Srila Gurudeva: Can you say who was the Guru of Srila Haridasa Thakura? When Brahma and Prahlada Maharaja combine together in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s associate (Srila Haridasa Thakura), he doesn’t need any formal initiation. Can you say who was the Guru of Svarupa Damodara or Srivasa Pandita? Srivasa Pandita is Narada Rsi, and Murari Gupta is Hanuman. Perhaps they were initiated by someone else, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted them all as His own. Similarly, although we may not know who their Guru is, we also accept them as bona fide.
Similarly, we need have no doubt about Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja, thinking that he has no Guru-parampara. His diksa-guru was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s diksa-guru was Srila Gaura-kisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja, and his siksa-guru was Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. He accepted Srila Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, who was not only a pure Vaisnava but a maha-bhagavata, as his diksa-guru, and he received so much instruction from him regarding bhajana. But he received most of his conceptions for bhajana from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, as well as all his conceptions for establishing and spreading the principles of pure bhakti in this world.
Without bhagavata-parampara, Guru-parampara is nothing. Regarding Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, even if he were to have had no diksa-guru, as was the case with Srila Haridasa Thakura and others like Srila Haridasa Thakura, still he is a pure Vaisnava. But he did have a diksa-guru. We have no doubt about this. A doubtful person loses whatever bhakti he has and goes to hell; the jealous babajis are like that. Although they cannot say where their own parampara began, they very easily say, “Gaudiya Vaisnavas have no parampara.” Moreover, it is bogus persons who, shaking like a pendulum (engaged in bhoga-tyaga, or going back and forth between renunciation and material enjoyment), rejected by Gaudiya Vaisnavas, debauchees with an abundance of lust—it is they who have become these babajis.
Be very strong in the proper understanding. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja, and also us—we don’t want to criticize these so-called babajis’ avoidance of rules and regulations or their keeping babaji-vesa. What we criticize is their mood. Bhaktivinoda Thakura has not criticized their vesa, their dor-kaupina, or even that they falsely claim, “We are following the gopis.” We criticize—Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Rupa Gosvami, and all other bona fide acaryas have criticized—that a newcomer who barely knows sastra or siddhanta, who is quarreling with his wife, or his wife has divorced him and he has no means to support his life, still comes to these babajis and thinks, “If I take babaji vesa, everything will be solved. I may also have two, three, four, or five, widows, no harm. I will then be equipped with all things necessary for worldly life.”
They show no symptom of renunciation, and they are ignorant to the extreme regarding established truth. They don't know what is bhakti, what is bhakti-rasa, or even who is Krsna, and have no idea who the gopis are.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 28th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]