Five Symptoms of a Founder-Acharya

Lokanath Swami: Srila Prabhupada founded ISKCON. He did the groundwork. He is the founder-acharya, and we must understand his position as such. Some or maybe all of the problems that arose in our movement after Srila Prabhupada left have their origin in our not properly understanding this position of founder-acharya.

A scripture from the Sri sampradaya called Prapannamrta Tapana explains that a founder-acharya is known by five symptoms.

1. First, he is udharika, which means that he is the savior of everyone. The Prapannamrta Tapana goes on to explain that those who come after the founder-acharya in the disciplic succession, who act as spiritual masters, are upakarika, his helpers. They are never to be equated, even after hundreds of generations, with the founder-acharya.

2. Second, he is dinabhaya. Dina means "very fallen," and abhaya means "to remove fear" or "fearless." The founder-acarya removes the fear of all the fallen souls by his teachings, whose nature is that anyone anywhere who takes shelter of them will become fearless.

3. Third, he gives purports to the scriptures carrying the Vaisnava siddhanta, such as Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, and makes them available to the world in maha-grantha, or great books.

4. Fourth, he also gives purports to the songs of the Vaisnava acharyas.

5. Fifth, his name becomes identified with the philosophy of Lord Visnu Himself.

Srila Prabhupada’s position as the founder-acharya of ISKCON exactly corresponds to this ancient definition of founder-acharya.