Srila Prabhupada’s Position in ISKCON

Host: Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for being with us today.

Giriraj Swami: All right.

Host: I think everyone here knows you, we have Rasa Sundari dasi with us also, and I think she knows you also very nicely. We are in your hands. We will follow whatever you would like to.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I will begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan.

Host: Fantastic.

Giriraj Swami: And then we can speak about Srila Prabhupada as the founder acharya.

Host: Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: 

[Prayers]

So, who will be translating?

Host: I will be doing, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Our topic today is Srila Prabhupada as the founder acharya and foundational śikṣā-guru of ISKCON. Oh yes, before I continue, I would like to request the devotees on Zoom, as far as possible, to put on your cameras. That way we can see your moon-like faces, and it’s more personal.

Thank you for inviting me to speak about this most important topic of Srila Prabhupada’s position in ISKCON.

Srila Prabhupada is the founder acharya of ISKCON, and the term ‘founder acharya’ is very significant. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in his book, Harināma-cintāmaṇi, discusses the position of the founder acharya, and I will read a little from Harināma-cintāmaṇi.

Now, Harināma-cintāmaṇi basically discusses, as the title suggests, the holy name or the touchstone of the holy name. And in Harināma-cintāmaṇi, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses the ten offenses to be avoided while chanting the holy names. The third offense is called guror avajñā, or disobeying the spiritual master, and in that context, he discusses the founder acharya. He writes:

“The teachings left by the founder acharyas of the four sampradayas are to be especially honored.”

Host: Which chapter is it, Guru Maharaja? I think we can follow it in Spanish, I have the Harināma-cintāmaṇi in Spanish.

Giriraj Swami: It’s Chapter Six.

Host: Chapter Six. Excuse me, I’m looking for it.

Giriraj Swami: Where are you looking?

Host: On the internet, I have a PDF of Harināma-cintāmaṇi in Spanish. I have one in the office, one in English, but now we are reaching the Sixth Chapter. Okay, guror avajñā, and then which play, Guru Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Well, in my copy, this subheading is called, The Teaching of the Adi Guru Must Be Followed, and the paragraph begins, “The Vaishnava disciplic successions are the real lines of saintly teachings and teachers.” Are you there?

Host: Yes, I think so. Please, Guru Maharaja, repeat again, we will start from there.

Giriraj Swami:

“The teachings left by the founder acharyas of the Sampradayas are to be especially honored. Sri Ramanuja, Sri Madhvacharya, Srila Nimbark Acharya, and Sri Vishnu Swami are the four original acharyas of the four Vaishnava lines.”

Host: Well, I will translate it, it looks like this is a summary. It’s not really like that, so I will just translate simultaneously.

Giriraj Swami:

“One should accept only their teachings and conclusions, and not others. One should receive spiritual initiation in one of these four sampradāyas, and not others.”

So, we, followers of Srila Prabhupada, are coming in the sampradāya of Sri Madhvacharya. So, again, the position of the founder acharya is very special, and Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that in each sampradāya, there is the Adi Guru, or the original guru of the sampradāya, who is directly enlightened by the Lord Himself. And in our sampradāya, that Adi Guru is Lord Brahma.

Then, following the Adi Guru are the śikṣā-guru, pratihita - this is Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s language - greatly revered preceptors, who keep the line’s teachings intact over long spans of time. But when Bhaktivinoda Thakura identified the third guru, he described him in the highest terms.

“The Adi acharya or original guru of the disciplic branch is appropriately worshiped and respected as the Guru Shiromani, the top most crown jewel of the spiritual masters.”

Host: The Sanskrit terms, I don’t get them.

Giriraj Swami:

“His perfect philosophical conclusions are to be followed by all in his paramparā. Any contrary instructions will not be accepted.”

Then, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura revived an association called the Vaishnava-Raja-Sabha, and his illustrious son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, reinvented the Sabha as the Gaudiya Mission. And to coincide with the, you could say, launching of the Gaudiya Mission, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati had an article written in The Harmonist magazine about the position of founder acharya.

