View source for Prahlada Maharaja is recommending how to begin bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga, the first beginning is adau gurvasrayam, as Rupa Gosvami recommends. Adau gurvasrayam, the beginning

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{{terms|"Prahlāda Mahārāja is recommending how to begin ''bhakti-yoga''. ''Bhakti-yoga'', the first beginning, ''ādau gurvāśrayam'', as Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends. ''Ādau gurvāśrayam'', the beginning"}}
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[[Category:Prahlada]]
[[Category:Devotional Service to God is Recommended]]
[[Category:How To]]
[[Category:Beginning of Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:Bhakti-yoga - Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:First]]
[[Category:beginning of Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:Guru]]
[[Category:Rupa Gosvami's Recommendations]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1966 - 1977]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1971]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, Srimad-Bhagavatam]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - in Africa, Kenya - Mombassa]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB773031MombassaSeptember121971_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="778" link="Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971" link_text="Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971">
<div class="heading">So Prahlāda Mahārāja is recommending how to begin bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga, the first beginning is ādau gurvāśrayam, as Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends. Ādau gurvāśrayam, the beginning, first beginning is to accept a bona fide spiritual master. Ādau gurvāśrayam, . Sad-dharma-pṛcchat. So it is not that official accepting a spiritual master, but one should be very much inquisitive to understand about eternal duty or eternal activities.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971|Lecture on SB 7.7.30-31 -- Mombassa, September 12, 1971]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">
Prabhupāda:

:. . . ''saṅgena sādhu-bhaktānām''
:''īśvarārādhanena ca''
:([[Vanisource:SB 7.7.30-31|SB 7.7.30]])

So Prahlāda Mahārāja is recommending how to begin ''bhakti-yoga''. ''Bhakti-yoga'', the first beginning, ''ādau gurvāśrayam'', as Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends. ''Ādau gurvāśrayam'', the beginning, first beginning is to accept a bona fide spiritual master. ''Ādau gurvāśrayam. Sad-dharma-pṛcchat''.

''Sad-dharma-pṛcchat''. So it is not that official accepting a spiritual master, but one should be very much inquisitive to understand about eternal duty, or eternal activity. ''Sad-dharma''. ''Sat'' means eternal, and ''dharma'' means characteristics. Eternal characteristics.

What is that eternal characteristics? With this body, we change our characteristics. That is not eternal characteristics. Just like a human body. The standard of living of a human being and the standard of living of an animal, different. As the body changes, the standard of living also changes. Therefore they are not eternal. They are not eternal. Everyone is trying to live, struggle for existence, but these living conditions are different according to the body.

The body is made according to his destination of happiness and distress by superior authority. I cannot say that I will have such-and-such body in my next life. But in one sense, if I am intelligent, I can prepare my next body. I can prepare my body to live in certain planets, in certain societies. Even you can go to the higher planets. And if I like, I can prepare my body to go to the abode of Kṛṣṇa, Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is the function.

Human body is meant for that intelligence that, "What kind of body I shall have in my next life?" Just like a student educates himself with an ambition that, "When I am grown up I shall have this standard of life"—"I shall become a high-court judge," "I shall become a military man," "I shall become a very good businessman." As there are different ambitions, similarly, for your next life also you can maintain different ambitions. That is in your hands.

That is stated in the ''Bhagavad-gītā'', ''yānti deva-vratā devān''. If you are ambitious to elevate yourself . . . just like people are trying to go to the moon planet, that is an ambition. But they are trying to fulfill the ambition wrongly. That is not the way, that we manufacture some machine and by force we enter into the moon planet. That is not possible. You have to undergo certain rules and regulations so that after quitting this body you are allowed to get a particular type of body suitable for a particular type of planet.