sampradayas
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Imported quote 13356 There are four Vaisnava sampradayas (systems) of disciplic succession. One sampradaya comes from Lord Brahma, one from the goddess of fortune, one from the Kumaras, headed by Sanat-kumara, and one from Lord Siva. These four systems of disciplic succession are still going on. As King Prthu has illustrated, one who is serious about receiving transcendental Vedic knowledge must accept a guru, or spiritual master, in one of these four disciplic successions. It is said that unless one accepts a mantra from one of these sampradayas, the so-called mantra will not act in Kali-yuga. Many sampradayas have sprung up without authority, and they are misleading the people by giving unauthorized mantras. The rascals of these so-called sampradayas do not observe the Vedic rules and regulations. Although they are addicted to all kinds of sinful activities, they still offer the people mantras and thus mislead them. Intelligent persons, however, know that such mantras will never be successful, and as such they never patronize such upstart spiritual groups. People should be very careful of these nonsensical sampradayas. To get some facility for sense gratification, unfortunate people in this age receive mantras from these so-called sampradayas. Prthu Maharaja, however, showed by his example that one should receive knowledge from a bona fide sampradaya. Therefore Maharaja Prthu accepted Sanat-kumara as his spiritual master.
(More...) Imported quote 13625 The four Kumaras are parampara spiritual masters of the Vaisnava sampradaya. Out of the four sampradayas, namely Brahma-sampradaya, Sri-sampradaya, Kumara-sampradaya and Rudra-sampradaya, the disciplic succession of spiritual master to disciple known as the Kumara-sampradaya is coming down from the four Kumaras. So Prthu Maharaja was very respectful to the sampradaya-acaryas. As it is said by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair: a spiritual master or the parampara-acarya, should be respected exactly like the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word vidhivat is significant in this verse. This means that Prthu Maharaja also strictly followed the injunctions of the sastra in receiving a spiritual master or acarya of the transcendental disciplic succession. Whenever an acarya is seen, one should immediately bow down before him. Prthu Maharaja did this properly; therefore the words used here are prasrayanata-kandharaḥ. Out of humility, he bowed down before the Kumaras.
(More...) Imported quote 13962 Bhaktisiddhanta-Sarasvati Thakura Gosvami Maharaja Prabhupada (1874-1937) the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and thus the spiritual grandfather of the present day Krsna consciousness movement. A powerful preacher, he founded sixty four missions in India; The transcendentally empowered son of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura appeared in this world on February 6, 1874. His father was deputy magistrate of Jagannatha Puri in Orissa at this time. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had been very concerned about unauthorized pseudo-Vaisnavas who were usurping the pure teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and therefore had begun a revival of the sahkirtana mission. Though very busy with his profession, he wrote profusely about all aspects of Krsna consciousness. He prayed constantly for someone to boldly preach his writings. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's prayers were answered in Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. When he was six months old, the Ratha-yatra festival of chariots was held in Puri. Lord Jagannatha's chariot stopped in front of Srila Bhaktivinoda's house, which was on the main road between the temple and the Gunḍica mandira. The chariot stayed there for three days. On the third day, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's mother brought the child out to see the Lord. The pūjaris picked him up and put him on the cart. He crawled to the base of Lord Jagannatha, touching His lotus feet. Simultaneously a garland fell from the neck of the Lord and landed around the child. The pūjaris exclaimed that this child was especially blessed by the Lord. The boy grew up to be a great scholar in many fields of learning. But when he reached twenty-two, he left his studies at college, vowing to never take to householder life. For three years, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura held the post of raja-panḍita (royal scholar) of the Vaisnava king of Tripura. Thereafter he took initiation from Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji. Srila Gaurakisora was a Vaisnava renunciate who had fully absorbed himself in the worship of Krsna at Vrndavana for a long time. Then he settled at the holy city of Navadvipa on the bank of the Ganges. By this time Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura had retired from his government work and was worshiping Lord Krsna in a small house near Navadvipa, at Godruma. Every day he gave Srimad-Bhagavatam class there. Srila Gaurakisora used to attend these classes. