Hare Krishna!
My Dearest and Beloved Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada,
I want to know,
Why Srila Prabhipada did not maintain guru parampara by accepting the disciple of his own. As we know HE is the 32nd guru by Shri Krishna Guru Parampara, then the natural question comes who is the 33rd GURU by its Parampara??
I am waiting for the reply, Thank you very much in advance and forgive me if i hurt any of my dearest devotees.
My best regards ever,
Replies
2. In PQPA , Sril Prabhupada tells Bob Cohen that after initiation a desciple must be very and should not commit sins , coz then the sins will be transferred to the spiritual master and the guru will sufer for the karmic reaction in form of disease etc . So is it acceptable then that anybody can become guru ? Do every devotee possess such quallification to accept others sin ?
Dear devotees, the subject of guru tattva is never a sensitive subject.
It is the begging of a devotees inquiries.
What is guru and what is parampara?
There is a nice book available from ISKCON BBT called Guru and disciple just on this subject.
It is full of quotations from HDG Srila Prabhupada's books
This is the best source of reference to this subject.
There you will find speculation free evidences from the shastra and not some opinions of the foolish ritviks and the covert ritvik supporters. Hare Krsna.
Hare Krsna Mahir, pls understand that all bonafide gurus are empowered representatives of the Lord.
All disciples are to see their own guru as good as God.
This is very important point.
"Therefore it is said, the guru is as good as God.
When we offer respects to the guru, we are offering respects to God.
Because we are trying to be God conscious, it is required that we learn how to offer respects to God through God's representative.
In all the shästras the guru is described to be as good as God, but the guru never says, "I am God."
The disciple's duty is to offer respect to the guru just as he offers respect to God, but the guru never thinks, "My disciples are offering me the same respect they offer to God; therefore I have become God."
As soon as he thinks like this, he becomes a dog instead of God. Therefore Visvanätha Cakravarté says, kintu prabhor yaù priya eva tasya. Because he is the most confidential servitor of God, the guru is offered the same respect that we offer God.
God is always God, guru is always guru. As a matter of etiquette, God is the worshipable God, and guru is the worshiper God (sevaka-bhagavän).
Therefore the guru is addressed as prabhupäda. The word prabhu means "lord," and päda means "position." Thus prabhupäda means "he who has taken the position of the Lord." This is the same as säksäd-dharitvena samasta-sästrai.
Only if we are very serious about understanding the science of God is a guru required.
We should not try to keep a guru as a matter of fashion.
One who has accepted a guru speaks intelligently. He never speaks nonsense. That is the sign of having accepted a bona fide guru. We should certainly offer all respect to the spiritual master, but we should also remember how to carry out his orders." SSR 2a what is guru?
As for the list given in Bhagavad Gita introduction it is a list of some of the gurus in parampara not all.
It is not a diksha parampara either as Gaura kishora das babaji is not the disciple of Bhaktivinode Thakur. Neither is Jagannath das babaji the Guru of Bhaktivinode.
If all the acaryas in the line were listed it would be a very long list.
The list you see is from a song written by HDG Srils Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada.
We have seen publications of the disciples of some of my Godbrother giving their gurudev as the 33rd in line.
So as I previously wrote, that line will be different as it is different in other branches of the Gaudiya sampradaya.
And it is seen that line may be by diksha, shiksa, prominence or preference.
Hare Krsna, dear devotees parampara is compared to a tree.
From the main trunk there are very big branches with many sub branches and countless smaller branches and twigs.
Because they are all connected to the tree they are all bonafide representatives of Krsna.
This idea is given in Adi lila of Caitanya Caritamrta.
So we should not think that we are the only parampara/sampradaya coming from the Lord.
As far as who is number 33 on the list given in our Bhagavad Gita that will be whoever is your Gurudev.
And the disciples who continue the line will be the 34th, 35th etc.
In this way the tree grows and grows without limit.
Our Srila Prabhupada is a very big branch and will have many sub branches and twigs.
For each disciple there may be one or many 33rd in the line given in our books.
This is in regard to Guru and disciples.
In India the mahanta system is still prominent therefore they think there has to be a single person in charge of the temple, institution. These mahantas inherit all the properties of there Guru and are the sole controllers of such properties.
This system of inheritance and sole control by one person is not followed by our institution and no one person has any such absolute control of any temple or properties.
The guru in ISKCON is a member of the institution and follows the rules and serves in the institution as just another member.
All our temples and properties belong to Krsna
and are under the protection and care of the ISKCON body of devotees.
We do not have the Mahanta system here.
So we have gurus who are not managers and owners of any temples and land.
Parampara is not the buildings or the institution.
The pure devotees use these things to spread the message of Godhead all over the world.
In all Sampraday, there is always one Guru at a time. It is quite natural to ask why ISKCON does not have a single Guru who controls the administration as well as spiritual function of our organisation.
The reason behind Shrila Prabhupada not selecting a single successor among his disciples is that Prabhupada wanted his organisation to stay united.
Shrila Prabhupada had experienced during his disciple days that personal ambitions of disciples to succeed the Guru's position can cause fragmentation in the Sampraday and thus it may harm the spreading of Krishna consciousness movement.
Thus, Shrila Prabhupada did not want to let this happen again. He formed GBC, and gave it powers to make decisions on society's behalf.
In ISKCON, each disciple has right to choose his own Guru. There are Bengali Gurus, Marathi Gurus, South Indian Gurus, Gujarati Gurus, Oriya Gurus, Chinese Gurus, African Gurus, American Gurus, Mexican Guru and many more types of Gurus...Despite of this big menu, there is unity in diversity.
Due to this reason, ISKCON has more or less stayed united.
in the reality Guru post is not a king's post.
As we remember in king Venu's story. There were not only one Guru or Sannyasi who did decision but many but one king for a particular country.
So sages and advisers may be many. As like there are nine sages who give knowledge in this Universe. So there no such thing that there should be one and single.
Srila Prabhupada told us to learn Krishna Consciousness and become gurus and make others gurus.
It is as like this one Universe is ruled by many Demigods. So there is no harm if many Sannyasis come together and manage the movement based on Jagat Guru's Srila Prabhupada's books and instructions.
HH Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami Maharaja told that this line of Parampara in our altars will remain same up to 10 000 years. Which means six Goswamis....Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Srila Prabhupada.
So this will remain.
But there will be many following branches of Gurus and disciples.
Because in spiritual world also there are many many groups. And each group has their own Guru who is under other senior Gopis so for each branch there are separate Radha Krishnas ....Because Krishna is unlimited and He is Rasabihari.
He enjoys unlimited rasas with unlimited living entities with unlimited variety of qualities.
Your servant,
Hk Pr
Prabhupad maintined the guru parampara by empowering a team of his disciples to continue the parampara.
It is not true that guru parampara is not maintained. There is not single 33rd guru, but it is a body of gurus in Iskcon who are carrying the parampara forward. parampara does not stop
YS Bharat