What is Ista Gosthi ?

 

If all of our Ista Deva is Sri Gauranga, in that case there can not have or must not have any major difference of views amoung ourselves. If our final goal is same with the same mood of exclusive seva to satisfy our Ista Deva– the supreme Lord, in that case what problem can stand. When such like-minded devotees going to participate in the discourse of Harikatha Siddhanta- vicar among themselves, in that case this type of mutual Sadhu sanga is called Ista Goshi. Ista Gosthi does not mean that all coming with different kinds of desires ( labha , puja , pratistha ) to get together in a function to contaminate each other. If one malaria patient going to help one cholera patient in that case what solution they can expect ! Moreover we can find both of them going to carry both diseases at a time. Same condition going on in our devotional field, so nobody can get free of contamination of Maya. Half doctor is not a doctor at all, even more dangerous. Suppose ten doctors going to give treatment to a particular patient or particular disease in that case that patient can never get curried, not only that but also there can be every possibility for the patient to die. The kind of treatment we can expect from Srila Prabhupada or from his genuine followers, that we can never expect from a Sahajiya ( maybe he is from our Gaudiya Math society, or even maybe he is acting as Acharya) who is always ready to go for compromise with anybody, anywhere, anytime. Because compromise or reconciliation means I will have to give up some good and accept some bad with whom I am going to make some compromise. Srila Bhakti Progyana Kesava Gosvami Maharaj used to say that if you sow seeds in a field to grow paddy or wheat or sabji, whatever it may be, then surely you will have to ensure full protection of the area to get a good result in near future, otherwise not. Similarly we have taken seed from Sad Gurudeva as Mantra Diksha, so surely we will have to take full protection so that Bhakti lata bija not going to be destroyed by any means. That’s why we want to be fully controlled or regulated by Sad Guru-Vaishnava according to their instruction and Siddhanta vicar. Maybe by Corona Virus we can lose our body but if the dangerous Virus of nondevotional practice or wrong Siddhanta going to contaminate our heart in that case we can get lost forever in this infinity material world.
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( The following is taken from the Article “Sri Gauranga Samaja”, by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur )
“Istagosthi” and “Vaisnava society” are other ways of referring to Sri Gauranga Samaja
The general society of Gauranga was founded during the Lord’s manifest pastimes in Varanasi, and the istagosthi process was also established at that time. Vaisnavas participated in some form of istagosthi even before the advent of Sri Gauranga. At Mahaprabhu’s time also those istagosthis were known as the “Assembly of Gauranga” or the “Vaisnava assembly”. Once, while in an istagosthi with all His associates at Siddha-bakula (in Puri-dhama), Mahaprabhu spoke to Sri Rupa Gosvami (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila 1.130):

prabhu kahe,—”kaha, kene kara saṅkoca-lāje?
granthera phala śunāibā vaiṣṇava-samāje?”          

Mahaprabhu encouraged Rupa Gosvami, saying, “Why are you hesitating out of shyness? You should recite the good fruit of your writing to the Vaisnava assembly.”
Istagosthi also means krsna-katha-gosthi
Without the association of suddha-bhaktas, or pure devotees, there is no question of holding an istagosthi. The word ista means “desired subject”, and gosthi means “assembly”. These two words combine to form the term istagosthi, which refers to an assembly of sadhus who are devoted to suddha- bhakti, or the practice of pure devotion. Suddha- bhaktas are rare in this world, and therefore only a few suddha-bhaktas can be found in any single istagosthi.  Even a gathering of just three Vaisnavas constitutes an istagosthi. This is described in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya-Iila 4.52):

prabhu āsi’ prati-dina milena dui-jane
iṣṭa-goṣṭhī, kṛṣṇa-kathā kahe kata-kṣaṇe

Every day Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu would come to meet them both (Sri Svarupa Damodara and Sri Raya Ramananda) and in their istagosthi they would discuss krsna-katha for some time.