How will I be able to recognize someone as a bona fide spiritual master?

[realist 0]

 

Yes, we must, "understand the spiritual science to be non-sectarian and universal." We must all find guru, the chosen one and test to see if he is guru or not

 

 

 

in QuickList

Monty Python - Life of Brian - so is he the messiah or not?

 

 

[Bishadi 0]

seems them last 2 posts share real wisdom....

 

thanks.... as I am always keeping my eyes open too

[krsna 3]

 

 

 

 

 

Harmonist: Bring together all bad elements into perfect harmony.

 

[krsna 3]

 

 

A Golden Opportunity to Serve Collectively

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from a lecture delivered by:

 

 

 

 

Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

 

 

 

 

 

in the Sarasvata Assembly Hall, Sri Caitanya Matha, Mayapura

 

 

Saturday, 9.00 pm, on the 28th day of the month of Magha (January) 1931

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

om ajnana-timirandhasya

 

 

 

jnananjana-salakaya

 

 

 

 

caksur unmilitam yena

 

tasmai sri-gurave namah

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I have an opportunity to worship my Sri Gurudeva. Last year, also, I had the good fortune of worshipping him, and today that auspicious occasion has come again. By the mercy of Bhagavan, I had the fortune of being able to serve Srila Gurudeva for another year.

 

 

 

 

 

If Srila Gurudeva had wanted to deprive me of service to him, I would not have survived this past year. Since I have been granted this one year, I must again, today, contemplate whether I have properly taken advantage of that opportunity and served him accordingly.

 

 

Srila Gurudeva said that we shall collectively engage in the service of Bhagavan. He used the word quote, "we" which means he was not referring to one person alone. Many persons egotistically profess, "I am Bhagavan's exclusive servant" or "I have been selected to perform a particular service to Him because no one else is qualified to do it." But Srila Gurudeva's words issue from a heart melted with loving compassion: "Come! Let us forget our tendency to block each other's spiritual progress; this is violence. Service to Bhagavan is superior to all else."

 

 

 

 

By saying "superior to all else" he is not implying, "No one can do this service but me; I will not allow anyone else to do it." My Srila Gurupadapadma' s nature contains no such violence.

 

 

 

 

 

Humbly Praying for Help

 

 

 

 

 

"Bahubhirmilitva yat kirtanam tadaiva sankirtanam - sankirtana means congregational chanting."

 

 

 

 

Glorification and prayers are included in sankirtana. From an external perspective, one who offers stuti (Vedic prayers) holds a lower position than the object of the prayers. A third party however, can best understand the glories of a person by hearing his prayers.

 

 

 

 

Real humility of trnad api sunicena

 

 

 

 

Sri Gaurasundara explained that to genuinely call out for Bhagavan, one has to more humble than a blade of grass (trnad api sunicena). We cannot cry out for someone until we have accepted our own insignificance in relation to that person. We beg for assistance when we are forced to acknowledge our helplessness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whenever we find ourselves incapable of completing a task on our own, we are left with no choice but to seek another's help. Alone I cannot complete a task that requires five people to accomplish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sri Gaurasundara has instructed us to genuinely cry out for Bhagavan, which means He has urged us to solicit Sri Bhagavan for help. This we have heard from Srila Gurudeva. However if I cry out to Him with the intention of involving Him in service to me, or if I petition Him for the purpose of accomplishing any task, my cries lack the real humility of trnad api sunicena.

 

 

 

 

Real humility is never found in an external show of humility, which is actually mere duplicity. Calling out to Bhagavan in the mood of being His master, expecting Him to obey like a servant, is ineffective. He does not hear such a call because He is supremely independent and fully conscious. Consequently, He is not controlled by anyone. Until a person's egoism establishes roots in sincere, non-duplicitous humility, his prayers will not reach Bhagavan, who is fully independent.

 

 

 

 

A person who is more humble than a blade of grass may cry out to Bhagavan, but unless he is endowed with the qualities of patience and tolerance, his calling out will still not bare fruit. If we show impatience by hankering after our own interests, our behaviour is in direct opposition to the mood of trnad api sunicena.

