Re: How do we digest this

Dear Lowerthanarat,

     Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Jaya Guru Parampara! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

     A vaisnava need not formally initiate disciples to testify to his touchstone abilities. Thakur Bhaktivinode's statement must be seen from the Absolute viewpoint and not from the relative viewpoint. Simply by seeing Vaisnavas, millions of living entities are delivered. Haridasa Thakura for one did not initiate many disciples. But simply by hearing his chanting many people were delivered and became devotees eventually. Not only people, the trees, plants, insects, animals, birds, reptiles, even the microorganisms invisible to the eye and created beings all over the universe are delivered by the presence of the Vaisnavas.

     Often in our sampradaya we see that one bhajanandi guru is always accompanied by one disciple who goes on to become a very great preacher, gosthyanandi. Like Lokanatha Gosvami --- Narottama Dasa Thakura, Jagannatha Dasa Babaji --- Thakur Bhaktivinode, Gour Kisore Dasa Babaji -- Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Bhaktishastri Paramapada Dasa Maharaja --- Swami Gaurangapada, etc.....  They did not keep many disciples, but those one or two disciples were more than enough to make Vaisnavas out of innumerable entities.

     So the acaryas even if they don't appear to be preaching are responsible for the preaching movement behind the scenes while their disciples become responsible for the preaching movement on the 'stage', if I am allowed to make that comparison. Our Swami Gaurangapada's spiritual master gave him fully mercy and blessed his preaching mission to be successful which is the core inspiration that keeps this preaching going on so well. The parampara is a team and works together according to the will of the Lord and so different acaryas do different things. But actually it is one guru tattva working in the form of many acaryas. Every Vaisnava acarya is preaching by making their contribution to the movement in one way or another and with our limited senses we cannot understand how things work. To make just one movie thousands of people are involved behind the scenes putting in so much time and effort, so if that is just for a mundane thing, we can just imagine how devotees are working towards the spiritual work of delivering all the living entities.

      Factually a Vaisnava has no reason to stay in this world except for preaching. The acaryas who come down to earth do not have any other thing on their plans except preaching and if it weren't for the chance to preach and deliver the fallen souls, the whole purpose of this material world would be defeated as the souls can never be delivered without the help of the Vaisnavas. So you can digest your observation with great pleasure when you see what's going on behind the scenes. I hope that helps. Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

Your servant,

Srinath

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