrayas tasmat krsna-diksadi-siksanam
vishrambhena guroh seva sadhu-vartmanuvartanam
(1) Submission to the lotus feet of the Guru (Spiritual Master); (2) Receiving diksha-mantras from him and instructions on bhakti; (3) serving the spiritual master with affection; (4) following in the path of saints.
(Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu 1.2.74)
So, to practice raganuga-sadhana-bhakti, guru-padashrayas tasmat krsna-diksadi-siksanam is utmost important.
INITIATION means receiving DIKSHA-MANTRAS from a LIVING GURU, person-to-person, face-to-face, mouth-to-ear.
For Gaudiya Vaisnavas, the pancha samskara process entails receiving directly from the Guru the five marks of Vaisnava diksha:
(1) Tapa (with tilaka use your fingers or a sandalwood stamp to write the Holy Name of Krishna on your body;
(2) Pundram (tilaka) [Pundram also includes japa and neck beads];
(3) Nama (accepting a new name i.e. Krishna dasa or Radhika dasi [also includes receiving from Sri Guru the Hare Krishna mantra in the right ear];
(4) Mantra (means receiving the diksha mantras from Sri Guru in the right ear) [for Gaudiya Vaisnavas this means Gopala mantra and Kama Gayatri);
(5) Yaga means yajna (homa, fire sacrifice) for some, but for most others it means Sri Murti puja and the nama-yajna of japa and sankirtana of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.
We can clearly see that raganuga-bhakti for sure is based on the instructions of our beloved Srila Rupa Goswami and it starts by receiving the diksha-mantras (initiation) from Sri Gurudeva.
“Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself describes (in Śrīmad Bhāgavata 11.14.26) how the devotee on the path of sacred passion advances and becomes more purified and more obsessed with sacred greed by the day, from the initial stage of surrender to the feet of a guru up to the point in which he directly attains the Lord:
‘The more one’s mind gets purified by hearing and chanting of My beautiful pastimes, the better one is able to discern the subtle reality (of the Self), just as the eye is better able to perceive more and more subtle things when it is treated with medicinal ointment’.”
(Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada, RVC)
Without the mercy of a LIVING raganuga-sadhu, it is extremely difficult to practice raganuga-bhakti, what to speak of attaining the goal.
Sri Sri Raga-Vartma-Chandrika (Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipad), verse 1.6
sa ca bhagavat kripa hetuko’nuragi bhakta kripa hetukas ceti dvividhah. tatra bhakta kripa hetuko dvividhah praktana adhunikas ca. praktanah – paurva bhavika tadrisa bhakta kripotthah, adhunikah etaj janmavadhi tadrisa bhakta kripotthah. adye sati lobhanantaram tadrisa guru caranasrayanam. dvitiye guru caranasrayanantaram lobha pravrittir bhavati. yad uktam:
krishna tad bhakta karunya matra lobhaika hetuka
pushti margataya kaiscid iyam raganugocyate
“There are two causes for the appearance of the aforementioned sacred greed: The mercy of God or the mercy of another anuragi devotee. There are again two kinds of mercy bestowed by a devotee: praktana and adhunika. praktana means mercy bestowed by a raganuga bhakta in a previous life, and adhunika is mercy bestowed in the present birth. The praktana-devotee takes shelter of the lotus feet of a raganuga guru AFTER the sacred greed has arisen in him, the adhunika will get that sacred greed only after having surrendered to the feet of such a guru.
It is said (in Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu): “The only causes of the appearance of sacred greed is the mercy of Krishna or His devotee. Therefore some call the path of raganuga bhakti also pushti marga (the path of grace).”
krsna-tad-bhakta-karunya-matra-labhaika-hetuka
pusti-margataya kaiscid iyam raganugocyate
|| BRS 1.2.309 ||
“The mercy of Krsna and His devotees is the only cause of attaining
raganuga-bhakti . Some call this type of devotion pusti-marga.”
The path of rāga mārga is very rarely attained and hard to understand, and it is very difficult to enter into without the mercy of the great saints that are fixed in bhajana.
