Hi Pax! I never got the chance to say to enjoy yourself when you were in Sri Lanka, when I wanted to recommend to you some great places to go.

PLEASE tell me you visited Mount Lavinia Beach, right? If not, then you missed out !! :)

Anyway, I found your post extremely enlightening, as usual. But I noticed a couple of contentious points:

The Venerable spiritual teacher, (venerable does >not necessarily mean perfected),

Isn't it essential for a Master to be fully realized, thus enabling him to pass it onto the disciple? Divya-jnan hrde prokasito, he imparts to us in our hearts the effulgent wisdom.

A master who is still following the process to get realised, if he accepts disciples, he is simply giving them a blank check. In the sense that "Oh I am practising the principles now, in the future I will get enlightenment, so you draw from my bank account then."

A guru should either be nitya-siddha (eternally liberated) or a sadhana-siddha ( acquired liberation through practice of sadhana) before accepting disciples.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprobhu - was the greatest exponent of the Vaishnava devotional movement of Bengal. (fifteenth century)......I am glad that you mentioned him. It shows that you have done your research.:) And that he is also the GREATEST exponent, yes. But then I hear....None of the above realised God easily, almost all suffered greatly to achieve their enlightened goal.

I assume you include Mahaprabhu in that list? Then I might tell you that Mahaprabhu was actually an Avatar of the highest order.

It is actually offensive to say that He was an Avatar, because He was Krishna Himself in a different form.

Granted, it is very hard to believe that Mahaprabhu is God since he is respected all over India as a very great "saint." The reason for this is simple: Mahaprabhu covered his identity. The reason for his advent was to teach us the proper standard of devotion and how to attain it. He himself acted like a devotee to teach us how to do so.

I am unable to elaborate further because it is now 8pm and I really should be going home. If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to ask.

Believe me, talking about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is well worth it! He will give you joy in your heart that makes you want to sing, dance and cry all over the world. Just this past weekend I have been thinkiing about Him nonstop - and that is why my heart has suddenly become very light, which is hardly surprising considering His love and compassion.

It's flowing out of my head everywhere. I'm actually dying slowly.

Sanjay