JAGADGURU TRADITION

In the 5,000 year history of the present age of kali, only five personalities have been recognised as Jagadgurus:

1. Jagadguru Shankaracharya

Jagadguru Shankaracharya appeared about 2,500 years ago. He re-established the greatness of vedic sanatan dharm in india and subsided the effect of the prevailing non-godly buddhism. His philosophy is known as advait vad or absolute monism. He established four seats, called maths, for the propogation of vedic religion.

2.Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya

Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya appeared shortly after shankaracharya. He propounded the philosophy of dvaitadvait vad, or mono-dualism in which he related that between soul and god there is a perfect duality, yet there is perfect substantial oneness. He emphasized devotion to radha krishn, while meditating upon their divine pastimes and virtues.

3.Jagadguru Ramanujacharya

Jagadguru Ramanujacharya, the learned propounder of vaishnavism, appeared on this earth planet about 1,000 years ago. His philosophy is known as vishishtadvait vad, or qualified monism. He put great emphasis on surrender to god as the primary means of god realization. He travelled throughout india and propounded that the path of bhakti is the only means of god realization.

4.Jagadguru Madhvacharya

Jagadguru Madhvacharya, who came about 700 years ago, was the vigorous propogator of dvait vad or the philosophy of dualism. He stressed that the attainment of the personal form of god is the goal of all souls, and that god, maya, and the soul are always three separate entities.

5. Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj - The Supreme Acharya of this Age

An historical event happened in Kashi, in January 1957 when Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj gave his amazing series of lectures at the invitation of Kashi Vidvat Parishad, an apex body of the learned scholars of bhartiya scriptures in kashi (varanasi).

Shri Maharajji spoke for seven days in scholarly sanskrit, revealing the secrets of our scriptures and reconciling the discrepancies that appear in darshan shastras and the writings of our jagadgurus. He gave references from hundreds of bhartiya scriptures that amazed and enthralled the entire audience. Apart from the general audience, over 500 erudite sanskrit scholars from Varanasi and other parts of india were present.

With profound admiration, the pandits of Kashi vidvat parishad proclaimed him as the supreme jagadguru of this age. Among the various accolades that they showered upon him was "bhakti yoga rasavatara", or the incarnation of divine love. Jagaguru shri kripalu ji maharaj is thus the fifth original jagadguru in the past 5,000 years.

AKARM OR KARMAYOG

Akarm or karmyog is that where we engage in devotion with the mind, and simultaneously do karm with the body. Shree Krishn described to Arjun this very karmyog in the Bhagavad Geeta. He explained that karm or performance of duty would result in the attainment of heaven or earthly opulences. Vikarm or non-performance of duty would result in hell. So if Arjun ran away from his duty, and did not fight the war, it would be considered as vikarm; and if Arjun performed his duty and fought the war, it would be considered as karm. Shree Krishn asked Arjun to do neither karm nor vikarm. Instead, he should engage in karmyog:

“Tasmat sarveshu kaleshu mamanusmara yudhya cha”

“Keep your mind constantly attached to me and simultaneously engage in karm.” Thus, in akarm or karmyog, one does devotion with the mind, and the prescribed duties of the scriptures with the body. The fruit of devotion is God-realization, which also means liberation from material bondage and the attainment of Supreme Bliss. In karmyog, the karm that is performed bears no fruit, since it is done with detachment. Only that karm which is performed with attachment of the mind has a karmic reaction. When the mind is fixed on God, naturally it is not attached to the work being done. Hence, such work is no longer binding i.e. it is free from any karmic reactions. Thus, karmyog is highly recommended.

VIKARM

Vikarm is that where one neither performs the ritualistic actions of the Vedas, nor engages in devotion. In this category come those people who are atheistic and grossly materialistic, and who have contempt for God, the Saints and the scriptures. For those who engage in vikarm, the result of their frivolous deeds is suffering in hell. They neither go to heaven nor attain God-realization. As long as they are alive, they remain slaves of their senses, and perform irresponsible and unregulated actions.

The Bhagavad Geeta says that after death God throws them (Vikarmi) to hell, into the demoniac species of life. Generally, this vikarm is referred to as sinful activity or bad deeds, and karm is referred to as righteous activity or good deeds.

The truth is that both good and bad deeds are binding. The Vedas state that the result of good deeds is heaven, and that of bad deeds is hell. A mixture of both good and bad deeds results in rebirth on earth. Heaven may be compared to a jail with golden chains. Even upon going there, one is not outside the jailhouse of the 8,400,000 species of life. After residing there, one falls back to the earth. Hell may be compared to a jail with iron chains. Heaven and hell are places where one goes to suffer or enjoy the results of his past deeds. However, there he cannot perform fruit-yielding action that will increase his stock of good or bad deeds. Hence, both heaven and hell are to be rejected.

KARM

Karm is that where the ritualistic actions specified by the Vedas are strictly followed, but without any devotion to God. The stipulation in karm is that the procedures described in the scriptures should be carefully followed, without even the slightest deviation.

