Srila Gurudeva: A personality who can preach the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the world in very short time, who can translate and write commentaries to authentic books like Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, who can publish and explain Srimad-Bhagavatam and the books of Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Jiva Gosvami—how can he be an ordinary person? Svamiji was certainly in the line of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Srila Rupa Gosvami, Svarupa Damodara, Raya Ramananda, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. These envious babajis don't know from where their Guru-parampara has come, and actually they have no Guru-parampara. This is why they blaspheme real Vaisnavas in the Guru-parampara. The word 'babaji' is not found in any scripture.
Nowadays, there are also mayavadi Gurus who call themselves Baba and proclaim that they are God or that we are all God. Neither Bhagavad-Gita, the Puranas, Upanisads, Vedanta, Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s Govinda-bhasya, nor the books of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Narottama Thakura mention the word ‘babaji.’ On the other hand, we see the word 'renounced order' and 'sannyasa.' The Vedas and Srimad-Bhagavatam discuss the history of the tridandi sannyasi. In the Upanisads, the method by which a person can take renounced order, sannyasa, by saffron cloth, danda, and dor-kaupina has been clearly given; in fact, one of the Upanisads is called Sannyasa Upanisad.
There is no mention in any of these Vedic Scriptures about babajis. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was not babaji, nor were Madhvacarya or Ramanuja. Isvara Puripada and Madhavendra Puri were not babajis; they were sannyasis, and after them, Sanatana Gosvami, Svarupa Damodara, and Raya Ramananda were also not babajis. Has Srila Rupa Gosvami taken a babaji initiation from anyone? Has he taken dor-kaupina (initiation)? He wore an ordinary white cloth. It is not written anywhere that he did so.
Jiva Gosvami was Jiva Gosvami, not Jiva babaji. Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami kept his name from his grhastha asrama, and Syamananda Prabhu, Narottama Thakura, and Srinivasa Acarya were also not babajis. They were not in that line of cheapening the idea of bhakti: “You are such and such goopi.” Similarly, until the end of his life, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura was Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, keeping the title of grhastha Vaisnava brahmanas. In addition, his disciple Baladeva Vidyabhusana was also not babaji.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 28th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]