Transcription of a lecture by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

The greatest spiritual master of the Hare Krsna movement, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, asked His disciple Rupa Gosvami to go to Vrndavana and preach His mission. This is disciplic succession. One should not think, "I have understood everything from my spiritual master; now let me sit down tightly." This is also nice, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission is to spread the cult. He was a very learned scholar and a very beautiful young man. He had a very beautiful wife and very affectionate mother and was a respectable brahmana. Everyone looked up to Him; by His one command He could gather hundreds of thousands of men to start a civil disobedience movement. However, in spite of such a sublime position in householder life, He took sannyasa, the renounced order of life, at the age of twenty-four years. He could have satisfied Himself with sense gratification-"Let Me remain very peacefully at home. I have My good wife, My mother, and the public." But He took sannyasa. That is Krsna consciousness.

Krsna wanted everyone to surrender unto Him, so Krsna came Himself as Caitanya Mahaprabhu to teach how to preach this process of devotional service. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself, in the incarnation of a pure devotee, so He set the example. Not only did He Himself show how to become Krsna conscious, but His disciples also did so. After teaching His principal disciple, Rupa Gosvami, about the principles of devotional service, Lord Caitanya said, "It is your duty to go preach." When a disciple receives instruction from his spiritual master he has an obligation to the spiritual master. This is called guru-daksina. After being initiated and instructed, the disciple should offer service: "My dear master, what can I do for you?" I also asked my spiritual master what I could do, and he asked me to try to preach Krsna consciousness in the Western world. This is the duty of the disciple. He should not only receive instruction; he becomes indebted to his spiritual master for the knowledge imparted. Therefore he must also serve him. Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructs that Krsna consciousness means to serve Krsna and the spiritual master simultaneously, because we are elevated by the mercy of these two personalities, Krsna and the spiritual master. When one is very sincere, Krsna, who is seated in everyone's heart, gives him a qualified spiritual master. By the grace of Krsna one can have a bona fide spiritual master, and by the grace of the spiritual master one makes advancement in Krsna consciousness. This is the process.

The seed of devotional service is achieved by the combined mercy of Krsna and the spiritual master. Therefore Lord Caitanya told Rupa Gosvami, "It is your duty to accept what I say. Please go to Vrndavana and execute My order. I have given you hints; now expand upon them." Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the greatest spiritual master, and now He and Rupa Gosvami were being separated, and it was not known when they would meet again. Therefore Lord Caitanya pacified him. "Don't be sorry. You will again come to Jagannatha Puri, and we shall meet again." Rupa Gosvami could not deny this, but he was so afflicted that as soon as Lord Caitanya embraced him and got on a boat to start across the river, Rupa Gosvami could not say anything but at once fainted and fell down due to feelings of separation. There was a Maharastrian brahmana who was also a great devotee of Lord Caitanya and was also present there. Somehow or other he lifted Rupa Gosvami and took him to his own house.

Rupa Gosvami was accompanied by Anupama, his younger brother. Anupama's son is Jiva Gosvami, the celebrated scholar in the line of disciplic succession. When his father and uncle went away from home, this Jiva Gosvami was only ten years old, but he was such an intelligent boy that he decided, "My father and my uncle have left home to understand Krsna. Why should I remain at home?" So he also left home at the age of ten years. But he knew that because he was a young boy he would not be of much help. "If I go to my father or uncle, what shall I do there?" He knew that they had gone to Vrndavana on a great mission for Caitanya Mahaprabhu. "If I go to live there, then I must be qualified to assist them." Therefore Jiva Gosvami went to Benares and became a very great scholar and philosopher. He was an accredited scholar both in literature and philosophy, so when he was a young man, after being fully educated, he went to Rupa Gosvami, his uncle. In the meantime, he could not see his father, but his uncle was there, so Jiva Gosvami became his disciple, and he proved himself the greatest scholar and philosopher in the world. A great Sanskrit scholar in Calcutta once declared in a meeting that there has never been a philosopher and scholar like Jiva Gosvami in the world, nor in the future will there ever be one. His erudition is admitted by all scholarly circles. Even the Mayavadi school, who are against our Vaisnava philosophy, also study the theses of Jiva Gosvami. When I was in Bombay there was a very influential Mayavadi sannyasi who told me at a meeting, "I am studying Jiva Gosvami's philosophy." I said, "Very good." He was a Mayavadi sannyasi, yet within his heart he had studied him very carefully-in fact, he was a devotee of Krsna. I went to his asrama, and I saw that he was worshiping Radha-Krsna Deities. This very great scholar could present everything very nicely, and in public he would speak Mayavadi philosophy, impersonalism, but secretly, despite his sectarian view, he was worshiping Radha-Krsna. In the last meeting I declared to the audience, "Your spiritual master is speaking impersonalism here, but secretly he is worshiping Radha-Krsna at home. You should see. He has very good devotion for Krsna; he has Radha-Krsna Deities and is worshiping nicely." Jiva Gosvami was such a scholar that the greatest scholars among the Saṅkarite impersonalists admit his superiority. Saṅkara's philosophy has so much word jugglery that it is very difficult for an ordinary man to understand, so generally the Saṅkarites are mostly scholars. But nevertheless they admit defeat before Jiva Gosvami. This Jiva Gosvami was Rupa Gosvami's nephew.