The qualification of a bona fide spiritual master, a representative of Srila Vyasadeva, described in the First Canto, First Chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam. ============================================================================== 1. Sri Vyasadeva is the original spiritual preceptor for all men. And all other preceptors are considered to be his representatives. A representative is one who can exactly present the viewpoint of Sri Vyasadeva. Sri Vyasadeva impregnated the message of Bhagavatam unto Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, and Sri Suta Gosvami heard it from him (Sri Sukadeva Gosvami). According to Parasara Muni, our Vyasadeva in this particular yuga is very special. In every yuga cycle there is one Vyasadeva compiling the Vedas, but our Vyasadeva is very special. Who knows what? Shell I tell you the story why is he so special? In the other cycles of yugas, Vyasadevas are great sages, but in this yuga, Vyasadeva is a special empowered incarnation of the Lord. It happened so in this particular yuga that all the purports of the Vedas were forgotten by the demigods, due to the curse of Gautama Muni. He cursed all the demigods and they all forgot the Vedas. Even Lord Brahma. So they forgot all the Vedas, nothing left, they could not remember anything anymore. So they went to Visnu, Narayana. "Help! Help!" And He said "Yes, I will appear as Vyasadeva, and again revive all the Vedas." Therefore he is so special. This is described in the Varaha Purana. During a severe famine, drought, he performed severe austerity, in order to please Lord Brahma, because he wanted a boon to somehow be able to please his visiting guests. According to Vedic etiquette, if you do not please your guest, you have to suffer in a specific hell. Gautama Muni didn't want to do that. He thought, "It is not very good to suffer in hell. But how can I please my guests if there is no water, no fruits?" He performed severe austerities. "What do you want? As soon as some guest comes, you will have water, fruits, everything." One day many sages took shelter in the asrama of Gautama Muni. They were all learned, powerful sages. Gautama Muni satisfied them very, very much. They were amazed that: "Although there is no rain water, you supply us with everything." Also it is a vedic custom that in any given time you don't indicate "now you go". Just the opposite. But you reply, "Now we must go". OK, tomorrow you go. But the next day again. At one point, they became disturbed, but they did not want to disturb Gautama Muni. They thought, "Lets trick him." By their own mystic power they created an artificial cow. It looked just like a real cow, but it was not. It was an illusory manifestation of a cow. They placed this cow in front of Gautama Munis asram. When Gautama Muni noticed the cow in front of the door, he thought "This is not very good, because I cannot go out". He took a little water and sprinkled the cow, so that she might move. But to his amassment the cow immediately fell dead to the ground. Shocked he went out and all the other sages surrounded the cow and pointed at Gautama Muni, "What did you do? You just killed a cow! We don't want to stay even one second longer here." With great disgust they left the asrama. So the problem was solved. But Gautama Muni wanted to know what was the real reason, and he sat down in meditation. He was fasting and making so many austerities, and at one point he could visualize the whole incident. He understood what happened and he was so angry, he did not only cursed the sages to become fools, he said "Whoever claims that he possesses some knowledge, let him at once forget his knowledge, in the entire universe." This way all the Vedas were lost. Nobody could understand anymore, what is veda, what is knowledge, what is not knowledge. The whole universe forgot the Vedas. That is the story. Therefore the Vedas are sometimes unmanifested. Vyasadeva also has his own pastimes, and his pastimes is to compile the Vedas. - Description of the disiplic succession. 