Initiation – The Beginning of Study for Getting an Eternal Post

Initiation speech, Warsaw, Poland, July 27, 1998

So we would like to welcome everyone to this auspicious event of initiation ceremony. This is an essential part of the Kṛṣṇa conscious process. We were speaking the other day about Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that it is known as kṛṣṇa-cittaḥ. So the focus is on a few things: one is consciousness and the other is Kṛṣṇa. And we speak of a process which suggests development, something that we can increase and expand and [?]. That's something which all of us have from previous lives — we also have some Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And in this life we have had some Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

But the significance of initiation is that now we want to take the final lessons for becoming fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, to go back to the spiritual world, the realm of Kṛṣṇa. It is therefore an important event; it is a time of making vows. It's a time of vows that disciples make to the spiritual master, guru, and guru also makes the, we could say, vow before the disciple.

So in this process of developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness there are two types of persons — there are gurus and there are disciples. The word for disciple in Sanskrit is śiṣya, which means “one who receives śikṣā.” And what is śikṣā? Śikṣā is an instruction. In the English language it is, I think, also significant — the word “disciple,” which Prabhupāda points out is related to the word “discipline.” So the instruction that we get from guru is instruction how to practice discipline so that we can make ourselves more receptive to the mercy of the Lord. So from guru, or spiritual master, we are getting instruction, direction how to practice discipline.

And it is a very nice discipline, it is sublime, it is not a nasty discipline like some army program or something like that. It is a discipline which simply means that we keep ourselves from doing things which are anyway nasty. These four regulative principles are just articulating all the things which cultured human beings don't do. It puts us, when we follow these principles — no eating meat, no intoxication, no gambling, no illicit sex — it puts us on the platform of being cultured human beings so that we can go about our spiritual advancement, our culture of spiritual life unhindered, unhampered.

This word śiṣya can also mean “student.” Prabhupāda often referred to his disciples in that way, as “my students.” So, like in school or at the university, there is some program or there is some subject that you study and you learn it thoroughly and then you are tested to show that you know what you've learned. And presumably the subject that one is learning is interesting for one to learn; it is not something one is just being forced to learn. And it's interesting because one sees how the subject is related, or can become related, to one's own life.

So we are students of Kṛṣṇa consciousness; we are learning the most interesting subject, which is the most important for our lives, because it has to do with our very self, with our spiritual being. Everyone is interested in themselves. Everyone is fascinated by the subject of themselves. So in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we get to find out about ourselves. And what are we finding out? Well, it's no secret. We are finding out that we are eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa.

And, of course, in that statement [?] may, the question has to come: “Who is Kṛṣṇa?” And that is what makes the subject of learning about ourselves so interesting. If we were just learning about ourselves isolated from Kṛṣṇa, that would be a very boring subject. It would boil down to the same warmed-over [?] information that everyone is experiencing in this world — namely, birth, old age, disease, death, and various configurations. But we get to find out about Kṛṣṇa, our best friend, of whom we are the eternal servants.

And the nice thing about this subject of Kṛṣṇa is that there is no limitation to this knowledge. But this is not knowledge in the sense of just some collection of facts. It is knowledge of the realm of devotion. This is not a sectarian idea. Sometimes people think, and sometimes we think, that this is a sectarian thing that we are getting involved in. Or some say, “It is a cult.” Actually, in one sense it is a cult. Prabhupāda even referred sometimes to the “Caitanya cult” — cult in the sense of culture, but not cult in the sense of something sectarian.

The material world — that is the sect. Because it says in śāstra that the spiritual world is three-fourths the size of the material world. Mathematically, that makes the material world the sect, the cult. So by this education of Kṛṣṇa consciousness we are entering into the vast spiritual world. And the simple and sublime way that we are doing this is by the via medium of transcendental sound, the essential sound of which is the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

So the transcendental history is: golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana — that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has come with the treasure of love of God from Goloka. And the treasure is there for us to take.

