Bhagavatam-daily 312 – 11.14.4 – Sonic succession is more important than seminal succession

Thank you Here Krishna is describing how this knowledge has gone down the knowledge which he had revealed at the start of creation to Brahma Krishna says that it has gone down further in a dicyclic chain wherein the knowledge has gone down he gave it to his son Manu and Manu gave it to the saptarushis headed by Bhrigu so there are two kinds of dicyclic successions broadly speaking they are called in Sanskrit as shukra and shrauta you could translate them as seminal and audio or sonic so seminal means that the father gives the knowledge to his son and the son gives the knowledge further down and that way the knowledge goes down so this leads to often the perpetuation of the caste system and the equalization of spiritual knowledge or even the right to share spiritual knowledge with the possessors of with those who are born in a particular caste that’s why even in the Gaudiya Sampradaya at one particular time there were the caste brahmins and these caste brahmins claimed that because they had been born in the brahminical families so they alone had the right to share spiritual knowledge with others so they alone had the right to teach Gaudiya Vaishnavism and they alone had the right to initiate others into Gaudiya Vaishnavism now here we focus primarily on the principles underlined sometimes ecclesiastical authority ecclesiastics refers to the organization of religious matters so religious authority in terms of some organization that is called as ecclesiastical authority so ecclesiastical authority frequently frequently rests in some families so just as there is just as if a person makes a business then usually that person dies that person would prefer that one’s own progeny one’s own child often in Karchi it would be the son would carry on the legacy so now this desire that what one has acquired what one has preserved that be handed to one’s progeny that is a natural desire of course not everything natural is necessarily desirable or principled but there is nothing inherently wrong in that but the important thing is that the successor must also be qualified if the only qualification of the son is his birth that ok this person was born to this person and among all the sons he was the oldest and that’s why he is supposed to become the king then that can create problems sometimes and that is for this is all for temporal authority what more to speak of for spiritual authority so spiritual authority requires much more qualities than in terms of inner growth inner devotion to the lord inner dedication to the cause of transcendence it requires far more qualities than does outer than say sociopolitical positions like those of a king they also require qualities but Krishna says that the ornaments of a sadhu are one’s qualities so qualities are extremely important for any spiritual authority because that is what brings moral authority to the position if people feel that this person is truly living a more detached, devoted, dedicated life they feel inspired to follow him whoever the authority is so when a successor does not have qualities that inspire faith among followers then then the successor has to rely more simply on one’s position and then moral strength gets sapped off that particular authority position even that ecclesiastical chain and that’s how we have say caste brahmanas who actually behave very little like brahmanas but are still concerned are still considered to be great are still considered to be supreme, to be the topmost among all the castes and they all demand privileges without discharging the responsibilities and without developing the necessary qualities for discharging those responsibilities so in our tradition Bhaktivinoda Thakur and thereafter Bhaktisiddhanta Shri Thakur broke free from this ecclesiastical stranglehold that the caste brahmanas had on Gaudiya Vaishnavism and they made it accessible to everyone so the Shrauta Parampara, the Parampara that is based on the transmission of sound is vitally important because what connects one person’s heart to another is transcendental sound and it is this transcendental sound which uplifts which transforms, which enlightens and that’s how one can move onwards in one’s spiritual growth and inspire others so if so here Krishna focuses he’s giving a particular change, he’s talking about Brahma, then his son Manu and his Aptaroshis but he’s focusing, now Brahma and Manu are directly father and son, of course Brahma is the first living being so in one sense everyone is his son now moving forward the point is Krishna is stressing, not that he was his son and he was his son, he’s not giving a delineation of genealogy over here, he’s focusing on the transcendental sound and he’s telling this person, this is how the spiritual sound Vaniyam which was Vaniyam which was talked about in the previous text that was passed on so we too can actually become spiritually qualified spiritually advanced not just by connection so the connection between the spiritual master and disciple is primarily by hearing and if that transmission and reception of knowledge or spiritual knowledge is not properly done then whatever else we may do still we will not be in a proper situation to move onwards we will be in a situation where we won’t be able to realize what is happening and why in terms of purification or elevation if there is not transmission and reception of spiritual knowledge so it is not that we become advanced just by being initiated by an advanced or exalted spiritual master even obviously the connection is the initiation is based on sound but sometimes the sonic succession can become an ecclesiastical ritual where we think that because now I’m initiated now I’m safe, now I’m going back to Godhead no, we have to, initiation should increase our commitment to hearing and internalizing spiritual sound and then we will be able to move onwards in our life