This course is part of Sastra-Caksus, Year 3 and consists of 25 lectures, available on:

http://seminary.bhaktivedantaacademy.com/classes/apasampradayas/

Given in Bhaktivedanta Academy, Sridham Mayapur, February-April 2013

The following are lecture notes briefly delineating its contents.

  • By Vaishnava doing everything in connection to the Lord, the good qualities of the Lord shine through everywhere.

  • Free from vice means free from the entanglement in the material world.
  • To serve Vishnu, we must serve with other devotees, and that requires etiquette.
  • Actually only the great personalities are Vaishnavas, we all are trying to follow in their footsteps.
  • We must not only accept the acharya, but also his mood and his teachings. The sampradaya means we do the activities in the mood as given by the acharya.
  • Apasampradayas may accept Mahaprabhu, but don't accept proper mood and/or activities.
  • When we perform proper activities in a submissive mood, we are then admitted into the sampradaya.
  • Highest religion is the engagement in the Lord's service, but we still engage religion
  • Madhva sampradaya will give us sarupya mukti.
  • Confidential religious system here means devotional service in general.
  • People outside sampradaya are not getting any actual taste or relationships in their life.
  • There is a need of re-initiation when one has been in a bogus line, but not if one has been initiated in a bonafide sampradaya.
  • There are some cultural differences between the sampradayas. In Vaikuntha worship more emphasis is put on the rules. Some sampradayas even use Varnashrama as a part of their devotional process, as dasyam.
  • The difference between Vaikuntha and Goloka is simply taste.
  • The apasampradayas are supposedly doing their devotional activities, but the rasa they gain from that is material. Their preaching is cheating.
  • Devotees in a bonafide line are doing genuine devotional service, but  there is a mix of material activities. Apasampradayas are not mixed devotional service, they are just not devotional service, and they can't tell the difference.
  • If one gets Mahamantra from an apasampradaya, it is just syllables, it is lifeless, the cit potency is not there.
  • Only if one follows the mood and teachings of the acarya the mantra has an effect.
  • Everyone for their nice work will get only heavenly planets or impersonal Brahman at best.
  • Gravity is the potency of Ananta, space is the Adhara-shakti, it is not possible to get taste out of dead matter, everything that anybody is doing, they are getting a taste from interacting with God, but since they do not know that, it is not devotional service.
  • Those not connected to sampradaya chanting Hare Krishna are getting purified, but they will only get bhakti-sukriti if they come and chant with sampradaya devotees.
  • Apasampradayas function in a certain way, we just study the general principles of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Vaishnava apasampradayas. Other genuine sampradayas also have their apasampradayas, as do Christianity, Judaism etc.
  • Tattva-viveka study will be about world religions and philosophies.
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