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura told his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, to accept Srila Gaurakisora as his initiating spiritual master. He received the name Varsabhanavi-devi-dayitaya dasa. Thereafter Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gave up all other activities to chant 194 rounds daily for seven years. He stayed in a kutira (hut) but did not take time to repair the roof; if it rained, he just used an umbrella. In 1918 he opened the first center of the Gauḍiya Mission in Ultadanga Road in Calcutta. He was then forty-four. All across India he established Lord Caitanya's teachings as the most excellent spiritual philosophy. He started his mission in the midst of war and political agitation for national liberation. He was uncompromising in his disregard of such mundane concerns. The most important thing is to invoke the spirit of devotion to the Supreme Lord; this concern lies far above any material consideration. Many leaders objected that he was diverting too many young men from India's national interests, but he paid them no heed. In this period, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visited Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura on the rooftop at Ultadanga Road. Srila Prabhupada, at that time known as Abhay Caran De, was an adherent of Gandhi's svaraja movement. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura convinced him in just one sitting of the vital necessity of Lord Caitanya's mission over everything else. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura departed this world in 1936. Two weeks before leaving his body, he instructed Srila Prabhupada to introduce the sahkirtana mission to the Western world. See Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the foremost Vaisnava acarya in the modern age. In 1896, he appeared in this world as Abhay Caran De in Calcutta, where he received an English-language education. He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, in 1922. At their first meeting, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura requested Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowledge through the English language. In 1933, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura initiated Srila Prabhupada as Abhaya Caranaravinda dasa. In the years that followed, he wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita, assisted the Gauḍiya Mission in its work, and in 1944 started Back to Godhead, an English fortnightly magazine, still continued by his disciples today. He received the title Bhaktivedanta in 1947 from the Gauḍiya Vaisnava Society. In the 1950's, Srila Prabhupada retired from family life, accepting the vanaprastha order. Thus he was able to devote more time to his studies and writing. He came to Vrndavana to live humbly at the historic medieval temple of Radha-Damodara. After several years of deep absorption in Krsna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada accepted the order of sannyasa from his Godbrother Kesava Prajna Maharaja, in 1959. It was then that he began to work on his life's masterpiece: a multivolume translation of and commentary on the eighteen-thousand verse Srimad-Bhagavatam. After publishing three volumes of the Bhagavatam in India, Srila Prabhupada came to the United States in 1965. After great difficulty, with no initial financial resources, he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York in July, 1966. The residents of that great metropolis of materialism were astounded as the youthful American followers of Srila Prabhupada danced and chanted the Hare Krsna maha-mantra in their midst, that eternal Vedic sound echoing between the glass and steel skyscraper canyon walls. The Krsna consciousness movement soon spread to San Francisco, where the Ratha-yatra festival of the chariots was held for the first time outside of India. A group of American disciples started a branch in London, where George Harrison of the Beatles became a life-long follower of Srila Prabhupada. From England the movement went to Germany, Holland, France, and other European countries. It likewise flourished in Canada, Latin America, Australia and Africa. Simultaneously, Srila Prabhupada personally established several multi-million-dollar ISKCON temple and guesthouse projects in India at Bombay, Vrndavana, Mayapur and Hyderabad. But Srila Prabhupada considered his most significant contribution to be his books, which form a veritable library of Vedic philosophy, religion, culture and literature. Highly respected by the academic community for their authority, depth and clarity, they serve as standard textbooks in numerous college courses. His writings have been translated into more than eighty languages. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established in 1972 to publish his works, is the world's largest publisher in the field of Vedic studies. In the twelve years after his first arrival in America up to his departure from this world in 1977, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe fourteen times on lecture tours that took him to six continents. Even in his physical absence, his great mission continues to move forward. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire that Srila Prabhupada predicted during his 1972 visit to Moscow, Krsna consciousness is vigorously blossoming throughout Eastern Europe, Russia, a (More...) Imported quote 14455 The word bhoksyate is very important in this verse. Just as a king gives protection to his citizens, these devotees, following the principles of devotional service, will give protection to all the people of the world. The people of the world are very much harassed by so-called religious-principled svamis, yogis, karmis and jnanis, but none of these can show the right way to become elevated to the spiritual platform. There are primarily four parties spreading devotional service all over the universe. These are the Ramanuja-sampradaya, the Madhva-sampradaya, the Visnusvami-sampradaya and the Nimbarka-sampradaya. The Madhva-Gauḍiya-sampradaya in particular comes from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. All these devotees are spreading this Krsna consciousness movement very widely and giving protection to innocent people who are being so much embarrassed by pseudo-avataras, svamis, yogis and others.
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