Dear *** ,
Please receive my blessings. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
About your second initiation …
…
I agree and at the same time I do not agree with the thesis that the second initiation is not necessary and that one can stay alone with the first his entire life.
All devotees should have the objective of becoming Brahmanas and taking second initiation.
On one hand Srila Jiva Gosvami argues that nama-diksa (initiation to the holy name of Krishna) is more important than mantra-diksa (the second initiation, also called upanayana, where one becomes authorized to recite the Gayatri Mantra).
And in the Chaitanya-charitamrta (1.7.73) it is said:
krsna-mantra haite habe samsara mochana
krsna-nama haite pabe krsnera charana
“The Krishna Gayatri mantra frees one from repeated births and deaths in this world; the Holy Name of Krishna gives shelter to the lotus feet of Krishna. “
On the other hand if our Acaryas continued to give Gayatri mantra to his disciples it means that the thing is not superfluous.
Srila Prabhupada was very proud that he was creating brahmanas, referring to his second initiates.
These two points of view can be reconciled in this way:
while one should “hurry” to take first initiation (in the sense that it is the most important and needs basic qualifications), for the second there is no great hurry and one should work on improving his qualifications.
It could be said that the Gurus should give more second initiations because there is a sastric prohibition to serve installed Deities without second initiation.
While it is true that only second initiated can worship installed Deities, Srila Prabhupada was not very much in agreement with this “strategy” and we also have bad experiences of giving Gayatri to “pujaris” that stop serving the Deities after a short time. The basic brahminical qualifications must be there.
One might also object that it is necessary to give Gayatri to those devotees who are intellectuals and preachers.
This is another fact, but I think we do not have to look for artificial solutions. The natural solution is that devotees should take second initiation very seriously, and in particular they should study more. I know very senior devotees who do not know how to write simple Sanskrit words correctly or to pronounce words in important songs.
If you want to make a particular effort to study more and do more service, we can consider giving you a second initiation soon.
If not, you can wait a little longer.
Hare Krishna
Your well-wisher
Manonatha Dasa (ACBSP)
Main Website: www.isvara.org
Bookstore: www.kadachaeditions.com
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