What is the point of taking initiation from a spiritual master when there is very little chance of getting personal guidance from him?

Transcript

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same applies with the left hand Tantra also thank you Hare Krishna question how should we choose our spiritual master should it be based on the desire to get guidance from the spiritual master and nowadays because of the extreme busyness of the spiritual masters and their very tight schedules often it is very difficult to get personal guidance when we need them when we need the guidance and I have also heard that if we do not take guidance from the spiritual master then what is the use of what is the point of getting initiated so I have been practicing Krishna consciousness chanting 16 rounds for seven years now but still I have not been able to decide whom to take initiation from because I don’t see how I will get any personal guidance from that spiritual master whichever I take initiation from answer in general the principle behind taking initiation from the spiritual master has to be understood in the Bhakta Rasamrith Sindhu while talking of the 64 elements of devotional service Guru Pagoswami says this is the first so now what is the purpose that is to get guidance but then Krishna Daskarani also says that the shiksha diksha gurus are non-different there is a difference there is a chintabhedabhed relationship so we have to we understand that the sampraday in which we take initiation it is like a university so in a university there are many professors there may be one very important authority who is like a signatory who whose approval gets us admission into the university but depending on our research specializations that if somebody is going to say enroll for a doctorate program then the university has to approve and often the approval happens at a very high level then after that the person is entrusted the PhD candidate is entrusted to the care or to the guidance of some some other professor it may be the same person who has sanctioned or it may be someone different the person who is more of a specialist in the research field that one is going to work on that is more likely so diksha guru is the one who connects us with the sampraday it is by his mercy and by the initiation process that we get admission into the sampraday then after that we may be entrusted another care of different diksha gurus and sometimes we may also travel because of job we may have to shift from one place to another then we may have some other diksha guru so we need to understand the principle that we connect with the university and when we connect with the university our learning is not limited to only one person we learn from various teachers so same way we will see in our practical spiritual life we get we learn and get inspiration from many spiritual masters or many spiritual teachers in general also who are not even spiritual masters so we do not have to let our spiritual progress be checked just because we do not find a spiritual master who will give us regular guidance even in the earlier times is gone is in a unique situation situation from the historical perspective in the sense that we have a worldwide coordinated preaching mission and there are devotees or spiritual masters who are having vast areas to look after as a part of their service of initiation in the past there were the situation was not there but still there was variety in the method of initiation in the or in the specifics of initiation what that means is if we see Advaitacharya was initiated by Madhavendra Puri but then Madhavendra Puri was a traveling preacher was a traveler with a traveling monk and he he there is not much mention of Advaitacharya repeatedly meeting Madhavendra Puri and taking personalized guidance from him no so many times some very inspiring saint would come to a particular place and people would get inspired and take initiation from that saint and the saint would move on and the people who practice spiritual life based on the inspiration that they had got from the saints association and memories of that saint and after that it would be the local devotees there thus there who are local senior devotees spiritual mentors and with their association and they would move on with their spiritual life so it’s not that everybody in the past would have personalized personal guidance from the spiritual master you have to understand that the our primary spiritual advancement will depend not just on personal proximity to the spiritual master or personal guidance from the spiritual master it will depend primarily on our commitment to the process of Krishna consciousness and actually even the instruction of spiritual masters will be to commit ourselves more deeply to the process of Krishna consciousness so the important point is that personal guidance is not absolutely essential it is not essential from the spiritual master to the subordinate to the disciple we of course need guidance from time to time and we should have some senior devotees from whom we can take guidance but it is not that the guidance from the spiritual master is the only valuable thing and guidance from others is of no value and it is not that if you are not getting personal guidance from the spiritual master we will not make spiritual advancement no our spiritual advancement will depend on our commitment to the process of Krishna consciousness and there was of course another model also in the past where some local saint or local spiritually advanced person in a particular village or a township would become inspiring for others and would give initiation and often this kind of initiators would often be grahasthas so both ways some sannyasis would give often sannyasis would be traveling and there would not be so much follow up or cultivation and if there were grahasthas then they would stay at one place and if they gave initiation then they would often offer guidance so these or even if there were some not necessarily grahasthas some people who are retired or they’re down sort of life who don’t travel so much they would be more or less at one place and there would be regular guidance several level so that is also another model and many devotees feel inspired by that regular association of their primary spiritual guide so now within ISKCON also there is a move towards having more spiritual masters and having spiritual masters who are more closely associated with the group of people whom they are guiding and whom they are initiating so if we want personal guidance then we can choose from if you want personal guidance from the spiritual master itself then we can choose from some spiritual master who doesn’t have so many disciples in fact now many disciples and grand disciples are being encouraged to take up the service and if we can take initiation from some such spiritual master who does not have many disciples and who therefore has the has the facility to give personal time also and of course all spiritual masters would like to offer the best possible guidance to their disciples at a personal level but it’s not possible practically when somebody has thousand or two thousand or more disciples in that magnitude so we can choose initiation from whichever kind of spiritual master that we feel inspired by but we should know that whom that the specific personal guidance is not absolutely mandatory for our spiritual advancement we need guidance and we have to take guidance if not from the spiritual master then from the representative of the spiritual master the spiritual master may have counselors who give guidance or there may be other senior devotees local temple or other authorities who may give guidance and under specific special or emergency situations one may take guidance from the spiritual master specifically also but in general broadly speaking whom should we take initiation from we have to decide what is the most inspiring thing for us in our spiritual life so if it is that the fact of the personal association of the spiritual master that is extremely inspiring for us then we can take initiation from someone who doesn’t have so many disciples and who has who has who can give us more time on the other hand that should not be the only factor in making the decision because sometimes the spiritual masters may be able to give time individually but sometimes that guidance alone is not enough for us some spiritual masters focus on building a community and when we join when we take initiation from that spiritual master then we may we join a large god family god family refers to the group of disciples of a spiritual master so male female all disciples of special master they comprise a god family so sometimes we join a large god family and there is a bigger there is a very warm sense of community within the god family sometimes so largely speaking we take initiation based on who inspires us the most in Krishna consciousness and that inspiration can be just by the by the example by the kind of classes that are given by the kind of dedication that is exhibited by the kind of service that has been done in terms of say building communities or building temples or writing books or whatever specific services spiritual master might be focusing on so if that so the broad spiritual characteristics which will master in terms of example classes services mood these are factors which are important in making the decision and along with that if for us it is important that we want personal association then that should also factor which can determine whom we take initiation from and we will have to choose from then we’ll have to choose from a person who doesn’t have so many disciples but overall we should know that the principle of guidance is important but the principle of guidance from one specific spiritual master is not mandatory for one spiritual advancement we’ll see many of Shri Prabhupada’s leading disciples who are who are shouldering gigantic responsibilities in his movement and who are very advanced devotees they in their lives had practically zero personal association of Shri Prabhupada and despite zero in terms of they did not directly meet or ask any questions or get any guidance but they were committed to the teachings of Shri Prabhupada to the service of Shri Prabhupada and by that they have made immense spiritual advancement so that same facility opportunity is available for us also to make spiritual advancement even if we don’t have personal association there is Vaani and there is Vapu and even if the personal physical association the spiritual master the Vapu is not available the Vaani is available and for us we have the Vaani of not just our spiritual master or Shri Prabhupada who is our founder Acharya, Preem and Shiksha Guru of everyone we have so many other devotees in ISKCON who are also can also be inspiring for us in different ways and we also have the previous Acharyas so when we understand the point that we are joining a university where we will learn from various sources then based on that understanding we can choose an appropriate spiritual master. Thank you. Hare Krishna.