Pramanam (Proof) is  the most important factor in upadesams. Paramparya Aacharyas... Shankaracharya,  Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya said everything only by quoting pramanam from Shruti Smriti and Puranas. Starting from  them to Acharyas in  our period in such mutts won't say anything without pramanam.

Many think that such Acharyas are not easily reachable. They are always reachable. Their upadesams are available online too. Many upanyasakas explain their upadesams in detail for our easy understanding. But, they will insist anushtanams and self control because they are our well-wishers and they know very well that without these, one can't gain real spiritual knowledge.

We have to be careful in following New Spiritual leaders without Guru Parampara, if there is no pramanam from Scriptures and Puranas for their preachings. And also if there is a contradiction between their preachings and upadesams of our Paramparya Acharyas, then we have to be more careful in following their preachings. 

They may assure their followers as nothing wrong in leaving some practices/doing some practices in contradiction to our dharma. At the outset, it may look like (by seeing the crowd over there), they are only spreading Hindu dharma fast. But, actually they are taking people away from doing good practices which are the pillars of our sanatana dharma. Hence, we should be more careful in not letting our children fall into their wrong way.

For example, nowadays some spiritual leaders give assurances to their followers that nothing wrong in ladies doing Puja and going to temples during monthly cycles and anyone (Ladies or other varnasrama persons) can chant Vedham which is against Sastram and there are scientific reasons too for such things. Find out More

Another confusion arises when some people decide to follow some Mahans. In India, Many Mahans lived .. Since they were capable of doing gnana yoga, they might not have done any anushtanams. Such Mahans normally don't show anybody as next Mahan. After their life, many followers may give many interpretations of such Mahan's preachings. Even in one forum of such Mahans, if anyone asks some doubt, different answers will come from different followers as "this is what our Mahan did. So, we also need not do that"; some may say "our Mahan didn't say like that", etc... 

Mahans were capable of following Gnana yoga but not we. We need to be careful about such confusions too

Nowadays all are doing so many researches on their own about Vedhas, analysing people's activities in various yugas and arguing that someone did this in that yuga. Why shouldn't we? ..etc... without realising Vedhas tell different dharma for different yugas ...for different people ... suitable for them ... Such matters are like a vast  ocean ...  without proper guidance one can't survive in it.

Such researches and observations are like blind persons' imagination about an elephant depending upon the part they are touching.

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High level spiritual concepts are like walking on a rope at a greater height. We have to learn such things through proper channels. Some may be expert in walking and can teach people to start walking in a rope. Initially, it may give a pleasant feeling too with a cool breeze. But danger of falling is always there.

We can avoid all such confusions by knowing our own Guru parampara, trusting them since they are our well-wishers and making our children also aware of our Guru parampara prabhavam in order to raise them according to our culture.

When we learn from  Paramparya Acharyas,  humility will improve (with a realisation of whatever we know is only little, lot more to learn) whereas if we learn from any Spiritual Leader without Guru parampara, we will get a feeling that we know more thereby developing a kind of pride in us. That is the main difference.