No Enmity, Only Solution – Part 18

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga

To identify a genuine Sat-guru is the most critical problem at present in front of the whole world

1.         A Sat-Guru is really very very rare

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhipati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṃsa Jagat-Guru said that— “In the name of Hari-bhajana, Hari-kīrttana, Hari-kathā, those who are (those so-called sādhu-sannyāsīs) misguiding the whole world, at present this has become a yuga dharma of the age for all common public to get cheated by them.” He further used to say that— “In a world (or in this world) which is full of duplicity, only duplicitous persons are honoured. Genuine sādhus who do not lead the masses along the wrong path, are not respected in this world. In modern times simply getting cheated by those who are misguiding the masses throughout a pretentious form or spiritual discourses, has somehow emerged as a religion of the age (Yuga Dharma). And because the true sādhus wish to expose those wicked and unholy persons (or kapaṭ sādhus), those same unholy cheaters bewilder the masses by condemning the true sādhus as unholy, duplicitous and thieves themselves in a play (or foul game) to secure their escape. The illusionary potency of the Lord Māyā-devī never allows the jīvas to be sincere (niṣkapaṭ) and to that end she has been even depriving the jīvas of the association of genuine sādhus.”

2.         Before spoiling your life, please try to distinguish between a Sat-Guru and a Asat-Guru (I mean sādhu and asādhu)

Actually, we like to sacrifice our valuable life unto the feet of a false sādhu to spoil our whole life. Śaṅkara Bhagavān giving advice to Śrī Pārvatī Devī about the absolute rarity of a genuine Sat-Guru like the following—

guravo bahavaḥ santi

śiṣya- vittāpahārakaḥ

durlabhaù sad-gurur devī

śiṣya- santāpaharakaḥ               (Purāṇa-vakya)

“Śaṅkara Bhagavān saying to Pārvatī Devī that such countless so-called gurus are available in this world—those who are always ready to take away (or cheat) all the properties (like land and properties, or liquid money, or jewelry items, etc) of disciples, but such guru is really very very rare who can deliver his disciple from the ocean of miseries.”

From the following śloka of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam we know that—

vittam eva kalau nṝṇāṁ

janmācāra-guṇodayaḥ

dharma-nyāya-vyavasthāyāṁ

kāraṇaṁ balam eva hi                    (ŚB 12.2.2)

“In Kali-yuga, wealth itself can be considered as the yardstick of any one’s good birth, proper etiquette (or acaran), and good qualities etc.. And regarding dharma and adharma or law and justice only the power of somebody (influence of money power, man power, educational power, political power, etc.) can get valued.”

Pitāmaha Bīṣma Deva—who is one among those twelve Mahājanas—has given an open declaration in the following way—

guror apy avaliptasya

kāryākāryam ajānataḥ

utpatha-pratipannasya

parityāgo vidhīyate                         (Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva 179/25)

“It is one’s duty to leave such a guru who is attached to sense gratification and not busy with bhakti, also who has no common sense about what to do and what not to do, and deviated completely from devotional path towards negative ways can become a so called Guru, but he should be rejected without any hesitation (or delay). This is the scriptural advice.”

An unqualified materially engaged person who is devoid of any common sense of what to do or what not to do—foolish and deviated from devotional path towards negative ways can become a so-called guru, but he should be rejected immediately without any hesitation (or delay). This is the scriptural advice.

From Śrī Hari Bhakti Vilāsa we can see the following śloka in support of the above siddhānta vicāra—

snehād vā lobhato vāpi

yo gṛhniyād dīkśayā

tasmin gurau sa-sisye tat

devatā-śāpa apatet                             (Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa 2.7)

Out of undue affection or greed any guru who is giving dīkśā and he who for any material benefit or greed taking dīkśā—both of them can get displaced due to curse given by demigods.

From the following śloka quoted in Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa, we can find the following siddhānta vicāra established by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda—

yo vakti nyāya rahitaṃ

anyāyena sṛnoti yaḥ

tvavubhau narakaṃ ghoraṃ

vrajataḥ kālaṃ akśayaṃ                    (Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa 1.62)

Who is violating the scriptural injunctions to give mantra or śāstra Upadesh to others or who is going to accept those illegal Upadesh—both of them can go to hell forever.

