On Parampara

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His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada
Founder-Acarya of the
Hare Krishna Movement

The Parampara is a basically a preservation technique that ensures an efficient transfer of knowledge without adultration. Jagat Candra das (01-16-02)

On Parampara

The Parampara is a basically a preservation technique that ensures an efficient transfer of knowledge without adultration.

Here are a few steps in the logical sequence that has its own conclusions!

1. An expert ( a guru ) distributes his knowledge to all who approach him & follow his instructions - be it ayurveda, classical dance, music, art , architecture or philosophy.

2. His desire is that every one he teaches becomes an expert too, worthy of being emulated or followed.

3. But if he has to choose his sucessor(s) the one(s) who he feels will represent him & his teachings best - he will be very very choosy. Because its imperitive that the exact flavour is understood & passed.

4. Which is why he may also decide not to appoint a successor in order to preserve his teachings locked in his books for instance.

Who can refute this? I am game !!

Would Srila Prabhupada risk appointing a bunch of devotees who would not have spent more than 6 to 8 years in ISKCON and whose average age will hover around 33 - 34 years, as his sucessors? No way !! Why did SrilaPrabhupada concentrate on his books far more than grooming sucessors during his final years ? What did he mean by - i will live forever through my books?

Here is another point to ponder about :

We are all belonging to the Madhva- Gaudia Sampradaya.

Why did Lord Chaitanya link up with the Madhva Sampradaya all the way down south on the west coast?

Was there no parampara worthy of being attached to in Bengal ? The Parampara we have linked to exists today and they follow the ritvik system where Srila Madhvacharya is still the Guru !! It was like that even during the days of Lord Chaitanya !

While the Gaudia portion of the Paramapara of ours has set the best expamples of what a Parampara should not become ( need quotes from Srila Prabhupada ? ) the Madhva Sampradaya has had a great track record! Maybe we should all follow their expample and we will be in Parampara !!

Who can refute this? I am game!!

So before anyone claims to be following the Parampara in supporting the present set of " Pure Devotees" ( how many are there now - 140? - not very rare are they ?) - please think twice !!

How nice it would be to have well respected Ritviks give young devotees the Mala on behalf of Srila Prabhupada while senior devotees looks after them all like younger brothers of a large Family? Rather than this sectarian Gru thing that splits ISKCON into little disjointed bits with deepening rifts & divides?

Jagat Candra Das - initiated - 1982

Jagat Candra Das is the conceptualiser of the ISKCON bangalore Temple . An engineer with a masters degree in Industrial Design - he was also the one who designed & authored the EXPO in Mayapur.

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