750711 - Lecture Initiation Babaji - Chicago

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

750711IN-CHICAGO - July 11, 1975 - 03:14 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . .I am accepting this dress following the footprints of other ācāryas. This dress was accepted by Rūpa Gosvāmī, not ordinary person. The six Gosvāmīs, they accepted. It is called paramahaṁsa stage, sannyāsī's highest stage. Sannyāsī has got four stages: kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, parivrājakācārya and paramahaṁsa. Kuṭīcaka means when he takes sannyāsa, he is not accustomed to beg; therefore he makes a small cottage outside the village, and the foodstuff comes from the home or somebody sends. In this way, when he is little practiced, then he goes door to door, begs, bahūdaka. Then he is more practiced: parivrājakācārya, he travels all over the world. And after that, when he is fully mature, he can chant one place Hare Kṛṣṇa. He has no more business. So this is the last stage of mature sannyāsa. But because you are thinking that you may not live many years, so you simply sit down, go to Māyāpur. You have no other business. Simply go on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and whatever little prasādam available, you take. And the rest of your life simply engage in chanting. That will be success.

Devotees: Jaya.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he supposed to get a name, Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: Name is the same.

Brahmānanda: Audolomi dāsa Bābājī?

Prabhupāda: Ah, Audolomi dāsa Bābājī. That's all. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So this is the first time in our institution, a bābājī. So it is not to be imitated. It is the paramahaṁsa stage, when one is very mature in sannyāsa life, for that, not for ordinary person. Don't request, "Give me sannyāsa," "Give me bābājī." Don't do that. It is not a fashion. It is a stage of realization. That's all.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhu . . . (end).