Guru Maharaj: As HH Bhakti Vikas Swami explained yesterday, the babaji is considered the paramahamsa stage. Some people taking babaji, they usually stay in a holy place and practice their bhajan there. But a sannyasi may travel and preach There are four stages of sannyas – kuticaka, bahudaka, parivrajaka and paramahamsa. So Srila Prabhupada wanted us to be the parivrajaka and to travel and preach. But when one is very mature he becomes a paramahamsa, and some of them may directly accept this babaji asrama. They would be considered as paramahamsa. But Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Prabhupada Thakura said he is taking sannyasa as a matter of humility, because if you take babaji then they will claim you are paramahamsa. He said I am not claiming to be out of the varnasrama, I am humble and therefore I will take sannyasa. But some of our, like Gaura Kishore das babaji or Jagannatha das babaji were very advanced devotees. In our parampara, at one point everyone was a babaji. But Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Prabhupada Thakura, started the principle of sannyasa here. Because the so called babajis were not really paramahamsa. But some of them were. Like in our parampara they are. Not everybody in Vrndavana who claims to be a babaji, is on the same level.

04-OCT-2020 SRIDHAM MAYAPUR