The difficult role of the spiritual master

Our movement is supposed to spread on the whole planet. This means hundreds of millions of new devotees in need of finding a spiritual master. How to solve this problem?

When Srila Prabhupada was present on the planet, he initiated about 5,000 disciples. At the time, it was something unprecedented, not only because he accepted so many disciples (something that is discouraged by Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself, as being very risky), but especially because he accepted disciples from amongst the sinful mlecchas and yavanas of the west. Considering that the guru has to assume the sinful reactions of his disciples, we can only imagine how dangerous it was.

Another problem Srila Prabhupada had to face was how to train his disciples. Traditionally, gurus would have personal contact with their disciples and train them day-to-day. The disciple would live with the spiritual master for at least one year before accepting initiation and would continue personally associating with him for a long time afterward. By this continuous contact, the guru could not only teach the disciple but also correct any shortcomings one could display.

In the case of Srila Prabhupada, he was able to solve the first problem by being a paramahaṃsa. A paramahaṃsa can accept any number of disciples and just destroy all their previous karma, just like a big forest fire burns trees. In later years, a Vaiṣnava in Vṛndāvana, alarmed at the possible consequences to Prabhupada's health, visited him with different passages of the scripture, alerting him that having his mūrtis installed in the temples and being worshiped daily would make him accept the karma of not only his disciples but of all people attending the daily guru-pūjā. Prabhupada paused and answered gravelly: "That's why I came."

Prabhupada was able to solve the second problem, of training his numerous disciples, by a combination of a śiṣya system (where the older disciples would teach the newer) and remote instructions through his books and letters. Nowadays, it may sound normal, but at Prabhupada's time, it was revolutionary and unprecedented.

Such a system worked for Srila Prabhupada due to his extraordinary purity and potency. Srila Prabhupada is possibly the most important ācārya of the modern age, and many of his own god-brothers accepted that he was directly empowered by Krsna to fulfill his mission.

We can also see that a few disciples of Srila Prabhupada were also able to initiate thousands of disciples and create a personal impact in their lives, like Jayapataka Swami, Bhakti Thirta Swami, and others. It would be great if there were a few thousand other powerful Vaiṣnavas like them to spread Krsna Consciousness around the world, but unfortunately, such powerful Vaiṣnavas don't grow in trees.

Not only has Srila Prabhupada already left the planet, but most of his direct disciples also left. We will very soon come to a day when an announcement on Dandavats will communicate the disheartening fact that the last disciple of Srila Prabhupada left this planet. The point is how we will continue this movement after that.

Our movement is supposed to spread on the whole planet. This means hundreds of millions of new devotees in need of finding a spiritual master. Currently, we have a little over 50 initiating gurus in our movement who are still actively accepting disciples. If this small number of gurus were forced to deal with hundreds of millions of disciples, each one would be forced to accept several million disciples! This would mean that every single initiating guru in our movement would have to exceed the already unprecedented feat of Srila Prabhupada hundreds of times over. Certainly, this is not practical; therefore, if our movement is ever going to take the world, something will have to change in our guru system.

The role of the spiritual master is something I believe we still don't quite understand in iskcon. There are so many ideas around that just don't seem very correct.

It's a fact that the scriptures mention that the guru should be liberated, but one could also point out that this is also the qualification for a father, a mother and even an ordinary husband: "One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a father, a husband, a mother or a worshipable demigod." (SB 5.5.18)

How can we understand that? It helps if we can examine how Srila Prabhupada explains it. He used to explain the role of the spiritual master in a very simple way: The spiritual master is the representative of Krsna, someone who repeats the same message Krsna spoke. A spiritual master is like a postman, who delivers the message without adulteration.

If we understand the role of the spiritual master in this light, it's actually quite simple. A qualified spiritual master is not necessarily someone who can walk over water, but someone who can repeat the message he received from his own spiritual master (who received from his own spiritual master, all the way to Krsna Himself) without adulteration. If we accept things in this way, any humble, sincere Vaiṣnava who has a good grasp on the philosophy and its practical application, as well as good personal example, could become a spiritual master.

The second point is that the role of the spiritual master is actually a collective role. Just like a healthy child is grown not just by the father, but by the combined effort of the father, mother, grandparents, uncles, cousins, as well as other relatives and well-wishers, a devotee is nourished in his spiritual life not only by the diksa-guru but by the combined effort of many other Vaiṣnavas in the society, including god-grandparents, god-uncles, god-cousins and so on. It takes a whole village to raise a child. Similarly, it takes a whole society to raise a disciple.

Another point is the role of the diksa-guru and the siksa-gurus. We are a siksa-sampradāya. Actually, the role of the siksa-guru is more prominent in our line than the mere ceremony of initiation. Srila Prabhupada explains that one may take instructions from many siksa-gurus, and the one who becomes more prominent in his life usually becomes the diksa-guru. Again, if we see in this light, things become very simple: Any bona fide Vaiṣnava can give instructions and help others on the spiritual path, and when someone develops a relationship of deep trust with a senior Vaiṣnava, one may accept him or her as diksa-guru. The diksa-guru would then take responsibility for helping this soul to go back to godhead and would instruct him or her with the help of all the other siksa-gurus in our society. In this scenario, the diksa-guru doesn't necessarily need to know everything, but just to be humble enough to direct the disciple to other Vaiṣnavas who can help in each situation. Even in the hypothetical situation of a disciple becoming more elevated than the guru, it would also not be a problem, since the guru could just forward him to another senior Vaiṣnava who could instruct him further.

I believe if we could collectively understand this point, it could help enormously in improving our relationship not only with our diksa-guru but also with all the siksa-gurus we have during our lifetimes. I believe many of the problems we have in our society connected with the role of the spiritual master come not from the scriptures, but from our own minds and false ego. We think we are very great, and we want the spiritual master to be able to walk over water in order to be able to accept his guidance.

Due to our false ego, we think we can accept only a direct incarnation of Viṣnu as a guide, and therefore we project an unrealistic set of mystical expectations on the guru, and we lose our faith in his guidance as soon as the smallest crack in this idealized image is detected. As a result, very few Vaiṣnavas want to take the risk of accepting such unruly and puffed-up disciples.

If we can tune down our false ego, we can appreciate better the qualities not only of the spiritual master, but of all Vaiṣnavas, and understand that a Vaiṣnava is something very rare in this world. When we acquire this consciousness, we can love and respect our spiritual master regardless of being able to walk over water or not. If the prospective disciples become somehow more humble, then more humble and qualified Vaiṣnavas may step and accept the responsibility of raising some spiritual children.

If this happens, many of the problems we have in the current guru-system in iskcon (such as the small number of initiating gurus) would be solved. We would have more spiritual masters, each one with a smaller number of disciples, and would thus be able to personally guide each one of them. It would be less risky for the gurus (who would not have to take the risk of accepting the karma of so many disciples) and better for the disciples, who would have the opportunity of having more personal contact with the guru. At the same time, everyone could hear from exalted paramahaṃsas walking on the planet through online lectures and big festivals, like we already do today.

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