Study a Verse

• Although others give help in showing the way to beginners, the guru who first initiates one with the mahā-mantra is to be known as the initiator, and the saints who give instructions for progressive advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness are called instructing spiritual masters.
• The initiating and instructing spiritual masters are equal and identical manifestations of Kṛṣṇa, although they have different dealings.
• Therefore Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī accepted Nityānanda Prabhu and the six Gosvāmīs in the category of guru.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Reverence and gratitude. The narrator takes shelter of the guru-paramparā; receptivity begins with humility.

The mood of Ādi 1 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Ādi 1: The Spiritual Masters

From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His plenary expansions are all in the category of the Lord Himself, the energetic Absolute Truth, whereas His devotees, His eternal associates, are His energies. The energy and energetic are fundamentally one, but since their functions are differently exhibited, they are simultaneously different also.