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Shri Chaitanya Sridhara Sangha
Succession of Masters (Guru Parampara)
The Sanskrit term parampara literally means: an uninterrupted row, a series, a succession, continuation, and also tradition.
The parampara is the chain of spiritual Masters and disciples through which the Absolute Truth descends and is purely handed down. A faithful disciple who has received this knowledge from his Master, who has developed a deep and unwavering attitude of service and who does not aspire to become a Master himself, is qualified to purely transmit the original transcendental knowledge without pride and false interpretations.
In the parampara chain, each spiritual Master has the task of transmitting the knowledge of Krishna consciousness as it is. His duty is not to alter this knowledge by modifying, adding, or subtracting anything. He must simply deliver the message, just as a postman delivers a letter, keeping it intact.
In the parampara system, therefore, the first link in the chain, the original Master, the Source of all knowledge, the Cause of all causes, is Lord Sri Krishna, God Himself. The Lord reveals perfect knowledge and this knowledge is handed down from Master to disciple.
The spiritual Master is not God, and any so-called master who claims to be God must be immediately rejected as false. But the spiritual Master is honored as much as God, because he intimately serves God through the chain of Masters.
Since the authentic spiritual Master offers the fruit of every action to his spiritual Master, in the belief that the latter will do the same and that his devotional offering will ultimately reach God, all the members of the chain are, ultimately, servants of God and therefore very dear to Him.
More precisely, the authentic spiritual Master is the servant of the servant of the servant of God, or Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
(In the Christian tradition Jesus, the Christ, says: “I am here to serve, not to be served!”). This is one of the secrets of the parampara system: to be an authentic Master, one must be a sincere and humble servant. The student, therefore, surrenders to the spiritual Master as a disciple and serves him, and the Master reciprocates by enlightening him with transcendental knowledge.
For the sincere disciple who has full faith in the spiritual Master, all the truths of spiritual realization will be revealed.
The authentic disciple feels eternally indebted to the spiritual Master and continues to serve him throughout his life, without interruption. In this way, even when the Master leaves this world, he remains connected with his disciple, who continues to serve him, carrying out what he has taught and in turn teaching others. Thus the sincere disciple becomes an authentic spiritual Master, and the parampara continues.
For the Vaishnavas (devotees of Krishna or Vishnu) there are four Sampradayas (Traditions) that have given rise to as many paramparas of spiritual Masters
The Sampradaya of which Swami Ban Maharaj and his master, Srila Sridhara Maharaj are part is the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya.
Lord Brahma was the first person to receive the Truth revealed by Lord Krishna in person, and is therefore at the head of the Sampradaya.
Madhva refers to Sri Madhvacharya, who was a particularly elevated teacher in this succession. In 1486, after the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who wanted to manifest His pastimes in this Sampradaya, the disciplic succession was called Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya, due to His significant contribution.
The followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are known as Gaudiya
The other great personalities who preceded in the disciplic chain Swami Ban Maharaj are:
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The only successor of Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaj
leading the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Mission in India and all its branches worldwide is
For the importance he has in spreading the Sankirtan movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the world, the personality of His Divine Grace deserves to be mentioned
