Lecture video : https://www.facebook.com/dayanidhi.das.7/videos/794089653046258/?app=fbl
Bhagavad Gita – 4.34 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Athens, Greece | July 13, 2025
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-bihārī
gopī-jana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana braja-jana-rañjana
yāmuna-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda,
Jaya Prabhupāda Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai !!!
Śrīmad-Bhāgavad-Gītā As It Is, Chapter 4, verse 34,
tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
Translation:
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because you receive the truth.
Purport by His Divine Grace, Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda,
The path of spiritual realization is undoubtedly difficult. The Lord therefore advises us to approach a bona fide spiritual master in the line of disciplic succession from the Lord Himself. No one can be a bona fide spiritual master without following this principle of disciplic succession. The Lord is the original spiritual master, and a person in the disciplic succession can convey the message of the Lord as it is to his disciple.
No one can be spiritually realized by manufacturing his own process, as is the fashion of the foolish pretenders. The Bhāgavatam (6.3.19) says, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam: the path of religion is directly enunciated by the Lord. Therefore, mental speculation or dry arguments cannot help lead one to the right path. Nor by independent study of books of knowledge can one progress in spiritual life. One has to approach a bona fide spiritual master to receive the knowledge. Such a spiritual master should be accepted in full surrender, and one should serve the spiritual master like a menial servant, without false prestige. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Inquiries and submission constitute the proper combination for spiritual understanding. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned spiritual master will not be effective.
One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses the disciple with genuine spiritual understanding. In this verse, both blind following and absurd inquiries are condemned. Not only should one hear submissively from the spiritual master, but one must also get a clear understanding from him, in submission and service and inquiries. A bona fide spiritual master is by nature very kind toward the disciple. Therefore, when the student is submissive and is always ready to render service, the reciprocation of knowledge and inquiries becomes perfect.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, this verse comes in Chapter 4 of Bhagavad Gita. The chapter is called Transcendental Knowledge or Jnana Yoga. So, the whole subject is knowledge. So, this verse is talking about the person who has knowledge and teaches knowledge. So, the last line of this verse is ‘jñāninas’, which means people who have knowledge. And the other word used to describe this is ‘tattva-darshina’, which means those who have seen the truth. So, these are the transmitters of knowledge. So, in the translation, Prabhupada has translated these teachers as the spiritual master or Guru. Of course, at ISKCON when we use the term Guru, we are talking about Diksha Guru. However, here, actually they are not talking about diksha at all. They are talking about teaching, which is a Shiksha Guru. So, the person who has knowledge transmits the knowledge to another person. He is giving teachings or Shiksha.
So, we will see as well in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, when it talks about Guru, generally they are talking about the person who gives knowledge. He is the Shiksha Guru. Of course, in ISKCON when we talk about Guru and Diksha Guru, it also means that the person who has knowledge transmits the knowledge to another person. It often also means a Shiksha Guru, and the significance of this person is, he gives us knowledge. When we talk about Diksha Guru or initiation, it actually refers to giving a secret mantra, which we get at second initiation. Most devotees do not use these mantras much in sadhana. They chant them three times a day for ten minutes. And it is also used in deity worship.
So, when people trace a parampara through Diksha, they are tracing who gave that mantra to you. And usually when we trace a parampara, they do it through Diksha. However, we see that Srila Prabhupada in the Bhagavad Gita introduction, he does not trace a Diksha line at all. He traces a Shiksha line, teaching. Of course, all of the people mentioned in the Shiksha line also had Diksha. So, in any case, we use the term initiation and Diksha in a very loose way within ISKCON, because actually a lot of it has nothing to do with the Diksha mantra at all.
But we do associate initiation with ceremony. So, when we think of initiation or Diksha, we think of fire sacrifice. So, though in traditional Diksha, in Pancharatha, there is fire sacrifice, the Diksha in the Gaudiya Sampradaya has never been done with sacrifice. When Lord Caitanya got Diksha, when Nityananda got Diksha, they simply got mantra in the ear, that’s it, secret mantra finished. So, there was not much of a ceremony at all. However, in ISKCON, we put a great emphasis upon a ceremony. Of course, that has some importance. It puts a little impression in the devotee’s mind that they should be a little serious about bhakti. But the negative point is that, it may be superficial because it’s a ceremony. It’s like getting a piece of paper, a degree.