So, again, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu applied the term ‘founder acharya’ to the four sampradāyas, you could say, the acharyas in the four sampradāyas who revitalized the sampradāya. One of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s disciples, Professor Sanyal, referred to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura as the Gaudiya Mission’s founder acharya in the magazine called The Harmonist. And Srila Prabhupada accepted that term, founder acharya, for himself, as the founder acharya of ISKCON.

So, the basic idea, as mentioned previously, is that we accept the teachings of Srila Prabhupada as the founder acharya, and we do not accept any other teachings that do not agree with his teachings. So, naturally, he is the foundational śikṣā-guru for every devotee in ISKCON, and we should all regularly read and study Srila Prabhupada’s books. In many letters and also lectures, Srila Prabhupada instructed his disciples to read his books. And in some letters, he said to read his books for three hours every day, but more often, and perhaps more generously, Srila Prabhupada had said one hour every day.

But I should also mention that preaching or teaching is very powerful, and Srila Prabhupada said that giving class for half an hour is equal to reading for two hours. If you preach or teach, you naturally want to know the subject very thoroughly.

When I was teaching at the VIHE in Vrindavan, I would prepare for a one-hour class for at least three hours, and as Bhurijana Prabhu often says, the best way to learn something is to teach it. So, we should study Srila Prabhupada’s books, and when we get an opportunity, we should share what we have understood from Srila Prabhupada’s books with others, and that will purify our hearts.

As stated in the Second Chapter of the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, sṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, “By hearing talks about Krishna,” that includes reading about Krishna, sṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, “Just hearing and speaking about Krishna makes one pious.” Then hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām, “Krishna, who is the well-wishing friend of the truthful devotee, will cleanse the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of one who hears His messages.”

It is very difficult to cleanse the heart of material desires, but when we hear the messages of Krishna, which also includes reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, Krishna helps. And He helps in two ways. He helps in the form of transcendental sound. Because the kṛṣṇa-kathā is Krishna Himself, so when we hear kṛṣṇa-kathā, Krishna enters our ear and heart and cleanses our heart. And Krishna also helps from within the heart as the Paramātmā, as the Super Soul.

I’ll read that exact verse because it’s so important and so beautiful.

TEXT 17

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ

hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi

vidhu noti suhṛt satām

TRANSLATION

Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

COMMENT

I’ll let you meditate on that important verse, and I’ll be back in a minute.

Now, I’m going to say something that might appear to contradict the instruction to read Srila Prabhupada’s books, but what I’m about to describe is a situation that does not occur very frequently, but it can occur.

When we first went to India and were traveling with Srila Prabhupada, I would say that he kept us so busy that we hardly had time to read, and I was feeling guilty for not reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. So, one day, I came in his room in the Calcutta temple, his room is still there, and I didn’t say anything about my feeling guilty about not reading his books, but he must have read my mind, or we could say Krishna must have inspired him, and he quoted the next verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

TEXT 18

naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu

nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā

bhagavaty uttama-śloke

bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī

COMMENT

And he explained that by reading the book Bhāgavata or serving the person Bhāgavata, one gets the same result. And by serving the person Bhāgavata, all the truths of the book Bhāgavata will be revealed, even if you don’t read the book.

I felt very heartened and encouraged by Srila Prabhupada that I could continue serving him wholeheartedly and not worry about the fact that under the circumstances, I didn’t have the time to read his books. But that was an exceptional situation. Under ordinary circumstances, we should read every day.

And His Grace Vaisesika dasa has devised many programs for reading Srila Prabhupada’s books in a regulated way. For example, if you read so many pages a day, I think something like forty-three or forty-five pages a day of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you’ll finish the whole Bhāgavatam in one year. And for the Bhagavad-gītā, which of course is a much shorter work, he has a program called CHAD, which stands for ‘Chapter a Day.’ We can set different goals for ourselves in terms of how much we will read every day, but we should read something every day. And we should read in the mood of prayer for Srila Prabhupada to instruct us in meaningful and relevant ways for our lives.

