Why our problems continue even after initiation if guru accepts our karma?
“Radhika Devi Dasi” asked like this:
“Hare Krishna prabhuji, Dandvat Pranam. Thank you for writing such detailed answers, they give lot of clarity and help us progress. Prabhuji, my question is related with Diksha. It is said that when a person is initiated by the Guru, all his karmas are being taken by the Guru and his balance of good or bad karma till the initiation day becomes zero. If so, then after initiation whatever good or bad situations that devotee faces if he gets happiness or he gets distress. where does it come from? His karmas are already zero. The diseases or problems he was having before initiation remain as is after initiation also..so what Karma is the person facing then? People ask- ok now you have got initiation so will not face any troubles in life now because all your karmas have been taken away. How to understand this prabhuji?”
REPLY:
This is a good question, but misunderstanding the nature and purpose of initiation.
Initiation or diksha means Practicing devotional life under the shelter of a guru.
When we practice devotion, we face many barriers in the process.
Because, our karmic reactions interfere in our thoughts and actions.
For example, a man would have died longing for love from the girls in his previous birth.
So, he is destined to continue his search for material love from the girls or boys if he is a boy or girl now.
So, when he chant and follows devotion, he may be pulled by the desires of getting loved by the persons of opposite sex.
Karma network will be pushing him in such desires as per his previous birth’s samskars (accumulated desires).
(RITVIK INITIATION (DIKSHA) AND LIVING GURU INITIATION – DIFFERENCES! READ HERE!)
So, he is unable to follow devotion with steady mind as he is frequently diverted towards the girls.
To fight with this material desires due to karmic reactions, he needs more spiritual power.
He might have less spiritual power in his storage.
Now, he fortunately accepts a guru by getting diksha.
Diksha should not be taken as a mechanical process like a taxi driver carries a passenger and unloading them at their desired destination and then continuing his duty of looking for another customer.
Relationship with a guru is spiritual that starts from us and ascends thru our guru and ends at Krishna Himself as a chain link.
So, while giving diksha, our guru puts his trust in us that we will practice devotion sincerely without disciplinary violations by following the rules framed by our guru.
So, Diksha is conditional. The condition is that we should follow the devotional practices sincerely without disciplinary violations by following the rules framed by our guru.
Our guru accepts our karma while giving diksha but with the above condition.
Srila Prabhupada says in Caitanya Caritamruta Madhya Lila 9.61 Purport:
“The spiritual master awakens the sleeping living entity to his original consciousness so that he can worship Lord Viṣṇu. This is the purpose of dīkṣā, or initiation. Initiation means receiving the pure knowledge of spiritual consciousness.”
(INITIATION (DIKSHA) VOWS & CHALLENGES IN FOLLOWING THEM! READ HERE!)
Srila Prabhupada says in a Bhagavad Gita lecture in Sydney on 16.02.1971:
“The (temple) president recommends that “This boy or girl is now living with us for so many months, he’s interested, he may be initiated.” Then we initiate. But initiate with some condition. Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. These are the different stages. Initiation means that he must be free from all kinds of sinful activities. These four principles, the pillars of sinful activities, are four in number: illicit sex life, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. Striya suna panabhi.”
Srila Prabhupada says in a lecture in Vrindavana on 17.08.1974:
“Initiation means the disciples agree to accept the instruction of the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa accepts the disciple immediately to give him a spiritual body.”
Srila Prabhupada says in a lecture in Hawaii on 28.01.1974:
“Not that, “Now I have got a spiritual master and I have got the initiation, my business is finished. Let me do all nonsense.” No. This initiation process, we take promise from you that no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication-before the fire. The fire ceremony means, fire is also representation of yajña-puruṣa, and through fire, the yajña-puruṣa eats, puruṣottama. So there is fire, there is spiritual master, there is śāstra, there is Kṛṣṇa, before—they are all witness. Just like before the high-court judge you promise, “Yes I’ll speak… Whatever I’ll speak in this court, it is all truth.” So this promise the judge knows, and he gives his judgment on that. Similarly, these promises must be kept; otherwise it will be useless.”
(BENEFITS OF DIKSHA (INITIATION) AND HOW IT WORKS! EXAMPLES! READ HERE!)