But the emphasis in this verse and in the Gaudiya Sampradaya in general is that the Sampradaya is carried on by transmission of teachings. So, therefore, when Prabhupada traces a line, he’s tracing a line of who taught who, who inspired who. And it may not be the Diksha Guru, it could be another person. So, this verse is emphasizing the fact that we do have to get proper teachings. We see that Śrīla Prabhupāda put great emphasis on teachings therefore, he spent half his time writing books. So, our movement is preserved by passing on the teachings. Of course, we could argue, well, if we have Prabhupāda’s books, we don’t need Guru, we have the books of the Guru. So, that is true in one sense, because we take Śrīla Prabhupāda as the founder Ācārya of ISKCON. So, he is the Guru, Shikṣa Guru for all devotees in ISKCON. And everyone in ISKCON reads Prabhupāda’s books. In fact, daily we have Bhagavatham class. So, every day we’re studying what Prabhupāda has taught. So, yes, he is the Guru, he has the knowledge, tattva jñāni, he has seen the knowledge, tattva-darshana.
Of course, we also see in this verse that the Guru should teach. So, usually that means direct teaching. So, we know that you go to school, and you have teachers, and they teach you the books. So, for more detailed knowledge especially, books are not good enough. And your expertise when you graduate may be determined by the expertise of the teacher himself. That’s why we see the people who want to be great famous scientists, they’ll go to the university, universities that have great scientists in them like, Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge or whatever, MIT. Because they do have Nobel Prize winners teaching in those places. So, in ISKCON we do have Gurus. We have Śrīla Prabhupāda as our main founder, ācārya, śikṣā Guru plus, we have living Gurus as well. But for these present living Gurus, maybe we should think of them not as being Dikṣa Gurus. So, we have to have a Guru qualified in this way.
But the student should also be qualified. So, of course, there are many qualities of the student mentioned in scripture. Here we have three qualities. The first one is prāṇipat. So, pat means to fall down. Prāṇi means down and prā means very much. So, prāṇipat means to fall down extremely. So, it can mean physically offering respects. But, of course, behind the physical aspect of offering respects, we do have mental. So, what it means is, we do have to have a humble attitude in front of the teacher. If we think we know more than the teacher, we are not going to learn very much. The reason we accept the Guru, or the teacher is because they have some knowledge that we don’t have. If we already have that knowledge, we don’t have to go to that Guru. So, in order to get knowledge from the Guru, we do have to have this submissive attitude. This means we have to be aware of what we do not know and then we can appreciate what the Guru teaches.
The second word mentioned here is paripraśna. Praśna means question and pari means thorough. Thorough, complete. Deep questioning. So, of course, this means questioning about spiritual topics, not material topics. So, when we go to the Guru, the question should be on the subject of scripture, not on the subject of the material world. We see that the Sanatana, Rupa Goswami went to Lord Caitanya and He said, please tell us, how do we get out of this material world? So, we have to ask questions, we have to be inquisitive about how to advance in spiritual life. If we don’t have that inquisitiveness, we cannot get any spiritual knowledge. If we don’t have a desire to know, why do we accept the Guru who is trying to teach us? So, as I said, when people take initiation, often they don’t understand that we’re taking this initiation to get knowledge and we should be inquisitive about knowledge rather than just trying to get some name and some degree, so to speak. So, a disciple should be eager to get knowledge, and he goes to the Guru to get that knowledge.
The third word mentioned is seva or service. Of course, service has a big meaning, wide meaning. So, when we serve Guru, people often think of washing the clothes or cooking or scrubbing the floor or something like this. That is there. We see that Krishna and Balarama went to their Guru’s ashram, and they would serve the Guru by going out and collecting firewood for the sacrifices. But then, the most important aspect of service is to follow the spiritual instructions. In other words, we have the instructions listed in the scripture, emphasized by the Guru and the disciple should implement that. If he does so, he can progress in bhakti. If he can’t follow those instructions, he won’t progress.
So, a person who wants to be a disciple of a Guru should have these qualities humility, inquisitiveness and willingness to serve. And if he has these qualities, then we will get the transmission of knowledge. So, the transmission of knowledge is not just memorizing some verses or memorizing a book. A parrot can also make noises like this. So, learning means something else. Behind the words there is some deep meaning in scripture. And we have to find that meaning, we have to implement that meaning in our life. So, the Guru helps us get that deep understanding of the scripture.