The Vedas state that if there is an error in the pronunciation of even one syllable of a Vedic mantra, the performer of the sacrifice will be harmed instead of being benefited. Once, a demon forced some Rishis to perform a sacrifice. The mantra to be chanted in the sacrifice was, “Indrashatrurvivardhaswa”. The meaning of the mantra is that the enemy of Indra, the demon, should grow in power. The Rishis retained the original mantra, but changed the scale of singing one syllable in it. The demon had no idea of the musical scales of chanting the Vedic mantras, so he was unable to detect their ploy. The sacrifice was completed, and God agreed to give the reward according to the mantra that was sung. However, when the demon attacked Indra, he was fatally struck. While lying on the battlefield, the demon said, “God is supposed to be perfectly just and unbiased, but this is a blotch on His name. He did not increase my power in accordance with the yagya.” In reply, there was a voice from the sky, and God spoke to Him, “You did not know that the syllables of Vedic mantras have musical scales attached to them. The Rishis had changes the scale of the mantra, ‘Indrashatrurvivardhaswa’, so that it meant that the power of Indra should increase.” The result was that Indra was victorious. This is the outcome of karm that is performed without strict compliance to the rules of the Vedas. And if karm is performed strictly according to the Vedic injunctions, then the result is heaven, which has been previously explained as impermanent. Thus, karm or the performance of ritualistic actions specified by the Vedas has been condemned in various places in the scriptures.

WE ARE ETERNAL SERVANTS OF HAPPINESS

Every soul is an eternal servant of Happiness (God).So every Soul wants Happiness. Soul is eternally turned away from God. Hence Maya has gripped him. That is why the soul has forgotten his true identity and identified itself with the body. God says surrender your mind completely to Me alone. When the soul surrenders completely to God then by grace of a Guru, the Soul becomes God Realized and attains unlimited, everlasting and ever increasing happiness for eternity.

DO CHANTING WITH RUPADHYANA

You should do chanting with rupadhyana.You should always feel your worshipped form of God to be personally present with you. You should keep practicing this, even while performing your worldly duties, even if it is just for a second or two at a time. Rupadhyana is so important that without it you will not be able to quickly experience devotional bliss through the chanting of Shree Krishna’s names, qualities and so on. Rupadhyana is the only means to restrain the fickle mind. If we firmly believe that God is personally present in His name, we feel intoxicates by merely chanting or even listening to His name.

WHICH IS THE SUPERIOR PATH ????

There are eighty eight thousand paramhans headed by Shaunkadik Paramhans, they asked Suta Ji , Which is the Superior Path? How can we attain our ultimate goal of Divine Bliss( Happiness). Suta Ji answered in a single Verse “Devotion to Shree Krishna is the simplest and the easiest in the age of Kali Yug.”At another place in the Bhagvatam, Parikshit asked Shukdeva Paramhansa “ Please briefly instruct me as to how I can attain my goal.” Shukdeva replies “Practice exclusive selfless devotion to Shree Krishna, abandoning all kinds of Wordly desires including the desire of liberation.”

WHO IS GURU ????

The scriptures talks only of three entities-God, soul and maya. There isn't any scope for fourth entity. So, who is Guru in this case? Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj explains,"the jeevatma (soul) when attains Paramatma (God) becomes mahatma (Guru)." In sanskrit, "Gu" means "maya" and "ru" means "to dispel". Guru is one who dispels maya from soul. Only through such Guru soul attains God. Without Guru no soul can get Shree Krishna's Divine love. Even Shree Krishna is bound by His own law-without Guru, God cannot give soul His Divine vision or Love or anything else.

Shree Gaurang Mahaprabhu said:

भक्त पद धुरी, भक्त पद जल, भक्त भुक्त अवशिष्ट तीन महाबल ।

एही सेवा हेते कृष्ण प्रेमा होय ॥

Partake of the devotee's (Guru) foot dust, foot wash and remnant of his prasadam (food)-these three things possess spiritual power and with these, one (soul) gets Divine love of Shree Krishna.

O MIND! TAKE SHELTER OF SHREE KRISHNA’S LOTUS FEET

O mind! Take shelter of Shyamsunder's soft Lotus Feet. Ones you call your own Mother, Father, Brother and Son, will not accompany you after death.

Moreover, there is no other way of escaping from the clutches of demons like Lust, Anger, Greed, Attachment and Pride. This world is like a mirage, containing not even a trace of happiness. Wealth, youth and life are temporary, disappearing like camphor.

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj Says “O mind! You will not be blessed with a human body again and again. Therefore, do not delay in improving your pitiable condition.”

GOD IS OMNISCIENT AND OMNIPRESENT

God is eternally existing omniscient and omnipresent personality of bliss and Grace with unlimited number of powers that could be categorized in three forms : Divine intellect, almightiness, and Divine love.God can never be intellectually understood, but it is also a fact that His devotional philosophy can certainly be understood by a faithful devoted mind so that a person can establish his faith in Him, recognize his relationship with Him, and thus, start his devotion and proceeds towards God realization.

BE FREE OF MATERIAL DESIRE

An important first step for sadhana bhakti or preliminary practice of bhakti yoga is to keep your practice free of material desire.

Since we are material beings living in a material world, and everything we think is material, this may seem a bit challenging. Try to imagine it like this -if you were to eliminate all divine desires from your mind, what would remain are material desires.

At the outset, our goal is to start by keeping our practice free of material desire. As your devotional experience deepens along with your understanding of the limited nature of worldly happiness, your tendency for forming material desire will decrease naturally.

The secret behind this guideline is that Sadhana bhakti is done through mind , and you have only one mind. The mind is such a vessel, that it can be filled with worldly aspirations or the desire for spiritual enlightenment. Although we hold both of these aspirations simultaneously in the initial stages of our sadhana bhakti practice, only one is our true goal of life.

A typical worshipper of God may actually view his devotional relationship as a means to fulfill his self-directed worldly desires. This means he is looking for any kind of divine intervention to satisfy desires for his own happiness. Bhakti yoga teaches the opposite of this - selfless devotion or forming those desires that are only for the happiness of your divine beloved.