His Grace Bhurijana dasa wrote a very nice article that was published in Back to Godhead magazine called Prayerful Reading. The idea of prayerful reading is that while we are reading, we are praying to Srila Prabhupada to instruct us, as I said, in meaningful and relevant ways for our lives, how to live our lives in Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada put so much effort into writing his books. Generally, he would take rest at around 10:00 p.m., and he would sleep only two hours. He would get up at midnight, and he would write his books for us to take advantage of. So, we should make Srila Prabhupada’s effort fruitful by reading his books, studying them, attending classes on them, and immersing ourselves in them. And, of course, along with that, to chant the holy names.

In one purport in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Prabhupada writes that of all the instructions of the spiritual master, the instruction to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds is most essential. So, if we chant our minimum sixteen rounds attentively and read Srila Prabhupada’s books, we will be very firmly situated in Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada said that if you just chant sixteen rounds, follow the four regulative principles, and do your best to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, you will go back home, back to Godhead at the end of this very lifetime. But that involves, although Srila Prabhupada didn’t say so in so many words, but that involves reading, studying, and teaching his books.

Thank you all for joining this discussion about Srila Prabhupada as the founder acharya and pre-eminent śikṣā-guru of ISKCON. Now, we can have some discussion. If any of you want to ask any question or make any comment, you can.

Host: Bhakti devi has a question.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Bhakti devi?

Devotee: My humble obeisances at your lotus feet. I have many questions, but I will ask one. My first question is what happened to those devotees whose spiritual master deviated from ISKCON, but they never got re-initiated and they left their body like this without getting re-initiated? What happened to them?

Giriraj Swami: This is a relevant question. What should a disciple do if his spiritual master deviates? This question is discussed in various places, but it is also discussed by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in Harināma-cintāmaṇi. I’ll read that paragraph.

“If by some misfortune the spiritual master falls into bad association, he gradually loses his spiritual realization and potency. At the time the disciple met him, the guru was bona fide, but later, due to offenses against the holy name (nāma-aparādha), he became bewildered by maya. In this condition, he becomes averse (means against) Vaishnava association and the chanting of the holy name, and gradually, he comes under the control of lust, greed, wealth, and women. If by the mercy of Lord Krishna, the disciple can see through all of this, he will reject his guru. Later, he can again seek a bona fide and pure devotee, and under his spiritual guidance, cultivate the pure name.”

Here again, Srila Prabhupada’s position as the founder acharya is relevant. I know devotees who have lost their spiritual masters, and they took shelter of Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada protected them and gave them shelter. In due course, he arranged for them to be connected to one of his servants and accept one of his other servants as a spiritual master.

Now, regarding what is the destiny of someone who loses his spiritual master but doesn’t take initiation from a bona fide spiritual master, that would depend on why he didn’t take initiation. But the general rule is that one should take initiation again, as stated by not only Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura but also by Srila Jiva Gosvami, with reference to the revealed scriptures.

I suppose we can come back to Bhakti devi for some of her other questions, but now Vrindavan Chandra has his hand raised, so we’ll give him a chance.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. Sorry, Guru Maharaja, there is another phone, Vrinda devi is in the room. I have a question, Guru Maharaja. We often hear this term, “Srila Prabhupada is the pre-eminent śikṣā-guru for all of ISKCON.”

Host: One moment, let me translate.

Devotee: And what I was understanding, Guru Maharaja, is that Srila Prabhupada’s instructions in the form of his books and his recordings are the primary śikṣā for all devotees in ISKCON for all time. So, is there anything more to founder acharya besides this point about preeminent śikṣā-guru?

Giriraj Swami: Founder acharya means that whatever he wants for his institution must be followed. For example, Srila Prabhupada wanted the Governing Body Commission, the GBC, to be the ultimate managing authority of ISKCON, so we must follow that instruction. It is there in a way, in Srila Prabhupada’s books, but not explicitly.

Srila Prabhupada said that his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, did not appoint a successor acharya, but he asked his disciples to work cooperatively with the Governing Body. And Srila Prabhupada said that because his godbrothers did not obey that instruction, so the Gaudiya Matha fell off. As the founder acharya, Srila Prabhupada gave instructions regarding how his mission should be conducted, and those instructions may not be found in the books. Hare Krishna.