 

 

 

 

Properly call out to Krsna

 

 

 

 

If we are fully confident that Bhagavan is the Complete Being, and that our calling out to Him will never result in scarcity, we will not experience any dearth of patience. But if I become greedy, intolerant and restless, and if I remain adamant that I will accomplish my task on the strength of my own ability and competence, I will not be able to call out to Bhagavan in the true sense.

 

 

 

 

If we are excessively vain, we cannot properly call out to Him. And also if we try to annihilate our real self-interest, then we will not be able to cry out to Bhagavan properly. Often, I think that I am obliging Him by my prayers, and therefore I engage in other activities in which I don't need to ask for His help. This mentality also indicates the absence of tolerance.

 

 

 

 

We therefore require a guardian to save us from such tendencies until we become qualified to sincerely pray in the mood of trnad api sunicena. His shelter and support are necessary to shield us from such unfavourable inclinations. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura says: "asraya laiya bhaje, tanre krsna nahi tyaje, ara sabe mare akarana - one who performs bhajana under the shelter of personalities who are the abode of love for Krsna, is not neglected by Krsna; everyone else lives in vain."

 

 

 

 

 

We are Incompetent to Proceed Without a Bona Fide Guru

 

 

 

 

 

Serving the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva is our foremost necessity. In this world, we even need a guru to perform karma (material activities), to acquire jnana (knowledge) or to fulfill any anyabhilasa (desires not connected to serving Krsna). The guidance of such worldly gurus engenders insignificant results, which are the antithesis of the results bestowed by the lotus feet of a bona fide guru.

 

 

 

 

Srila Gurudeva is the source of our genuine welfare. The very moment we become bereft of his mercy, diverse worldly desires manifest in our hearts. And if the vartma-pradarsaka guru, who is the first to tell us about spiritual life, does not tell us how we should take shelter of the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, we may end up losing the gem in hand.

 

 

 

 

Nama-bhajana (chanting Krsna's names) is the sole method of performing bhajana, and it is the only method Srila Gurudeva confers upon us. Consequently, our responsibility is to worship his lotus feet at the beginning of each year, that is, every guru-puja. Srila Rupa Gosvami says:

 

 

 

 

guru-padasrayas tasmat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

krsna-diksadi- siksanam

 

 

 

 

visrambhena guroh seva

 

sadhu-vartmanuvarta nam

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The first four limbs of sadhana-bhakti are: to accept the shelter of the lotus feet of a bona fide guru, to take diksa and receive instructions on service to Krsna from him, to serve him with intimacy and affection and to follow the path of the sadhus, under his guidance." (Bhakti-rasamrta- sindhu 1.2.74-75)]

 

 

 

 

 

In a realm that is concealed and mystifying, it is impossible to proceed by depending on one's own multitude of competencies. Just as it is impossible to foresee the future or making plans for the future on the strength of one's own ability, similarly, mundane conceptions cannot help one penetrate or attain the supra-mundane realm.

 

 

My senses have experience something of the time that has already passed, and therefore I have knowledge of it, but I remain ignorant about the future. In the same way, our current senses are incapable of informing us about that realm that is complete and inconceivable. Our eyes can only see a few miles into the distance, and our ears can only hear words spoken nearby.

 

 

 

 

If we depend on our own competence to proceed in such a realm, we will never reach the far end, the Ultimate Reality. Such an attempt is likened to Ravana's efforts to build a stairway to heaven.

Construction may begin, but it will eventually crumble to the ground. It cannot exist in a void where no support is present. Similarly we desire to ascend to that unknown realm, and we try to do so on the strength of our own competence, but we always fail. Furthermore, if we consider an ordinary mortal who is laghu (spiritually impotent and not at all grave) to be guru (weighty with potency), we face failure.

 

 

 

 

We will have to recognize who is guru and who is laghu. A guru is engaged in service to that Complete Entity whom all real gurus honour as their sole object of worship. This does not refer to a guru (teacher) of sitar or physical exercises. Such a guru cannot save one from the clutches of death.

