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THE THIRD OFFENSE is to minimize or blaspheme the order of the spiritual master. The spiritual master gives the holy name. Sampradäya-vihénä ye manträs te niñphalä matäù. Unless you receive the mantra from the spiritual master in sampradäya, it will not have effect. One reason that I chant japa with my disciples each morning is to emphasize the connection between chanting and receiving the mantra from the spiritual master. Unless we have received the mantra in sampradäya it will not have effect. Then only can you receive the authority to chant the holy names of the Lord.
One should not minimize the spiritual master, who is himself practicing the holy name, who is immersed in the taste of the holy name, and who is teaching the holy name, and one should not think that some other teacher or teaching is higher. The Mäyävädés think that Vedänta philosophy is the ultimate. But no, the holy name is the highest knowledge. So one should never forget that his spiritual master, in giving the holy name, is giving the highest teaching; there is nothing more profound. Ñaö-karma-nipuëo vipro mantra-tantra-viçäradaù. The guru must be Vaiñëava. The Vaiñëava guru who gives you the holy name is the greatest teacher.
The spiritual master, as stated in the Caitanya-caritämåta, is the manifested presence of Kåñëa. He is the mercy of Kåñëa manifested in the spiritual master. So he is carrying the instruction of Kåñëa. If you neglect that or disobey that, then what is your chanting of Hare Kåñëa? It is useless. So when you recognize the spiritual master as the representative of God, you must follow his instruction. How can we disobey him and expect to make progress? “Well, now he’s here. I’ll take initiation and behave nicely today, but then tomorrow I’ll do something against his order. He will never know.” But he will know. Kåñëa will know, and it will be very bad for me if I do this. This defiance, gross or subtle, is a kind of suicide. There should be no question of this.
Every morning we pray, yasya prasädäd bhagavat-prasädo, but sometimes we forget what it means. The verse means that by the grace of the spiritual master one gets the mercy of Kåñëa. If one does not please the spiritual master, then he has no chance of progress. So this applies to our chanting Hare Kåñëa. So how can you disobey the instructions of your spiritual master and still be successful in your chanting? These offenses contradict the spirit and the essence of chanting. How can one possibly chant while disobeying the order of the spiritual master and expect Kåñëa’s blessings? The spiritual master’s orders are the same as Kåñëa’s , because the spiritual master is the via media to Kåñëa. We have heard this verse many times, yasya deve parä bhaktir yathä deve tathä gurau/tasyaite kathitä hy arthäù prakäçante mahätmanaù. That is, only unto those great souls who have faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed. So that includes also only to those who have that faith can the chanting of Hare Kåñëa be revealed. Prabhupäda explains in Caitanya-caritämåta, “Believing in the words of His spiritual master, Lord Caitanya introduced the saìkértana movement, just as the present Kåñëa consciousness movement was started with the belief in the words of our spiritual master. We wanted to preach. We believed in his words and tried somehow or other to fulfill them. And now this movement has become successful all over the world. Therefore, faith in the words of the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the secret of success.”
So how can we displease or disobey the guru’s order and say, “But it is all right. I am chanting Hare Kåñëa.” That chanting will not be effective. I have to chant with the blessings of my spiritual master.
Even if we don’t yet chant completely without offense or we don’t even understand completely, we chant on the order of our spiritual master as Lord Caitanya did, considering Himself like a fool. “I firmly believe that simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord I can remove all the misconceptions of the material world. I do this because I firmly believe in the words of my spiritual master. Although the Mäyävädé philosophers do not like this chanting and dancing, I nevertheless perform it on the strength of my spiritual master’s words.
Çréla Prabhupäda was chanting Hare Kåñëa when he came to New York City in 1966. One could have thought, “Well, he’s Indian, sannyäsé. This is his religion. It’s not mine.” But then when you become his disciple, his servant, then you chant Hare Kåñëa, because he’s the spiritual master and he says that this is the process. And when you become the servant and you chant in that way, then the name will reveal itself to you. But you can’t chant without that connection with the spiritual master as his servant. This is the meaning of dékñä. “It is the spiritual master who delivers the disciple from the clutches of mäyä by initiating him into the chanting of the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra. In this way, a sleeping human being can revive his consciousness by chanting Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. In other words, the spiritual master awakens the sleeping living entity to his original consciousness so that he can worship Lord Viñëu. This is the purpose of dékñä, or initiation.” So for any disciple to make advancement in spiritual life, he must guard carefully against this offense. He must not neglect the orders of the spiritual master.