Back To Prabhupada, Issue 84, 2025
Welcome to Issue 84 of Back To Prabhupāda (BTP).
1) Śrīla Prabhupāda states how to be certain:
"That means no more denial, Finish all stress. So as soon as one thing is three times stressed, that means final."
(Lecture, 27/11/68. All emphases in issue added.)
One example of this is the following statement:
"Indeed, the advanced uttama-adhikāri Vaiṣṇava devotee should be accepted as a spiritual master. [...] One should not become a spiritual master unless he has attained the platform of uttama-adhikāri. [...] Therefore a disciple should be careful to accept an uttama-adhikāri as a spiritual master."
(Nectar of Instruction, Verse 5, purport)
It is stated three times in the same purport that the initiating spiritual master should only be an uttama-adhikāri. Therefore, according to Śrīla Prabhupāda, there can be "no more denial" of this fact.
2) But ISKCON leaders do deny this fact, claiming there is still a way for them to be GBC gurus, because Śrīla Prabhupāda also states in the purport:
"A neophyte Vaiṣṇava or a Vaiṣṇava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples"
But, Śrīla Prabhupāda is only stating the above just so it can then specifically be ruled out as an option; not once but twice, telling both potential gurus and disciples, as quoted under point 1), to not engage in this practice. Thus, it is not being stated as an option, but a prohibition. Hence, no follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda will continue to "deny" that the initiating guru must be an uttama-adhikāri.
3) However, it has also been claimed that there is still another "way" for GBC gurus to be dīkṣā gurus.
After a lecture given on 18/2/25 by GBC voted-in guru HH Bhanu Swami ("BS"), he was asked about the following description of an uttama-adhikāri from the same Nectar of Instruction purport above:
"strictly following all the regulative principles, chanting the prescribed number of rounds on japa beads"
BS is asked, why is Śrīla Prabhupāda here –
"referring to someone performing sādhana strictly and referring to him as uttama"
– when in another part of this purport, as the questioner correctly notes, the uttama-adhikāri is clearly referred to as being:
"fully self-realized".
In reply, BS states:
"that makes a controversy that we don't really know because it's taking two different concepts of uttama."
Thus, by claiming there are "two different" types of uttamas", BS allows for an uttama to be someone who does not have to be self-realised, but only strictly follows all the rules. Which allows the GBC gurus to claim that since they follow the rules, 'we are also uttama-adhikāris, even if not fully self-realised!'
4) But Śrīla Prabhupāda also teaches that –
"chanting the holy name is good for both the conditioned and liberated soul"
(Cc., Madhya-līlā, 15.108, purport)
– meaning that a self-realised uttama-adhikāri can also be one who strictly chants according to the rules. Thus, both descriptions of the uttama-adhikāri refer to the same person! Hence, in the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda simply describes different qualities of an uttama-adhikāri separately, chants, preaches, follows the rules and regulations, and is also self-realised. Otherwise, one would unnecessarily be imposing a contradiction on Śrīla Prabhupāda, that he was saying an uttama did not need to be self-realised. So, not two types of uttamas, just more than two qualities possessed by the same uttama! So there is no "controversy" here, as BS claims, for anyone who can simply read what Śrīla Prabhupāda has taught.
5) Of course, as we have noted many times, Śrīla Prabhupāda has not authorised any successor dīkṣā gurus, regardless of their qualification. But the idea that Śrīla Prabhupāda has ever preached that anyone less than a fully self-realised uttama-adhikāri should become dīkṣā guru cannot be accepted if one actually accepts Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings.
Thank you and Hare Kṛṣṇa.
In Śrīla Prabhupāda's service,
Krishnakant
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