Question: How a person chooses guru? How is connection made with guru? Is there any connection from past life?

Jayapataka Swami: Hard to say if there is connection from the past life. There may be. The pastime of Bilvamangala Thakur, where he had a relationship with a prostitute. But then the prostitute told him that if he had a little of the attachment that you have for me, for Krsna, then your life would be successful! So that led him to the spiritual path. So he took that lady as his siksa guru and so Srila Prabhupada said that the lady was actually his guru from a previous life! So Srila Prabhupada said, ‘don’t make me come back like that to help the devotee get out of maya.’ So one may have a relationship from previous life. Hard to say. One chooses a guru based on hearing and if you have faith that the guru is representing purely Srila Prabhupada and the parampara, then you may accept him as your diksa guru. Srila Prabhupada said that he was both the diksa guru and siksa guru for his disciples. So one’s diksa guru may also be one’s siksa guru, but we may have many siksa gurus. But we take permission from diksa guru to accept someone else as siksa guru and we may have many siksa gurus. Srila Prabhupada is considered a pre eminent siksa guru because we read his books and we follow his instructions. Hare Krsna!
16-OCTOBER-2019 ISKCON TIRUPATI, INDIA