The ascending and descending process

 The ascending and descending process, by Haripada dasa

There are two processes to receive knowledge, the ascending and descending process, I will try to explain them. A person believes that by his mental and intellectual power he will understand everything, who am I, who is God, what is the material creation, etc., this is called ascending process, in relation to this I share a very interesting story, to Saint Augustine is considered the greatest philosopher of the Christian Church, this saint was walking along the beach speculating on various philosophical issues, and he saw a child who was making a hole in the sand with a shovel, the saint asked the child who was doing and the boy replied that I am going to put all the water of the ocean in this hole, and Saint Augustine laughed and said that it was impossible, then the boy said that it was more impossible to want to understand things through speculation, and that the only way to understand things is when God is pleased with you, he will reveal everything to you, the only way to understand things is through the mercy of God, there Saint Augustine understood the essence of spiritual life, let us not forget that we are all born with four defects, 1- we have the tendency to make mistakes, to err is human, 2- we have the tendency to fall into ignorance, 3- we have the tendency to deceive others and 4- we have imperfect senses. 

Descending process means that God or Krishna transmits all eternal truths to Brahma, the first created creature, then Brahma transmits it to his son Narada, Narada to Vyasadeva, Vyasadeva to Madhvacharya, etc., this is called guru parampara or disciplic succession, and this knowledge comes pure and does not change, that's why Srila Prabhupada who is the 32nd spiritual master of this guru parampara chain always said that the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is very easy because we don't have to invent anything, we just repeat the messages given to us by the predecessor spiritual masters.

There are four sampradayas or spiritual schools authorized by God or Krishna that transmit descending knowledge, 1- the Brahma sampradaya whose Acharya or founding Master is Madhvacharya, 2- the Kumara sampradaya, the 4 Kumaras, whose Acharya or founding Master is Nimbarkacharya, 3- the Laksmi sampradaya, whose founding Acharya or Master is Ramanujacharya and 4- the Rudra or Siva sampradaya, whose founding Acharya or Master is Visnuswami. One must receive spiritual knowledge and mantras from these 4 spiritual schools. When Srila Prabhupada's teacher named Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada was preaching Krishna consciousness all over India, when he met a guru he would ask you who has authorized you to be a guru, and then he would say that all these manufactured gurus are cheaters of first class. That is why Srila Prabhupada says in Srimad Bhagavatam, 4, 8, 54 that one should receive initiation from a guru authorized by the guru who preceded him.