670
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
|Canto 4, Ch. 17
edge to be applied practically in his life, how did the saintly King attain his desired destination?
PURPORT
There are four Vaiṣṇava  sampradāyas  (systems) of discipline succession. One  sampradāya  comes from Lord Brahmā, one from the goddess of fortune, one from the Kumāras headed by Sanat-kumāra, and one from Lord Śiva. These four systems of discipline succession are still going on. As King Pṛthu has illustrated, one who is serious to receive transcendental Vedic knowledge must accept a  guru , or spiritual master, in one of these four discipline successions. It is said that unless one accepts a  mantra  from one of these  sampradāyas , the so-called  mantra  will not act in Kali-yuga. Many  sampradāyas  have sprung up without authority, and they are misleading the people by giving unauthorized  mantras . The rascals of these so-called  sampradāyas  do not observe the Vedic rules and regulations. Although they are addicted to all kinds of sinful activities, they still offer the people  mantras  and thus mislead them. Intelligent persons, however, know that such  mantras  will never be successful, and as such they never patronize such upstart spiritual groups. People should be very careful of these nonsensical  sampradāyas . To get some facility for sense gratification, unfortunate people in this age receive  mantras  from these so-called  sampradāyas . Pṛthu Mahārāja, however, showed by his example that one should receive knowledge from a bona fide  sampradāya . Therefore Mahārāja Pṛthu accepted Sanat-kumāra as his spiritual master.
TEXTS 6-7
यच्चान्यदपि कृष्णस्य भवान् भगवतः प्रभोः ।
श्रवः सुश्रवसः पुण्यं पूर्वदेहक्रयाश्रयम् ॥ ६ ॥
भक्ताय मेऽनुरक्ताय तव चाधोक्षजस्य च ।
वक्तुमर्हसि योऽदुह्यद्वैन्यरूपेण गामिमाम् ॥ ७ ॥
yac cānyad api kṛṣṇasya
bhavān bhagavataḥ prabhoḥ
śravaḥ suśravasaḥ puṇyaṁ
pūrva-deha-kathāśrayam
bhaktāya me 'nuraktāya
tava cādhokṣajasya ca