So, Prabhupada emphasizes in the purport of how this knowledge is passed down in this way from long time ago to the present time. It passes from the Guru to the disciple. What they are passing is the knowledge of scripture. And that is combined with particular realization of that Guru. Now, all the Gurus may be on different levels. Some have more knowledge, some have less knowledge. That is also expected even in the material world. In the university you get lecturers, then you get professors, then you get senior professors. So, in terms of spiritual knowledge we have those who have depth of knowledge of scripture plus some realization of scripture. And as I said, various Gurus could be at different levels. Now, everybody wants the highest-level Guru. And of course, scripture says you should search for the best Guru, highest Guru.
Nevertheless, we also have to be practical. Those who are on the highest level called the uttamadhikaris are very, very, very, very rare. And even those who are on that level, very rare, they may not even want to be a Guru. They have no interest in disciples. And no one can recognize such a person. May not even look like a devotee. Rupa Goswami says the prem-bhakta we can’t even describe what he’s going to do or whatever. It’s unpredictable.
So, most of the Gurus are going to come from a lesser category. This is what we call the Madhyama. So, the Madhyama’s are steady in their practice of bhakti. And they have some knowledge of scripture. So, all these Madhyama’s will have so many different levels of knowledge and of realization. Nevertheless, whatever the level we’re taught to give great respect to Guru.
We say that Guru is non-different from God Himself. And we often speak of complete surrender to Guru. But the scriptures also tell us that because the Gurus are on different levels then the respect and the surrender is also on different levels. It may also be difficult for us to judge who’s on what level. Nevertheless, something very simple is we can all recognize that Shrila Prabhupada is on the highest level. And thus, he gets the most respect. And all the other Gurus are out there somewhere, and we give them respect we treat them like God, so to speak, but relatively speaking. So, we cannot be Guru fanatics and impose a level on our Guru which is false. So, we have to be realistic. Nevertheless, we do surrender to Guru and through this process of praṇipāt, paripraśnena and sevayā we get some knowledge. We are not limited; we could have many shiksha Gurus. So, if we cannot get everything from one Guru we can go to another shiksha Guru and get some knowledge.
So, this is a very flexible system. And the main idea here is we’re trying to preserve and carry on this knowledge that Prabhupada has put in his books.
Q&A
1.) How can we recognize a bona fide Guru?
So, actually one thing is, they should be in a bona fide sampradaya. And for us we can say, well, they have to come from Gaudiya sampradaya at least. So, secondly, of course, is that they may be called Guru and they may be in a sampradaya, but we can also see the level of their knowledge. We may not be able to judge their level of realization. But to some degree we can understand their knowledge by the answers they give.
So, in that way we have some guidelines for saying who is bona fide. Of course, in ISKCON we have another system. You should also get some approval for a ten-man committee. Ten-man committees of the area should approve you, because they would see if you have enough knowledge and your conduct is proper. So, that is some certification that there’s a majority of devotees who see that they have a certain level of knowledge and good conduct. That’s all. It doesn’t mean they’re on the highest level or anything.
2.) Who is your Siksha Guru?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Prabhupada.
Devotee: When was your story? When?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, I met Srila Prabhupada in 1970 , Fifty-five years ago, in Java. So, he’s also a diksha Guru…Yes.
3.) It’s very interesting. How did you meet Prabhupada? Yes, how it was?
Well, he came to Japan when I was traveling in Japan. And so, he came to the temple there. I went to the temple. I met Prabhupada.Then Prabhupada went to India. He invited me to come to India with him. So, I went to India for about one year.
Devotee: He translated all the Prabhupada books in Japanese language. He translated all these books. He read, had not read Bhagavad Gita before, but Srila Prabhupada asked him. He invited him to stay with him for one year in India.
Devotee: And now where do you live?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I live in India, in Chennai.
Devotee: Do you know him? He opened a very beautiful temple in Madras, Chennai, very, very big, very beautiful.
Devotee: Where do you find money for this? For the temple?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes. Oh, donations. Donations from India.
Devotee: And he’s travelling, Maharaj is travelling all over the world, preaching Krishna Consciousness. Now he will visit all the temples in Europe. He preached in America, in UK, all over Europe, in India, and now he’s a permanent member of the G.B.C. body. More than 20 years. He’s very, very well respected for his knowledge. He’s very expert in all subject matter, astronomy, astrology, he’s very expert. He’s very, very well respected for his knowledge. He’s very, very well respected.
Devotees: Srimad Bhagavad gita ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!!