I just read this and it made me think that much of the current confusion about initiation results from a confusion about the difference between sacred knowledge and science. We have heard so much that Krishna consciousness is a "science" that we think it can be transmitted by purely conventional knowledge-transmission methods.
QUOTE
While initiation is the acquisition of more or less sacred knowledge, science - in its modern form - is a lay, objective and experimental social activity that has gradually progressed from the field of ideas, the object of the exact sciences, to nature, society, culture and man. It is coeval with the great historical changes, in the moral order (with reference to rights and duties of the human being), in the political order (that refers to city organisation and to democracy…) and in the social and economic order (that concerns production, work and the distribution of wealth…).
Complete article by Harris Memel-FotêThough I think we have been making a distinction of this sort for some time, this passage helps clarify the idea. This is also why we can speculate and make use of modern scientific observations to deepen our faith-perception that comes through initiation. They are distinct modalities of knowledge.
This also explains why mere transmission of information on its own cannot be confused with initiation.
QUOTE(Jagat @ Nov 9 2005, 07:28 PM)
I just read this and it made me think that much of the current confusion about initiation results from a confusion about the difference between sacred knowledge and science. We have heard so much that Krishna consciousness is a "science" that we think it can be transmitted by purely conventional knowledge-transmission methods.
QUOTE
While initiation is the acquisition of more or less sacred knowledge, science - in its modern form - is a lay, objective and experimental social activity that has gradually progressed from the field of ideas, the object of the exact sciences, to nature, society, culture and man. It is coeval with the great historical changes, in the moral order (with reference to rights and duties of the human being), in the political order (that refers to city organisation and to democracy…) and in the social and economic order (that concerns production, work and the distribution of wealth…).
Complete article by Harris Memel-FotêThough I think we have been making a distinction of this sort for some time, this passage helps clarify the idea. This is also why we can speculate and make use of modern scientific observations to deepen our faith-perception that comes through initiation. They are distinct modalities of knowledge.
This also explains why mere transmission of information on its own cannot be confused with initiation.
The "science" of
bhakti is not so much in the way that knowledge is received as in the way that knowledge is applied. The "science" of devotion is in the process of following a certain formula to get a certain result. Receiving knowledge is just a process - not a science. Science means that if you follow a certain formula you are supposed to get a certain result.
Sometimes the
bhakti rasamrita sindhu of Srila Rupa Goswami is sub-titled as
The complete Science of Bhakti-yoga because it contains all the essential practices and instructions on performing devotional service.
Thus, the "science" is not in receiving the knowledge but in applying it.
QUOTE
This also explains why mere transmission of information on its own cannot be confused with initiation.
Who says it is? It is the transmission of
faith and the spirit of
Devotion that is the initiation. It is certainly not a formal ritual.
As Sridhar Maharaja used to say;
QUOTE
Only Krishna can give himself
If Krishna does not consent, nobody can give Krishna.
It is the giving of spiritual acumen that is the initiation, not any giving of "information".
Information is not even a good term to describe spiritual knowledge.
Spiritual knowledge is not "information". It is spiritual substance. It is Krishna himself.
Information is something like HTML code or something you get from the evening news report.