670 Stimad-Bhagavatam | 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 Vaignava sampradayas (systems) of disciplic succession.
One sampradaya comes from Lord Brahma, one from the goddess of
fortune, one from the Kumaras headed by Sanat-kumara, and one from
Lord Siva. These four systems of disciplic succession are still going on. As
King Prthu has illustrated, one who is serious to receive transcendental
Vedic knowledge must accept a guru, or spiritual master, in one of these
four disciplic successions. It is said that unless one accepts a mantra from
one of these sampradayas, the so-called mantra will not act in Kali-yuga.
Many sampradayas have sprung up without authority, and they are
misleading the people by giving unauthorized mantras. The rascals of these
so-called sampradayas do not observe the Vedic rules and regulations. Al-
though 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 sampraddyas. ‘lo get some facility for sense gratification,
unfortunate people in this age receive mantras from these so-called
sampradayas. Prthu Maharaja, however, showed by his example that one
should receive knowledge from a bona fide sampraddya. Therefore
Maharaja Prthu accepted Sanat-kumara as his spiritual master.
TEXTS 6-7
THAT HUA AIL TTT: TA |
MT TAT: TH TteTATATT Ul & Ul
~
TH Asa TA WIA FI
¢ és
qa aSgaseTSeIN TART I 9 II
7
yac canyad api krsnasya
bhavan bhagavatah prabhoh
Sravah susravasah punyam
purva-deha-kathasrayam
bhaktaya me ’nuraklaya
tava cadhoksajasya ca
