Sharanagati

Re-initiation or over-initiation between different lines is not so problematic. Why? Because what is the goal of the other line? A kind of liberation, right? No problem! That line, that practice, that initiation can help you in liberation. What is the goal of bhakti? It is not liberation! It is prema bhakti – ecstatic divine love. This is a different goal. And this process will help you to achieve that goal. There is no contradiction between the two. One is one step, the other is another step.

More problems are there if among or inside the vaishnava line people start to reinitiate the disciples. That is more difficult to understand. But sometimes it also happens. We do not need martyrs, but we need friends.

If I am so narrow-minded that I do not recognize the treasures, coming from the outside, then I am blind. It is said, that you should take the gold even from the pile of garbage. Even in spiritual sense. But what is the pre-requisite? Firm faith. Firm faith. I am established in my faith, I am established with my spiritual master – then I can look around. If you are not firm, if you are not strict and you look around, you will be disturbed. So we should be very much fixed in our line. And if you come to a more realized platform, then you can easily find everything that is favorable and easily recognize what is unfavorable.

I can quote from the history of the Franciscan’s order. Francesco was a very highly elevated devotee of God. He was a realized person, so much so, that he could realize the language of the beasts and the birds. There was one brother from that brotherhood, who wanted to go to another place and Francesco was writing a letter to him: “O my dear brother, if you feel that your spiritual progress is more safe and more secure on that other place – you should go. You have my blessings! You should feel happy, you should feel under the divine care and anytime you like you can come back to us.”

I think this should be the approach. And not only when somebody is coming to us. Right, because then we can easily say: “You should feel free to chose according to your taste; listen to your heart. You can forget about your past.” No. We should be so gentle-hearted to give the freedom to everybody to choose. There should be no bad feelings. There should be no bad criticism that this is not good.

Of course we should understand what is the process, what is the goal of the different paths, because there are differences. But if somebody is a sincere person and tries to search for the Absolute Truth, there can be no disadvantage.

And you should be cultured enough in order not to go to other temples to catch people. Which we would not like – if somebody comes to us just to take the fruits, so to say. This is not nice. If we go somewhere, we should go there for service, for joining there, to help there. To be present nicely; not for any other secondary intention. This should be also part of our culture. Because we are not preaching for gaining more followers. No! We should be selfless in our preaching.