2. All bona fide representatives of Sri Vyasadeva in the chain of disciplic succession are to be understood to be gosvamis. These gosvamis restrain all their senses, and they stick to the path made by the previous acaryas. The gosvamis do not deliver lectures on the Bhagavatam capriciously. Rather, they execute their services most carefully, following their predecessors who delivered the spiritual message unbroken to them. vaco vegam manasah krodha-vegam jihva-vegam udaropastha-vegam etan vegan yo visaheta dhirah sarvam apimam prthivim sa sisyat A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind's demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world. First one must control his speaking power. Every one of us has the power of speech; as soon as we get an opportunity we begin to speak. If we do not speak about Krsna consciousness, we speak about all sorts of nonsense. A toad in a field speaks by croaking, and similarly everyone who has a tongue wants to speak, even if all he has to say is nonsense. The croaking of the toad, however, simply invites the snake: "Please come here and eat me." Nevertheless, although it is inviting death, the toad goes on croaking. The talking of materialistic men and impersonalist Mayavadi philosophers may be compared to the croaking of frogs. They are always speaking nonsense and thus inviting death to catch them. Controlling speech, however, does not mean self-imposed silence (the external process of mauna), as Mayavadi philosophers think. Silence may appear helpful for some time, but ultimately it proves a failure. The meaning of controlled speech conveyed by Srila Rupa Gosvami advocates the positive process of krsna-katha, engaging the speaking process in glorifying the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. The tongue can thus glorify the name, form, qualities and pastimes of the Lord. The preacher of krsna-katha is always beyond the clutches of death. This is the significance of controlling the urge to speak. The restlessness or fickleness of the mind (mano-vega) is controlled when one can fix his mind on the lotus feet of Krsna. The Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 22.31) says: krsna--surya-sama; maya haya andhakara yahan krsna, tahan nahi mayara adhikara Krsna is just like the sun, and maya is just like darkness. If the sun is present, there is no question of darkness. Similarly, if Krsna is present in the mind, there is no possibility of the mind's being agitated by maya's influence. The yogic process of negating all material thoughts will not help. To try to create a vacuum in the mind is artificial. The vacuum will not remain. However, if one always thinks of Krsna and how to serve Krsna best, one's mind will naturally be controlled. Similarly, anger can be controlled. We cannot stop anger altogether, but if we simply become angry with those who blaspheme the Lord or the devotees of the Lord, we control our anger in Krsna consciousness. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu became angry with the miscreant brothers Jagai and Madhai, who blasphemed and struck Nityananda Prabhu. In His Siksastaka Lord Caitanya wrote, trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna: "One should be humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree." One may then ask why the Lord exhibited His anger. The point is that one should be ready to tolerate all insults to one's own self, but when Krsna or His pure devotee is blasphemed, a genuine devotee becomes angry and acts like fire against the offenders. Krodha, anger, cannot be stopped, but it can be applied rightly. It was in anger that Hanuman set fire to Lanka, but he is worshiped as the greatest devotee of Lord Ramacandra. This means that he utilized his anger in the right way. Arjuna serves as another example. He was not willing to fight, but Krsna incited his anger: "You must fight!" To fight without anger is not possible. Anger is controlled, however, when utilized in the service of the Lord. As for the urges of the tongue, we all experience that the tongue wants to eat palatable dishes. Generally we should not allow the tongue to eat according to its choice, but should control the tongue by supplying prasada. The devotee's attitude is that he will eat only when Krsna gives him prasada. That is the way to control the urge of the tongue. One should take prasada at scheduled times and should not eat in restaurants or sweetmeat shops simply to satisfy the whims of the tongue or belly. If we stick to the principle of taking only prasada, the urges of the belly and tongue can be controlled. In a similar manner, the urges of the genitals, the sex impulse, can be controlled when not used unnecessarily. The genitals should be used to beget a Krsna conscious child, otherwise they should not be used. The Krsna consciousness movement encourages marriage not for the satisfaction of the genitals but for the begetting of Krsna conscious children.. When one is fully practiced in the methods of Krsna conscious control, he can become qualified to be a bona fide spiritual master. 