Also, in Bhakti Sandarbha Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda has written the following absolute siddhānta vicāra—

vaiṣṇava-vidveṣī cet parityajya eva

“guror api avalitaptasye” ti smaranat

vaiṣṇava-bhāva-rahityena avaiṣṇavatayā

avaiṣṇavopadiṣteneṭi vacana viṣayatvācca yathokta-lakśaṇasya sri-guror-avidyamānatāyastu tasyaiva mahābhāgavatasyaikasya nitya-sevanaṃ paramaṃ śreyaḥ    

(Bhakti Saṇdarbha, Annucchheda 238)

“If guru is deadly against Vaiṣṇavas then, by keeping in mind the following śloka by Śrī Pitāmaha Bīṣma—guror apy avaliptasya kāryākāryam ajānataḥ; utpatha-pratipannasya parityāgo vidhīyate—which means one must reject him. That guru cannot have any importance due to lack of Vaiṣṇava bhāva (he being avaiṣṇava). Any devotee must reject him on the basis of the following śloka of Hari Bhakti Vilāsa—avaiṣṇavopadiṣṭena mantreṇa nirayaṁ vrajet punaś ca vidhinā samyag grāhayed vaiṣṇavād guroḥ—means one goes to hell if he accepts mantra from a non-Vaiṣṇava-Guru. Therefore, according to the rules of śāstra, one must take shelter (mantra) again from a Vaiṣṇava-guru according to scriptural injunctions.

Which means that, by chance someone have received mantra from such a guru who is having the dirty habit of woman association or any bad habit like any kind of intoxication, I mean who is not Vaiṣṇava or Kṛṣṇa-bhakta—then going to hell is a must.

So, this is the advice of śāstra that, in that case, one must accept mantra dīkśā again from a Vaiṣṇava-Sat-Guru Mahā-Bhāgavata.

So, if such guru already gone from life, then one should accept a Vaiṣṇava-Sat-Guru Mahā-Bhāgavata to serve him eternally—which can assure absolute maṅgala.”

From Bhakti Saṇdarbha (anucchheda, 210), written by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda, we can find the following śloka—

paramārtha-gurvāśrrayo vyavahārika-gurvādi parityāgenāpi karttavyaḥ

“One should not accept a Guru based on hereditary, social or ecclesiastical convention. Such a professional guru should be rejected. One must accept a qualified self saturated pāramārthika Guru, who can help one advance towards the ultimate goal of life, Kṛṣṇa-prema.”

By leaving even such a materially useful guru, formal guru or traditional hereditary guru—one must accept pāramārthika guru.

Your attention please—Oh! Honorable ISKCON society members (GBC-members)—

We Sārasvata Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sanga are extremely sorry to proclaim the following fact with painful heart that even the audacity of your society has gone up to such a high level that it is really beyond human comprehension. Because you dare to ignore or avoid Śrīla Saccidānanda Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura or Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupada or our Gauḍīya Guru-varga as a whole. Only some of those following documents are more than sufficient to substantiate or prove the fact. Please, never mind, because this is our most honest and sincere effort to protect the future generation of our Sārasvata Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya from the mispreaching program launched by you all for the past 50 years (if not more) to spoil the whole world, nothing more painful than that.

From "RESOLUTIONS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025", section "A Concise Statement of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Siddhānta for the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness position paper – 2025":

"Whereas our acaryas, such as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, have provided some such statements, but for ISKCON it would be more appropriate to base such statements on Srila Prabhupada's books as his teachings are our primary source of evidence and philosophical understanding."

"[...] Keeping all the above in mind, we in ISKCON could certainly use Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’ Daśa-mūla-tattva as our concise statement of siddhānta. However, since Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books are the primary source of evidence and philosophical understanding for the members of ISKCON, it is more appropriate to base the short formulation of siddhānta on his own words. At the same time, it is also important to show clearly that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings are in complete harmony with the teachings of the previous ācāryas.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Summary of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Siddhānta from the catuḥ-ślokī Bhāgavatam

Following the previous ācāryas, in this paper, we describe in gist ten cardinal points of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava siddhānta, as taught by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and presented by Śrīla Prabhupāda. They are similar to the ten roots of siddhānta identified by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and yet somewhat distinct. [...]"

751109 - Letter to Visvakarma written from Bombay

I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 3, 1975 with the enclosed statement about Van Maharaja. So I have now issued orders that all my disciples should avoid all of my godbrothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should they give them any of my books or should they purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them.

https://vanisource.org/wiki/751109_-_Letter_to_Visvakarma_written_from_Bombay

731114 - Letter to Sukadeva written from Delhi

Regarding the Goudiya Math books being circulated there, who is distributing? Who is sending these books? The Goudiya Math does not sell our books, why we should sell their books. Who has introduced these books? Let me know. These books should not at all be circulated in our Society. Bhakti Vilas Tirtha is very much antagonistic to our Society and he has no clear conception of devotional service. He is contaminated. Anyway, who has introduced these books? You say that you would read only one book if that was all that I had written, so you teach others to do like that. You have very good determination.

https://vanisource.org/wiki/731114_-_Letter_to_Sukadeva_written_from_Delhi