One question I sometimes receive is about initiations on Gaudiya Maths. Why on Iskcon one has to wait for years, chant 16 rounds, and develop a relationship with the guru while on some of the Gaudiya Maths, one can get a name very easily after promising to just chant four rounds, or sometimes by just attending a program and meeting a sadhu, without promising anything at all?
There are a few details here. First of all, is the usage of the term “Gaudiya Math”. It seems that nowadays some use this term for any institution or group outside Iskcon, without considering if they are really connected with some of the Gaudiya Maths or what the connection is. It’s very common for groups of dissatisfied ex-Iskcon devotees to define themselves as “Gaudiya Maths” without having any real connection with any of the maths.
A second question is about where this idea of four rounds came from and how it became popular. This is something I’m really challenged to answer, since as far as I know Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was telling his brahmacari disciples to chant 64 rounds and was offering 16 to householders already as a concession. Some think that Prabhupada invented the standard of chanting 16 rounds when he initiated his first disciples in the West, but in reality, he just applied the standard Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was at his time using for householders, seeing the reluctance of his first disciples in chanting 64 rounds. History shows this decision was correct since had he insisted on the original standard of 64 rounds, not many of us would be able to maintain the standard.
Srila Sridhara Maharaja, Godbrother of Srila Prabhupada, once mentioned that even if there is some emergency and one is not able to chant his rounds, he must chant at very least four rounds since the “beads should not starve”. It seems that there was a standard of a minimum of four rounds in the original Gaudiya Math for situations of emergency, but it’s questionable if this can be applied as a standard for initiation.
A third point is the relationship of the “guru” with the “disciple” in such an “initiation”. I’m using the terms in quotes because it seems they may be misused here. Once I talked with a devotee who was serving in one of the maths. He explained that in their understanding Harinama is not an initiation, and thus can be given to anyone without establishing a guru/disciple connection, just like when we give someone a book on the street for example, and that real initiation is the diksa initiation, when one receives the sacred thread. If this view is correct or not could be a subject for another discussion, but the point is that before accepting such “initiation”, one should inquire from the sadhu in question what is their relationship and what is being given. Does he assume the responsibility of taking all one’s sins upon his shoulders and taking him back to Godhead? Or it’s just a name and a set of beads in exchange for a donation?
In Iskcon, for example, we sometimes see that senior devotees give names to children or even beads to stimulate them to chant, but this is not understood as an initiation. It’s just a sadhu giving a cute name to a child. The child still has to grow, find a guru, develop a relationship with him, and make his vows before being dully initiated. The initiation itself is also just the beginning of a longer path back to Godhead, which will involve the participation of the initiating guru, and possibly of multiple siksa-gurus along the way.
We sometimes tend to think that the spiritual path is something easy and cheap and that we can go back to Godhead by just casually practicing 30 minutes per day. While the path of Bhakti is indeed very easy if compared with other paths, such as dry asceticism or mystic yoga, it still requires a good deal of commitment. Going back to Godhead requires us to completely focus our attention upon Krsna, which demands us to completely withdraw it from matter. The ultimate goal for us is to reduce eating, sleeping, mating, and defending to zero, and completely focus our attention on the chanting of the holy names. Such chanting must not only be constant, but completely pure to award us the ultimate result. How someone can expect to achieve it by just casually chanting four rounds per day is something I’m puzzled to answer. Even the sixteen rounds Srila Prabhupada established are defined as just the beginning. In reality, we are supposed to chant more, as well as study the scriptures, do some practical service, etc.
One may start by chanting any number of rounds, or by just casually chanting the maha-mantra after hearing it from devotees chanting on the street, for example, but at some point, he will need to become more serious in his spiritual practice to progress further, and even more to finally break free from all material contamination and find his way back to Godhead.