Krishna Dharma - spiritual heritage

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My Spiritual Heritage

Disciplic Succession (Parampara)
According to the Vedic teachings, the first and most important qualification of a teacher is that he or she is properly situated in a disciplic succession (parampara) that descends from a divine source.

This means that a teacher must himself have a teacher, who in turn had his teacher, and so on, with the original teacher being Krishna or one of his incarnations. In other words, perfect knowledge comes from God, and no one can claim to be presenting perfect knowledge unless he can show a tangible connection to God through a disciplic succession.

This also means that it is very important that the teacher carefully repeats exactly what he has been taught. In this way the perfect message of God is preserved.

His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Qualifications of a Teacher

As well as being in a disciplic succession, there are other qualifications required of a spiritual teacher. He or she must also actually know the science of God as it is presented in the Bhagavad-gita. Spiritual teachers are known as gurus, and in another important Vedic spiritual text, Srimad Bhagavatam, it is said that no one should become a guru unless he is able to lead his followers toward liberation. However, there are two kinds of gurus recognised in the Vedic teachings.

This is explained in the Vedic writing, Chaitanya Caritamrita (CC), as follows:

There are two kinds of instructing spiritual masters. One is the liberated person fully absorbed in meditation in devotional service, and the other is he who invokes the disciple's spiritual consciousness by means of relevant instructions. (CC Adi Lila Chapter 1 Verse 47)

I would put myself in the second category. In other words I see myself as a teacher who, while not yet being fully liberated, am nevertheless endeavouring to give relevant instructions.

My Spiritual Line
I am initiated into an unbroken line that goes back to Lord Krishna, the speaker of the Bhagavad-gita and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the original teacher for all mankind.

That line descends through many spiritual masters, one of whom is His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada), who is my instructing spiritual master, and who is accepted as the fully liberated soul.

Srila Prabhupada came to the West from India in 1966 to found the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). A spiritual master in a line of teachers that goes back 5000 years, he represented the pure message of the Bhagavad-gita. Having virtually no money and very few possessions, he lived in almost abject poverty for one year, depending on the help of friends and struggling to adapt to the Western climate and lifestyle.

Always determined to share the sublime spiritual teachings of Krishna, he went to New York where he would sit alone in a park, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. In this way he gradually began to attract some followers who found for him a small shop where he could give lectures. These lectures increased in popularity with time, and soon his followers began to establish centres throughout America, and then the rest of the world.

Within twelve years Srila Prabhupada saw more than 200 centres spring up in dozens of countries. He travelled the world many times in order to visit these centres, all the time writing books, which he saw as his main mission.

In fact he translated some sixty volumes of Vedic literatures into English, giving elaborate explanations of the texts. His works include the epic Bhagavat Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam), which describes the qualities and pastimes of Lord Krishna, and the beautiful Chaitanya Charitamrita, which recounts the life story of Sri Chaitanya, the incarnation of Krishna who began the Hare Krishna Movement.

Today Srila Prabhupada is revered as the Founder-Acharya (Principal Teacher) of ISKCON, being worshiped daily in all of its centres. His books form the basis for the movement, which is now being carried on by his disciples and their followers.

The six goswamis (saints) of Vrindavan