Srila Gurudeva: At our present stage we will have to remember all our anarthas (our impure thoughts and habits) and aparadhas (offenses). We all have a constitutional spiritual form, but it is hidden by maya within our gross and subtle body. It is there, but who is qualified to realize it? Have the babajis written any book regarding the method for becoming qualified to realize our spiritual forms? Never. They don’t know any philosophy.
Once, our Guruji was in Vrndavana doing Vraja-mandala parikrama with about four hundred pilgrims. He invited many babajis and hundreds gathered there. Guru Maharaja questioned all the sahajiya babajis, “What is the aim and object of your sadhana and krsna-bhajana?”
They replied, “We want to be liberated; we want to merge into Krsna; we want to become Krsna.” They were ignorant of the fact that this is mayavada philosophy, which is quite against bhakti. Hearing their replies, Guru Maharaja became sad and angry, and he began to defeat all their arguments. We should know that our Guru-parampara is bona fide. Don’t associate with these babajis, unless you are strong like us. I used to go to Radha-kunda during parikrama time and challenge them, “If you are learned, if you know any siddhanta and sastra, then come and discuss these topics with me. If I am defeated I will become a babaji and I will be your disciple; otherwise, you must become my disciple.” None of them came to meet my challenge.
Have you read Jaiva-dharma? Try to read it carefully. There, we read about two persons, Vijaya Kumara and Vrajanatha. At first, in Mayapura, these devotees accepted Premadasa Babaji as their Guru from whom they learned the sixty-four kinds of bhakti. Then, when they became expert, their Guru sent them to Jagannatha Puri to meet with Gopala Guru Gosvami. From Gopala Guru Gosvami they learned the difference between bhakti and bhakti-rasa, and how bhakti can turn into bhakti-rasa. They learned deeply and perfectly about the identity of Krsna, Srimati Radhika and the gopis. It was not until after this that Gopala Guru Gosvami gave them the ekadasa (eleven) moods and dor-kaupina—siddha-pranali.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura teaches that a Guru should consider to whom he is going to give babaji-vesa, dor and kaupina; whether or not such recipients have given up attraction to money. He has to consider whether they have renounced their attachment to the tongue, in the form of taking bidis, cigarettes, wine, ganja (marijuana), ganja-bhong (a drink made from marijuana), and other drugs—as these untouchable substances certainly lead them to degraded lower realms. Some persons, like some Indian yogis, consider that their spiritual life and yoga practice will be helped by taking ganja-bhong. They think, “Now we are absorbed in krsna-prema.”
They are so foolish; they cannot imagine that they are going to become mad like dogs and hogs. These detestable things have been condemned in the books of Srila Rupa Gosvami and Jiva Gosvami, in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, and in Srimad-Bhagavatam.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 28th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]