Any other questions or comments? All right, if we are finished, I suggest we conclude with. . . Oh, do we want to give Bhakti devi. . .? [Laughter]. Yes, all right, we’ll give Bhakti devi a chance to ask another question.

Devotee: Okay, so I have time just for one question?

Giriraj Swami: Well, ask all the questions at once, and then I’ll decide.

Devotee: Srila Prabhupada said that when devotees leave the body, although those who are quite very advanced, still, we don’t go to Goloka Vrindavan, but we go to one planet where Krishna is having His pastimes, it is material world. So, I wanted to know, which planet is in the material world where Krishna is having His pastimes where we can go back? This is one of the questions.

Giriraj Swami: Patit Pavan Prabhu, you can translate that.

Krishna’s pastimes are eternal, even in the material world, and after He finishes His pastimes on one planet or in one universe, He begins His pastimes on another planet or in another universe. And generally, when the perfect devotee leaves his or her body, they will take birth on the planet where Krishna is performing His pastimes, and they will begin their eternal service to Krishna there. And as you said, after they are fully trained in their service to Krishna on the planet where He is in the material world, then they go to the spiritual world, to Goloka Vrindavan. Great question.

Host: Maybe I can introduce you to our devotees here because they know you but maybe you don’t know them. Will you like it?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Host: We have Bhakti devi, you know her, maybe Bhakti Pradeep. Parikrajaka Swami, maybe you know him from England, from London. What was your name before there? His name was Brahmananda when he was in London, now he is staying in Tenerife since September. He has seven months now staying here with us in Tenerife.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful.

Devotee: Doing the needful.

Host: [Laughter] He is helping us, today he cooked the bhoga for the Deities, and he is helping in many ways also.

Giriraj Swami: Nice.

Host: Then here we have two special devotees that joined, they both are from the Canary Islands from Tenerife. We have Bhaktin Christina.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja.

Host: And Bhaktin Daisy.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Host: They became devotees here in Tenerife. Christina became a devotee reading Srila Prabhupada’s book that she found somewhere, and the first time she came to the temple, she bought a worth of four hundred and fifty euros of books. She called me and she said, “You have Prabhupada’s books?” I said, “Yes, we have a store full,” “Oh, I want, can I go to buy?” She was looking for the books on internet, and then she came and she bought many Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, many books to give to her friend because she was reading Bhagavad-gītā to the friends.

We met her for the first time at that time. Now, it’s eleven years since that time, she has been approaching the temple little by little, and now she is very dedicated to the temple service, asking to take initiation, so that’s why she is doing the course.

And then we have Bhaktin Daisy. The first time I met her was in an Indian shop. The employees called her and they told me, “She is very interested.” So, I took out the Bhagavad-gītā, gave her the Bhagavad-gītā, and she opened the Bhagavad-gītā. She asked me, “I don’t know, but I like these things, I like the Indian things, the philosophy, yoga,” and she opened the book on the Sixth Chapter, where Krishna is telling Arjuna that when the yogi has not finished the next life, he feels attraction for the practice, and she was impressed. Then she became a devotee.

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada’s books ki jaya!

Host: Haribol! [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Transcendental book distribution ki jaya!

Host: Christina has a question. Oh, she wants to know if you can accept her as a disciple and you can initiate her.

Giriraj Swami: I can, but there may be some steps in between. I think maybe you can give her my email address, and then I can discuss it further with her. How’s her English?

Host: Very good.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, we can continue this discussion.

Host: She is an ayurvedic therapist, she got her degree in South India.

Giriraj Swami: Wow.

Host: Yes, she speaks very nicely English and is one of the first therapists to start working with the normal health system here in Tenerife. In September, she started to work in the hospital applying the therapy as a result of an investigation she did with another doctor to reduce the medication. Now, they approved that project, and she is going to start here in the hospital in the south of Tenerife.

Giriraj Swami: Wonderful.

Host: Yes, Guru Maharaja, so we’ll give her your email.

Giriraj Swami: It looks like there is no more questions or comments, so we can conclude with Vaishnava praṇāma.