(Srila Ananta das Babaji, tika to RVC)
Now, the opponent may say:
“I already received my diksha-mantras from my Gurudeva. Ok, he left the path of bhakti , but the mantras are still valid.”
Actually, diksha initiation is much more than “just mantra giving business”.
The most significant, auspicious, beneficial and beautiful event in person´s entire material existence occurs when he/she receives diksha from Sri Guru. It is a momentous moment of transformation, elevation and elation that permanently establishes one on the path of liberation to the kingdom of God, Vraja prema or Vaikuntha moksha.
The candidate for diksha sits in the sacred space created just beside Sri Guru and Sri Krishna. It is confidential time; private, personal and intimate; hearts exchanging surrender and mercy, shishya sharanagati and Guru krpa.
Although based on thousands of years of tradition, and solid, scientific scriptural evidence, the whole transcendental function is very sweet, loving and above all completely personal. You alone sitting beside God incarnate Sri Guru.
(Madan Gopal das Babaji)
acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya buddhyasuyeta
sarva devamayo guruh
(Srimad Bhagavata 11.17.27)
“You should know the acarya to be Me, never slight or disrespect him or find faults in him, considering him to be an ordinary mortal, for Sri Gurudeva is the aggregate of all the Gods.”
yasya saksad bhagavati jsana dipa prade gurau
martyasaddhih srutam tasya sarvam kusjara saucavat
(Srimad Bhagavata 7.15.26)
“Whoever sees the Guru, the bestower of the lamp of divine knowledge, who is God Himself, as a mere mortal, has all his learning lost, just as an elephant throws dust all over himself after bathing.”
Diksha initiation is a moment of transformation. The relationship between a true disciple and a true guru is an eternal one. It reaches far beyond the visible, “material” realm.
The disciple thus not only “forms” a relationship in the sadhaka body here in this world but also in the spiritual world. When Sri Gurudeva considers that the time is right, he will reveal to the disciple his/her eternal spiritual form. In the practice of manjari-bhava-sadhana, the disciple will get to know not only his siddha deha but the siddha dehas of the whole guru parivar.
Sri Guru Manjari will always be with the sadhaka´s manjari form.
It is not that with the rite of diksha everything is finished. It is actually just the beginning and the process of diksha ends with attaining svarupa siddhi.
diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama
“At the time of initiation, when the devotee offers himself up to the Lord, then the Lord makes him equal to himself. He bestows to the devotee a body which is spiritual like his own so that the devotee can engage in the service of his lotus feet.”
At the time of initiation (diksha) we receive the diksha mantras and during the process of diksha we also receive a very wonderful gift from Sri Krishna: our siddha-deha, our eternal spiritual body.
Diksha is an ONGOING process and siddha pranali is included within this process. It may not be given IMMEDIATELY after the diksha mantras (it usually takes years).
Only Sri Gurudeva knows when the time for siddha pranali is right after checking the disciple thoroughly.
sādhaker jokhon rāganugā mārga lobha hoy,
tokhon sad-gurur nikaṭa prārthanā korile tini sādhaker
ruci parīkṣā koriyā tāhār bhajan nirṇoyer
saṅge saṅge siddha-deher paricaya koriyā diben
When the sadhaka’s lobha for raganuga bhakti is awakened, he approaches his gurudeva with great humility and ask for instruction.
If he does so, the bonafide guru first examines the disciple’s taste and then, along with devising the appropriate bhajan introduces him to his own siddha identity.
(Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta, Part 6, chapter 5)
So if Sri Gurudeva leaves his position as guru or bhakti altogether, how then can the relationship be considered eternal? It needs both, a true disciple and a true guru.
Therefore, if a guru leaves bhakti or stops acting as guru, the “exchange” is broken and the transformation will not yield perfection and a “new exchange”, a “new transformation” needs to take place.
