Do those who don’t accept that Prabhupada descended from the spiritual world comprise an apasampradaya?
Thank you question from Jacob Nielsen Prabhu are those who say that Shila Prabhupada has not descended from the spiritual world comprising an upper sampradaya just like there are many sampradayas at the time of Bhakta Vinod Thakur Hansar we don't have to use words like upper sampradaya against people who are practicing Krishna consciousness properly as given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the Gaudiya Vaishya Sampradaya but there may be some Gaudiya Math devotees who being the disciples or grand disciples of the disciples of Krishnan Sri Thakur may not have been touched and transformed by the mercy of Shila Prabhupada as we have got it through his coin so now Shila Prabhupada did not ever say that the qualification for anyone to go back to Godhead was the belief that he came from the spiritual world Shila Prabhupada actually said this that he came from the spiritual world only on intimate occasions once he said it to Bhavanand Prabhu in an intimate talk and Shila Prabhupada never insisted that was his qualification for sharing Krishna consciousness he said his qualification was that he followed the instruction of his spiritual master to preach in the western countries so actually speaking certainly if we look at the dedication, the devotion, the transformation the sheer scope of what Shila Prabhupada has achieved he is the person who has fulfilled Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's prophecy that my holy name will spread in every town and village and there are disciples of Shila Prabhupada's god brothers who have also acknowledged that in many ways he is the Senapati Bhakta that is predicted by the Lord in the Chaitanya Bhagwat and Chaitanya Mangal also in various places that who will spread the holy name everywhere that he is the Shaktyavesh Avatar in that sense of the word so certainly if we look at the evidence from the effect of the preaching and we look at Shila Prabhupada's statements it is safe to say that Shila Prabhupada descended from the spiritual world to fulfill the prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu now at the same time this is a belief that doesn't have to be imposed on everyone especially those who have come to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu not through Shila Prabhupada so if we look at the upper sampradayas that were there at the time of Bhaktivinoda Thakur they were often doing seriously immoral activities like they were having illicit sex in the name of imitating the past tense of Radha and Krishna so such flagrant violations of the principles of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu definitely comprised a deviation and that's why they were called as deviant sex or upper sampradayas so now as far as following the principles that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us if there are devotees who are following them in any of the Gaudiya mats within the Gaudiya sampradayas then there is no need to consider them to be deviants or upper sampradayas there are some Iskcon devotees who go to the extent of saying that unless one accepts Shila Prabhupada one cannot go back home to Godhead that is a fanatical statement Shila Prabhupada did not ever say that accepting him was the qualification to go back home to Godhead he even said that one of his Godbrothers who was severely critical of him his criticism was bordering blasphemy his criticism of Shila Prabhupada was bordering blasphemy and Shila Prabhupada cautioned his disciples against associating with him but at the same time when he departed and Shila Prabhupada was asked where did he go so the devotees thought that because he has blasphemed a pure devotee their spiritual master he will have to go to hell Prabhupada was very grave and he said he went back to Godhead he said my spiritual master is very powerful and he served my spiritual master so my spiritual master will take him back to Godhead so the mercy of Shila Sadashiva Thakur who manifested the mercy of Shaitanya Mahaprabhu is not limited to Iskcon it can come through his other disciples also and grand disciples and grand disciples also so ultimately the standard of spiritual advancement is that how much one has developed love for Krishna and how much one has become detached from material things and certainly there is a special flavor to the mercy of Shaitanya Mahaprabhu coming through Shila Prabhupada because Shila Prabhupada has bestowed the mercy in a way that is unprecedented not just in Gaudiya history but in many ways we can say in world history so that special sweetness, that special intimacy that is there and the special magnanimity that is there in Shaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy manifesting through Shila Prabhupada will be missing for those who do not avail of that mercy to Shila Prabhupada but still we cannot limit Shaitanya Mahaprabhu to Shila Prabhupada Shaitanya Mahaprabhu is the supreme personality of God it is by his arrangement that Shila Prabhupada spread Krishna consciousness all over the world and it is by his arrangement that other faithful followers of his tradition even if they are not able to accept Shila Prabhupada can also make spiritual advancement so it is one's adherence to the teachings of Sri Jagauranga Mahaprabhu in terms of their philosophical understanding and their life and their living that will determine whether a group is within the sampradaya or has become apasampradaya and our focus should primarily be on becoming wonderful Gaudiya Vaishnavas becoming dedicated servants of Krishna and truly advanced devotees and in that true advancement will we be truly glorifying Shila Prabhupada and the more we glorify Shila Prabhupada through our commitment through our transformation, through our advancement then the potency of Shila Prabhupada in terms of making devotees generation after generation will become manifest and then more and more people will be able to accept that actually Shila Prabhupada was the person who was sent by Shaitanya Mahaprabhu to fulfill the prophecy that he had made 500 years ago so rather than hammering down some truth with the threat of being labelled as apasampradaya we need to actually transform ourselves and thereby make this truth self evident through our lives thank you.