Just like in school sometimes… Well, people go to school in order to get a job. If you ask any student at the university, 99.9999 percent are there because they hope that afterwards they will get a good job. Well, we are going to the Hare Kṛṣṇa school to want a good job. We want an eternal post. People go, they study some subject so that they can be qualified to get a job, and they get the job, and then after some time they get fired from the job. But in Kṛṣṇa consciousness there is no firing, as long as we decide not to be fired.

In other words, it is up to us to maintain the determination which we now have on this nice, bright, sunny and auspicious day — the determination that I want to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout my life, throughout all of the difficult times, …[?] times to that. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko, sadā ‘hari’ bole’ ḍāko: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, “Whatever āśrama I may be in, let me go on chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa.” So, by extension, whatever varṇa we are in, or whatever lack of varṇa and āśrama there may be due to some confusion, or due to the fact that it's Kali-yuga and it's hard to figure out how to practice varṇāśrama — if we can have this determination and this enthusiasm that we are certainly feeling today, by keeping our position as śiṣya, as student or disciple to our spiritual master, by nicely following and nicely listening.

Basically, it is not a difficult process. Prabhupāda always emphasized how simple it is. We just have to keep a little bit alert, not become like this bhakta who we observed yesterday struggling with his mind, and who was fortunately saved by his intelligence. We could say, when the struggle is there with the mind, then let us be saved by our intelligence. And in this way we can follow the thread …[?] — it's like a red thread out of the labyrinth of this material world. There is some Greek ancient story about getting lost in a labyrinth and being led out by a thread which was given for finding the way out.

So, back to the history: we have Lord Caitanya bringing the harināma-saṅkīrtana to this world. And our previous ācāryas, they have been passing the mercy, the treasure chest, from Lord Caitanya. And Śrīla Prabhupāda has shown us what it means to really plunder that chest of love of God. Because this was something we read about — or we can read about because of Prabhupāda — in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that the associates of Lord Caitanya are plundering the storehouse of love of Godhead. But Prabhupāda is showing us by immediate demonstration; we have seen personally how he is doing.

So we have keeping our determination and we have agreeing to follow instructions and therefore to listen. And then we have following example. We have Prabhupāda's example, we have the devotees', the sādhus' example, and we have the examples within śāstra. So this is example-religion — we act by example.

And what are we doing practically? Practically, mainly, we are chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And by this chanting we are like making space in this world of illusion for the spiritual world. We are acting as agents to allow the spiritual realm to manifest here in this realm. And how that is working practically is through our culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, along with the chanting, there must be also the culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Now, those who are becoming particularly expert in the culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are being initiated as brāhmaṇas. The brāhminical initiation is a kind of recognition by the community of devotees that these are devotees who are becoming adept in the culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And thus they are becoming good examples for the rest of us. And they are being good examples in all the different activities of Kṛṣṇa consciousness — including chanting, but also Deity worship and also the preaching of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or teaching of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So, I won't go on further, because one can say so many things, but that is the purpose of the relationship of guru-disciple — that the teaching goes on. I think, for all of us we can just take this event as a reconfirmation of our faith in chanting of the holy name.

We were speaking the other day about Jayananda Prabhu, our Godbrother. He was famous for his enthusiastic devotional service. And devotees say that his preaching was always very simple and sublime. And one of the things he would say was, “If we can just have faith in the holy name… Just have faith in the holy name.” And he was an example of that.

So we can remember that for ourselves: we want to have faith in the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa is nondifferent from His name. So when we chant the holy name we don't want to inhibit our progress toward Kṛṣṇa by making offenses to the holy name. As I am sure you know, there are ten offenses; I won't go through them now. There is a nice explanation of them in the Ādi-līlā 8.24 of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So we should be familiar with these to avoid again to be like the victim of the mind that we saw so well demonstrated last night.

So we can chant blissfully:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

[end of the speech; followed by giving of spiritual names to the first initiates]