19990603 Initation Lecture

The following is a lecture given by HH Jayapataka Swami on June 3rd 1999 during the initiation ceremony.

Guru Mahārāja: Accepted the request for forgiveness of any offences. But we will not accept any offences (laughter) even if they are humbly offered (laughter). Also, one time, Srila Prabhupāda said… I remember I said… that I want to serve you life after life. He said, “Why you want to take birth. Why life after life? You finish off in this life.”… even life after life. In case I don’t finish I will remain you servant even life after life. But you shouldn’t think that we have to stay here and make the Guru also come back life after life.

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale

srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine

Nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

namo maha-vadanyaya krishna-prema-pradaya te

krishnaya krishna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvishe namo namah

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda

sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

……….. repeated by devotees

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya (repeated by devotees)

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram

Today during the auspicious celebration of the Panihati Daṇḍa Mahotsava Smriti Utsava… the remembrance of the Daṇḍa Mohotasava festival performed by Lord Nityānanda and Raghunātha Das Goswami… some almost five hundred years ago. We are having this initiation ceremony.

In the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, initiation is a very serious matter because the disciple as was explained by Surajit accepts the commitment to serve the Guru even life after life to follow the disciplic orders… succession in terms of our spiritual discipline. Disciple means to follow a discipline. Similarly, the guru accepts the charge of the disciple. Along with this, since the object of the Krishna consciousness or Bhakti Yoga is to liberate the conditioned soul from all conditioning and to develop or reawaken fully the pure love for Kṛṣṇa, so that the soul can engage in pure unalloyed devotional service to the Lord in the spiritual world or in the eternal life, so the guru also has to accept the responsibility for the previous karmas of the disciples. Subsequently, if the disciple acts improperly, they are also responsible. At the same time the guru is held responsible. Especially today we are having two types of initiation – Harinām as well as Brahmin. Harinām initiation or Bhagavati Diksha is where one is given their first spiritual birth by their guru. And of course, we are all born by mother and father, but then our second birth… first spiritual birth is to the Guru. We are given the holy name, and we are given the connection with the discplic succession. We are accepted in the family of disciplic succession. By taking initiation, this means also one is connected with his divine grace Abhaya Caraṇa Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, and that as a grand disciple in disciplic succession connected with Śrīla Prabhupāda who was the founder Acharya… one also accepts his teachings… and he is also because the Siksha Guru through his books for all of the devotees. And we serve Śrīla Prabhupāda by following his instructions. The guru is there simply to hand down the instructions given by Śrīla Prabhupāda; not to change them in any way, but to explain them and to apply them to the life of the disciple in a practical way. So, this is such a serious matter. We don’t give initiation just without giving the opportunity for the candidates to verify whether they really want to take this responsibility. Also, the guru should verify whether they are serious or not. Actually, Lord Caitanya warned against taking many disciples. At the same time, for preaching one has to give initiation. Otherwise how people will practice the spiritual life? So, instruction is given that if someone is serious about practicing devotional service, then they should not be refused by a sincere preacher, because that would be detrimental to the spiritual life of that devotee. So, in other hand, on one hand, one should not be wanting too many disciples. On the other words, sincere disciples come forward, one should also help them to go back home back to Godhead, and not artificially renounce them, or renounce accepting this disciple. For the preaching movement one takes a risk of taking disciples. There is a certain risk involved, because if they don’t follow, then the Guru has to take the reactions. So, there is some period of testing… spiritual verification of the… on both the sides. The disciple… he verifies whether this process is really producing in him the results that he has desired. So, for a period of one year or more… some people wait many years. There is no … maximum. No one is compelled to take initiation. Whenever they want, they can go on serving in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement  on infinitum without taking initiation. Although there are many services one cannot do being an uninitiated person, but there are many services one can also do. So, there is no such rule that you have to take initiation. Whenever you have the strong faith in the process, and in the spiritual master… Of course, there are many spiritual masters in ISKCON. Its a big spiritual family, and one chooses… first of all they take the commitment of the process. Then they… after that when they are convinced, they want to follow this discipline. The spiritual procedure or process. Then which guru they want to take shelter of, that also they chose according to their own personal faith, and inspiration which they get from particular guru. So, in this way, one year of practicing all of the principles of Bhakti Yoga is a minimum. I don’t think that there is many other spiritual processes at least here in the Western world where they have this type of probationary period of one year, where the disciple practices everything, and when they are fully convinced, “Yes, this is what I want to do. This is actually working in my life.” Then they accept, and they are allowed to approach a guru and accept initiation. So, this is a not just a thing of the moment, but this is something they have been thinking about and practicing