3. A gosvami, or the bona fide representative of Sri Vyasadeva, must be free from all kinds of vices. The four major vices of Kali-yuga are (1) illicit connection with women, (2) animal slaughter, (3) intoxication, (4) speculative gambling of all sorts. A gosvami must be free from all these vices before he can dare sit on the vyasasana. No one should be allowed to sit on the vyasasana who is not spotless in character and who is not freed from the above-mentioned vices. suta uvaca abhyarthitas tada tasmai sthanani kalaye dadau dyutam panam striyah suna yatradharmas catur-vidhah Suta Gosvami said: Maharaja Pariksit, thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter were performed. (Bhag. 1.17.38) Dyutam means gambling, panam means drinking, striya means association with women and suna means animal slaughter. Where these four activities are performed, Kali resides, thus they are most sinful and are to be shunned by all devotees in all bona fide sampradayas. "The four things are Kali's disciple, friends. We have already discussed this. So one friend is this meat-eating problem, the butchers, Kali's friends. And the liquor distiller. He's also Kali's friend. And the gamblers or the gambling house maintainer. And prostitute house maintainer. These are friends of Kali. Now you will find all over the world these things are very prominent. Clubs and butcherhouse and liquor house and gambling house. Therefore the whole atmosphere is Kali." (SP SB lecture 1974) Prabhupada: Bhaktivinoda Thakura has sung one... Ei ota kalir chela: "Here is another disciple of Kali." Nake tilaka galai mala. "He has got tilaka on the nose and mala, kanthi, also." Sahaja bhajana kache mamu sange lana pare bhalo: "And he's, he has become a Vaisnava by illicit sex." This is stated by Bhaktivinoda Thakura. "Here is a Kali's chela. He has dressed like a Vaisnava, but he is doing his bhajan with illicit sex." Sahaje bhajana kache mamu sange lana pare bhalo. You know? There is a class of sahajiyas? Bali Mardana: Yes. Prabhupada: Yes. Vaisnavas. Just like, dress like Rupa Gosvami, loincloth, and, but three dozen women behind him. Bali Mardana: Yes, gopis. Prabhupada: So Bhaktivinoda Thakura: "Here is a disciple of Kali. He has tilaka and he has kunti and he's doing this nonsense." Eita kalir chela. (SP morning walk July 13, 1974) 4. He not only should be freed from all such vices, but must also be well versed in all revealed scriptures or in the Vedas. The Puranas are also parts of the Vedas. And histories like the Mahabharata or Ramayana are also parts of the Vedas. The acarya or the gosvami must be well acquainted with all these literatures. The texts studied in the four stages of formal Vedic education are collectively called sruti-sastra, `scripture that is to be heard' by the brahmanas. But sruti-sastra is not all there is to the Vedic literature. Chandogya Upanisad 7.1.2 declares that the Puranas and Itihasas comprise the fifth division of Vedic study. The Puranas and Itihasas teach the same knowledge as the four Vedas, but it is illustrated with extensive historical narrations. The fifth Veda is known as smrti-sastra (`scripture that must be remembered'). Smrti-sastra study was permitted to non-brahmanas. 5. To hear and explain them is more important than reading them. One can assimilate the knowledge of the revealed scriptures only by hearing and explaining. Hearing is called sravana, and explaining is called kirtana. The two processes of sravana and kirtana are of primary importance to progressive spiritual life. Only one who has properly grasped the transcendental knowledge from the right source by submissive hearing can properly explain the subject. 6. Srimad-Bhagavatam is a natural commentation on the Brahma-sutra, or the Badarayani Vedanta-sutras. It is called natural because Vyasadeva is author of both the Vedanta-sutras and Srimad-Bhagavatam, or the essence of all Vedic literatures. Besides Vyasadeva, there are other sages who are the authors of six different philosophical systems, namely Gautama, Kanada, Kapila, Patanjali, Jaimini and Astavakra. Theism is explained completely in the Vedanta-sutra, whereas in other systems of philosophical speculations practically no mention is given to the ultimate cause of all causes. One can sit on the vyasasana only after being conversant in all systems of philosophy so that one can present fully the theistic views of the Bhagavatam in defiance of all other systems. 7. The secret of success in spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings. It is essential, therefore, that a disciple be very much obedient and submissive to the bona fide spiritual master. * Forgetful men do not know the right path for peace and prosperity. However, the sages know it well, and therefore for the good of all men they are always anxious to perform acts which may bring about peace in the world. They are sincere friends to all living entities, and at the risk of great personal inconvenience they are always engaged in the service of the Lord for the good of all people.