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca
kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo
vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Host: Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for being with us.

Giriraj Swami: My pleasure.

Host: It has been a big honor and a privilege to have you with us here. It’s my passionate nature, excuse me, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: So, we end now?

Host: Yes. Hare Krishna. We look forward to seeing you soon again in Tenerife.

Giriraj Swami: I think I was the first devotee to go to Tenerife.

Host: In the 70’s. [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: During Prabhupada’s time.

Host: So, you have to repeat that, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: I’ll keep it in mind.

Host: [Laughter] Okay, so we stay here waiting for you, Guru Maharaja. Oh, Guru Maharaja, did you have darshan of our Deities?

Giriraj Swami: Not today.

Host: So, maybe we can show you a little bit of Tenerife temple if you have a moment. We never have you here. So, we are in the temple room that is also part of the restaurant. During the day, it becomes a restaurant, and then we close these shutters. Then in the morning, the shutters are open and this is the temple.

Giriraj Swami: Jaya Jagannatha!

Host: We have been like this, Bhaktin Daisy switching on the light. Yes, you like this, all the darshan. We have Jagannatha, Bhaktin Daisy is taking care of them. We also have Gandharvika Giridhari here, who came from Govardhana. And then we are having a little bit of a construction. On the other side, we are making a shop for spiritual goods, books, musical instruments, like that. Here at the end, where you see the sign toilet, we are opening an ayurvedic consultation where Christina will be receiving the patients. Also, we are planning to start a project with the town hall under renovation now, soon we will hope to finish it.

Here, we have the ashram for the devotees, the office, and the more important part of this temple is the kitchen. We have a very big kitchen where we cook for the restaurant and for Lord Jagannatha also, of course. Here is our son Haridasa who is working in the restaurant. And then we have a very beautiful terrace, we have the swimming pool of the community here, we are inside a neighborhood community. There is the same pool and the entrance with the tables and chairs like that. And here is Tulasi-devi. Tulasi-devi grows very nicely in the Canary Island, it’s always very happy with the weather.

Giriraj Swami: Nice!

Host: Yeah, a peaceful place. And we are next to the beach, the beach is down there, Guru Maharaja, where the palm trees are, the sun, behind is the beach.

Giriraj Swami: You are living in paradise.

Host: Lord Jagannatha is a paradise. Without Lord Jagannatha, it’s the hell. [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: When Srila Prabhupada entered his quarters in Los Angeles, New Dvaraka, his servant Brahmananda Prabhu said, “Srila Prabhupada, these quarters are like heaven,” and Srila Prabhupada said, “What heaven? They are like [Unintelligible 01:40:24].” All right, I can hardly wait to go to Tenerife now!

Host: This is a nice place for you by the beach, we can have kathā also [Unintelligible 01:41:03].

Giriraj Swami: [Unintelligible 01:41:07].

Host: Oh, yes.

Giriraj Swami: Vrindavan Chandra and Vrinda devi.

Host: And not far away from London, it’s four hours flying.

Devotee: This place, Guru Maharaja, is the manifestation of your mercy.

Giriraj Swami: You look like you are doing very well there, I mean, I’m very impressed. Very nice facility, nice programs, nice devotees. Yeah, very good work.

Devotee: Actually, here we don’t have pandemic. We had a pandemic last year, but then life continues the same. We don’t have any problem, so this is why practically we are hardly on Zoom, because we are doing full-time service in the temple.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, nice. You are saying you don’t have the pandemic there?

Host: It’s here, the COVID situation is there, but it’s mild. People go to the beach, we do hari-nāma twice a week, we have all the programs in the temple, Sunday program, we have everything as normal.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, be careful.

Host: Yes. There are cases, but there are very few.

Giriraj Swami: So, shall we move on to other service now?

Host: Okay, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: All right, thank you for your association, thank you for arranging this nice program, and thank you to all the devotees who joined.

Host: Yes, many people have joined, thank you very much. I cannot end it, Guru Maharaja, you have to end it first, Bhaktin Daisy don’t allow me to end. [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: All right, so I’ll leave the meeting then. We’ll meet again.