The diksha mantras contain a very special power:
divyam jnanam hyatra srimati mantre bhagavat svarupa jnanam tena bhagavata sambandha visesha jnanam ca – “Here divine knowledge means the knowledge about the Lord`s intrinsic identity which lies within the mantra, along with specific knowledge of the living being`s relationship with the Lord.”
yatha caike tadrisam upasanam sakshad vraja- jana-viseshayaiva mahyam sri-guru-caranair mad-abhishta-visesha-siddhy-artham upadishtam bhavayami ||
(Bhakti-sandarbha 312)
Some of them, while performing such worship through the mantra, contemplate in this way: “I am directly a specific resident of Vraja, and although I am meditating on this mantra, taught by my guru, so that I may attain the specific service of Kṛṣṇa for which I aspire, Vrajendra-nandana, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is directly being served by me.”
I also found another translation of this deep and meaningful verse:
“In such a worship (with the 18-syllable Gopāl-mantra) I meditate to develop myself as a direct, specific person in Vraja as my Śrī Guru’s lotus-feet have instructed me in to attain the specific siddhi I covet.”
So, if a guru “falls down”, leaves his position or leaves bhakti altogether, the diksha mantras received from him will neither establish an eternal relationship with him nor with Sri Sri Yugal Kishor.
Claim:
“I just continue to read the purva acaryas granthas and thereby attain perfection.”
Sure, it is very nice to study the books of our beloved acaryas and thereby having their glorious association, but let us see what SHASTRA says about this:
Without studying under a qualified guru it is not possible to have proper understanding of śāstra.
In Chandogya Upaniṣad (6.14.2) it is emphatically said, that only a person who studies from a teacher aquires the proper knowledge “acaryavan puruso veda”.
We find a similar statement in Bhagavat Purāṇa (3.7.39):
“How can a human being have knowledge or love of God or even true renunciation by his or her own endeavor?”
Sri Canakya Pandit writes:
“The scholar who has acquired knowledge by studying innumerable books without the blessings of a true spiritual master does not shine in an assembly of truly learned men just as an illegitimate child is not honoured in society.
One may know the four Vedas and the Dharma-sastras, yet if he has no realisation of his own spiritual self, he can be said to be like the ladle which stirs all kinds of foods but knows not the taste of any.”
It is very nice and inspiring to find shelter in the books of our wonderful acaryas and our Gurudeva (if he wrote some too) and we certainly can receive direct instructions from the written word.
CLAIM:
“There is anyway no true sat guru available for me poor Westerner and I don’t believe in siddha pranali anyway.”
Some people think that a bona fide Guru is very rare in this world and it is not easy to recognise and attain a bona fide Guru.
Thinking like this, they do not endeavour to take dīkṣā-mantra and thus waste the precious moments of their rare human lives.
In this connection it must be said that when the Lord descends as the bona fide Guru for the benefit of the world, He is never hard to attain or unattainable for the genuine seekers of bhajana and those who are eager to take shelter of the bona fide Guru.
Those who give up crookedness and associate with the saints with a simple and innocent mind, for the cessation of their material miseries, and earnestly take shelter of the feet of a bona fide Guru, for the sake of worshipping the Lord, praying to the Lord with an eager heart, while hoping to attain the bona fide Guru, will certainly be blessed with the shelter of a bona fide Guru — of this there is not even the slightest doubt. Merciful Śrī Hari will certainly provide good luck and opportunities to such people, who are so eager to do bhajana.’
(Śrīmat Ananta Dāsa Bābājī – Guru tattva vijnana)
Vis-à-vis “I don´t believe in siddha pranali”:
No problem. That is your good right. You don´t have to follow a practice inaugurated by Sri Gopal Guru Goswami and later on fine-tuned by Sri Dhyanachandra Goswami.
The siddha deha can be revealed in different ways.
But one thing is clear: Nothing will yield any result without the mercy of Sri Gurudeva.
Spiritual life means being in “anugatya”, being in CONSTANT shelter.
If Sri Gurudeva enters the eternal pastimes, then the sadhaka will not stop taking shelter. He will search and find anugatya in the association of a siksha-guru in his own parivar or even in other genuine parivars with the same goal and bhava: RADHA DASYAM.
Claim:
Krishna is in my heart, no need to have a living sadhu guiding me.
Well…best wishes and good luck.
Amrita-Tarangini 