prathame ta' eka-mata ÄcÄryera gaṇa
pÄche dui-mata haila daivera kÄraṇa

 prathame - in the beginning; ta' - however; eka-mata - one opinion; ÄcÄryera - of Advaita Ä€cÄrya; gaṇa - followers; pÄche - later; dui-mata - two opinions; haila - became; daivera - of providence; kÄraṇa - the cause.


Text

At first all the followers of Advaita Ä€cÄrya shared a single opinion. But later they followed two different opinions, as ordained by providence.

Purport

The words daivera kÄraṇa indicate that by dint of providence, or by God’s will, the followers of Advaita Ä€cÄrya divided into two parties. Such disagreement among the disciples of one ÄcÄrya is also found among the members of the Gauá¸Ä«ya Maá¹­ha. In the beginning, during the presence of Oá¹ ViṣṇupÄda Paramahaá¹sa ParivrÄjakÄcÄrya Aṣṭottara-Å›ata ÅšrÄ« ÅšrÄ«mad BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura PrabhupÄda, all the disciples worked in agreement; but just after his disappearance, they disagreed. One party strictly followed the instructions of BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura, but another group created their own concoction about executing his desires. BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura, at the time of his departure, requested all his disciples to form a governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively. He did not instruct a particular man to become the next ÄcÄrya. But just after his passing away, his leading secretaries made plans, without authority, to occupy the post of ÄcÄrya, and they split into two factions over who the next ÄcÄrya would be. Consequently, both factions were asÄra, or useless, because they had no authority, having disobeyed the order of the spiritual master. Despite the spiritual master’s order to form a governing body and execute the missionary activities of the Gauá¸Ä«ya Maá¹­ha, the two unauthorized factions began litigation that is still going on after forty years with no decision.

Therefore, we do not belong to any faction. But because the two parties, busy dividing the material assets of the Gauá¸Ä«ya Maá¹­ha institution, stopped the preaching work, we took up the mission of BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura and Bhaktivinoda ṬhÄkura to preach the cult of Caitanya MahÄprabhu all over the world, under the protection of all the predecessor ÄcÄryas, and we find that our humble attempt has been successful. We followed the principles especially explained by ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ verse beginning vyavasÄyÄtmikÄ buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana. According to this instruction of ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura, it is the duty of a disciple to follow strictly the orders of his spiritual master. The secret of success in advancement in spiritual life is the firm faith of the disciple in the orders of his spiritual master. The Vedas confirm this:

yasya deve parÄ bhaktir yathÄ deve tathÄ gurau
tasyaite kathitÄ hy arthÄḥ prakÄÅ›ante mahÄtmanaḥ

“To one who has staunch faith in the words of the spiritual master and the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the secret of success in Vedic knowledge is revealed.†The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is being propagated according to this principle, and therefore our preaching work is going on successfully, in spite of the many impediments offered by antagonistic demons, because we are getting positive help from our previous ÄcÄryas. One must judge every action by its result. The members of the self-appointed ÄcÄrya’s party who occupied the property of the Gauá¸Ä«ya Maá¹­ha are satisfied, but they could make no progress in preaching. Therefore by the result of their actions one should know that they are asÄra, or useless, whereas the success of the ISKCON party, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which strictly follows guru and GaurÄá¹…ga, is increasing daily all over the world. ÅšrÄ«la BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura wanted to print as many books as possible and distribute them all over the world. We have tried our best in this connection, and we are getting results beyond our expectations.