In an initiation lecture in San Francisco on 10.03.1968, Srila Prabhupada says:
“So this initiation means purification. In this material world we are all impure. Because we are impure, therefore death, disease, old age, and pangs of birth overcome us. Just like in diseased condition—we have experienced—there are so many painful conditions, similarly, in this materialistic way of life these symptoms, birth, death, disease, and old age, they are different kinds of miseries. The rascals, materialists, they are thinking that they’re making advance, but they have no solution for these things. The solution is by tapasya. Tapasya means voluntarily accepting some rules and regulations to purify him. That is called tapasya. Just like in diseased condition, one has to voluntarily accept the rules and regulations enforced by the physician: “You should not eat this. You should not do this. You should not go out. You should take rest. You should not, should not, should not,” so many. Similarly, if we want to purify ourselves, then four principles of purificatory process, namely illicit sex life and intoxication, meat-eating, and gambling, these four things must be…”
Thus, initiation is not a free hand visa to clear all our karma and go back to Godhead. Unless we follow the regulative principles and chanting, we can’t clear our karma and go back to Krishna.
So, we can understand that when we get initiated, our karma is in a suspended state. Suspension means conditional. It is recoverable if we do not follow the rules. That is why material problems continue even after initiation.
But, spiritual problems come down after initiation. Since Guru accepts our karma and keeps us in the disciplic chain, we can grow fast in devotion after initiation and even chanting becomes sincere after initiation. So, we grow spiritually.
A court gives bail to an accused person with the condition of signing daily or weekly in a police station. Until he follows the condition, he can remain enjoying the temporary bail freedom. If he fails to sign in the police station once or a few times, his bail is cancelled and he is taken to the jail again.
Similarly, guru accepts our karma. If we follow the diksha rules recommended by him sincerely, our karma will not affect us.
But, if we violate the rules and follow improper chanting, our karma will still continue to act on us. The Problems continue even after initiation.
(Is Brahmana Diksha (Second Initiation) Compulsory for all? READ HERE!)
That means, we might have followed offensive chanting. We might have developed serious material attachments even after getting diksha. We might have violated grahastha vaishnava etiquettes. We might have remained attached to watching movies, fancy stories, prohibited contents, etc. We might have thought about a man/ woman with some attraction.
Thus, we might not have followed the steps to become pure properly. So, the suspended karma will still act on us.
Another most important thing is: A guru is not a material doctor who cures our body diseases. He is a spiritual doctor who guides us to stop these diseases permanently by giving us relief from material bondage.
So, when a guru is ready to liberate us, we should follow his instructions properly.
If a doctor gives a medicine and tells us to take it thrice a day after food without omitting even a single dose, we should follow his instructions. If not, we can’t get cured from our body diseases.
Similarly, when a spiritual doctor, ie, our guru instructs us to follow the rules and develop a spiritual mindset, we should develop such consciousness.
Guru tells these instructions just to liberate us. If we follow his instructions in letter and spirit, we will get permanent freedom from all the diseases as we will not have next birth and we will be with Krishna.
So, even after SPIRITUAL INITIATION, some MATERIAL ISSUES WILL CONTINUE. Material problems continue even after initiation. Our purpose is to get liberated with the help of our guru. Our guru will liberate us when we follow his instructions properly. Thus, he will put a full stop for all the diseases after we leave this body.
(Is it compulsory to avoid physical relations not for child after initiation? READ HERE!)
So, if a person is diagnosed with the cancer, he should not approach a guru and get initiated by him to get cured from that cancer. Our guru is not to cure our diseases and problems of our body. He is to cure the diseases of athma, ie, disease of attachments and then liberate us.
So, when we follow guru’s instructions in spite of our cancer, we will not take birth again. That will be the permanent end for all our sufferings – not only the diseases, but also no birth again, no pains again, no old age again and no death again.
If a person has more tortures from his wife, he should not approach a guru to solve his issues with his wife. If he follows the instructions of his guru after diksha, he will not have such torturing spouse again because he would have liberated with this birth.
If you get qualified to be a liberated person in this body itself, you would have learnt to insulate yourself from the tortures of the spouse as you will be in the thoughts of Krishna all the time and hence we will not allow us to be affected by the tortures of our spouse.
So, understand our guru. He is the spiritual person who can liberate us permanently. He is called as our spiritual master, not the material master. So, he is not to cure cancer or heart blocks or our problems with our spouse.
So, one should take diksha to get relieved from births, diseases, old age and deaths permanently with this birth.
That is why, our body related problems continue even after initiation. until we are in this body. After we go out of this body, no more bodies. We will be with Krishna.
Hope you have clearly understood why our problems continue even after initiation if guru accepts our karma.
(Courses and Exams for initiations (Diksha) in ISKCON for different levels! READ HERE!)