for a long time, and come to these conclusions after personally verifying and realizing. So much today there is also a second initiation being performed which is… second initiation is a Pancharatrika system. Pancharatrika system is a little bit more formal. Then there is the Bhagavati system. And Pancharatrika system is all technical words. Of course, I know, many people won’t be acquainted with these terms. There are different Vedic system which are authorized by the Vedas, by the spiritual authorities since thousands of years. So, one of the system is the system where by… one is given some silent mantra or gāyatrī Mantra, and is allowed to chant this mantra, and this mantra’s power also to learn how to perform Deity worship, how to study deeper into the import of the Vedas, as well how to perform other types of ceremonies like fire sacrifices etc. which are basically coming under the Pancharatra system. Originally there was the Vedic system which is very difficult to follow in the age of Kali. It is been simplified by Nārada Muni and other greater authorities, and that simplification is called the Pancharatrika system. The Bhagavati system means to chant the holy name and read the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. It is even more simplified or condensed. So, one doesn't need the second initiation to go back to Godhead. The Bhagavati or the Harinām – chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa is sufficient. But if one wants to take more responsibility in his spiritual life and they have a record of… at least a year after taking the first initiation where they may be following the principles and chanting regularly, attending all the temple programs basis. They also have been recommended by the temple board as the acceptable candidates to receive the second initiation. They got through the written exam where their philosophical understanding is verified. You can say it is something like a ordination, where they are ordained to become priests. There is no formal ordination in Krishna consciousness whereby one transforms in the training priest to the full priest. That’s informally observed. Once you are given the second initiation, one is approved to learn all of the confidential ceremonies, and when the guru is satisfied, then they are able to do so, then they are permitted to also do certain confidential services to the Deities or performing fire yajñas etc. So, this are basically the different initiations being taken today. For the Harinām the guru gives the beads which he has chanted on, and neck beads are tied. Someone can tie the neck beads on the candidates. Take off their trainer bead. Put it around properly, two or three times. Should be… Kuntī mālā means… Kuntī actually is the neck. So, it should go around the neck. Someone wears the chest beads. That’s for decoration. That’s also mentioned… one of the things. But principal is Kuntī, the neck bead. This is like a spiritual dog collar. (laughter) Dog collar. (devotees laughing) Like see even the guru has. The guru also has to be disciple. No one can become a spiritual master without first being a disciple. You say, “I don’t need a guru.” You cannot also be a guru. To be a guru first you have to be a student. Even Krishna accepted a guru. So, if someone says, “I don’t need guru.”, that means that he is expressing himself to be big fool, because the spiritual science can never be understood except through the line of disciplic succession. It’s not something by our own mental search we are going to uncover. If we have a desire to know, then we can know through the system of disciplic succession. From Kṛṣṇa it was handed to Brahmā, from Brahmā to Nārada… excuse me… from Nārada to Vyāsa, from Vyāsa to Madhvacharya, and handed down to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to the six goswāmis, down to his divine grace Bhaktisiddhāntha Saraswati Thākur, and his divine grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swāmi Prabhupāda. Like this thirty more… it was thirty-three?.... disciplic guru paramparā links are there. Handed down from one to the other. In this way the secrets are revealed, because absolute truth we cannot know just by our mental interpretation. Someone is knocking upstairs. You hear some sound tak.. tak.. tak… someone may sit here and think, “What’s going on? Are they playing ping-pong on the floor? Or someone is playing marbles, or is something broken?” … I was sitting… we don’t even know what is going on upstairs in the next floor sitting here. How can we know what’s going on in the… out in the spiritual world? How do we know what existed before the creation? Now the scientists are trying to understand what was the origin of this material world. So, they are saying, “It is big bang or primordial soup.” They have many theories. And one contradicts the other. But according the Vedas there is originally… all the energy is given… expanded from the Lord and in that energy He starts a chain reaction, He starts the thing to go by its will, and from subtle to gross gradually things start to manifest. But before He manifested even the whole Pradhān or the unmanifested material energy which the Buddhist know as Nirvāṇa, which is you can say unlimited expanse of material brilliant effulgent energy. Before he manifested that He also was existing. In the spiritual world He was existing. So, how can we know about that origin? Simply by studying the echoes in the universe we will never find out where is the origin of all this energy. That we can find out from Him Himself. Just like if we want to know what is going upstairs, we have to send someone upstairs. You go yourselves, and if someone comes down from upstairs and tells you… in the case of Kṛṣṇa we cannot go. So, we have to have someone come down and tell us. this is what’s going on. In this way also there is a perfect way of receiving knowledge. So, this is the system of disciplic succession. Everyone is connected with Śrīla Prabhupāda. By taking this initiation, the connection is formally accepted, and the guru is personally responsible to lead the devotees to Prabhupāda and to Kṛṣṇa… to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And the disciples are responsible to carefully follow the instructions of the guru so that they can be successful in this lifetime.