 

 

 

 

gurur na sa syat sva-jano na sa syat

 

 

 

 

 

 

pita na sa syaj janani na sa syat

 

daivam na tat syan na patis ca sa syan

 

na mocayed yah samupeta-mrtyum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["That guru is not a guru, that father is not a father, that mother is not a mother, that demigod is not a demigod and that relative is not a relative who cannot protect us from the clutches of death, cannot bestow eternal life upon us and cannot protect us from ignorance, because of which we are deeply engrossed in this material worl d." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.18)]

 

 

 

 

 

Ignorance is the sole reason a person falls into the clutches of death; a person with knowledge does not. All the education in the world is immediately dispensable for one who becomes mad or paralysed or who meets with death. Unless we are searching for the ultimate truth, we tend to become unconscious, or devoid of real consciousness.

 

 

When we are impelled to enjoy our senses, like the tongue, hands, legs, arms and genitals, we are enchanted and then deceived. It is therefore imperative upon us to remember Srila Gurupadapadma at the beginning of each year, each month, each day and at every moment, for he can protect us from all such deception.

 

 

 

 

 

[krsna 3]

 

 

Remember Sri Guru Every Day, Every Moment

 

 

 

 

Our Gurudeva's forms are manifold. If he did not manifest himself in various ways, then who else would protect us? That person whom my Gurudeva has accepted as his own i s my saviour. I do not want to see the faces of vile persons who criticize my Gurudeva or who support those who criticize him. They are the cause of all inauspiciousness.

 

 

The very instant I deviate from or forget the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, who is continuously attracting me to his lotus feet, at that very moment I am unquestionably deprived of the Truth. Upon such deviation, I became engrossed in contemplating countless scarcities. I hurry to bathe in a holy place, and I become busy protecting myself from the cold. In this way I chase after activities other than service to Srila Gurudeva.

 

 

 

 

 

My Gurudeva constantly protects me from dvitiya-abhinivesa, becoming absorbed in activities separate from the interest of Bhagavan. If I do not remember my Gurudeva at the beginning of each year, each month, each day, and at every moment, I will surely fall further away from the path of bhakti. Consequently, I myself will wish to be recognized as guru, and the sinister contemplation of how others will worship me will invade my mind.

 

 

This alone is dvitiya-abhinivesa. We have not assembled here to perform guru-puja just for today, but to begin performance of it at every moment, forever.

 

 

Sri Gaurasundara is Krsna Himself who came to this Earth as jagad-guru, the spiritual master of the whole world, and spoke Siksastaka. May the mahanta-gurus (exalted, manifest gurus) and all great Vaisnavas who are surrendered to their lotus feet, impart all aspects of the teachings of Siksastaka to us. May they deliver us from our calamitous situation.

 

 

 

 

My Gurudeva Appears to Me Everywhere

 

 

 

 

Our spiritual masters (asraya-jatiya guru-varga) are the abodes of love. They appear to us in different forms to bestow their mercy upon us. They are reflected in all objects and in every entity. Indeed, they are the special manifestations of Srila Gurudeva, he who imparts divya-jnana, transcendental knowledge.

 

The object of love, Krsna (visaya-jatiya) , is one half of the equation, and the abode of love, Sri Guru (asraya-jatiya) , is the other half. Their combination results in a complete whole through vilasa vaicitrya (wonderfully variegated pastimes). Sri Krsna is the complete manifestation of the object of love, and Srila Gurudeva is the complete perception of the abode of love. When the transcendental reflection of asraya-jatiya tattva falls upon any conscious being, he is to be understood as a manifestation of my Gurudeva.

 

Gurudeva is that person whose behaviour at every moment instructs us that our entire life is meant for serving Bhagavan. That very Gurudeva is reflected in the heart of every living being and is situated in every entity as asraya-jatiya tattva.

 

 

 

 

cuta-priyala- panasasana- kovidara

jambv-arka-bilva- bakulamra- kadamba-nipah

 

 

 

 

ye 'nye parart ha-bhavaka yamunopakulah

 

samsantu krsna-padavim rahitatmanam nah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["O mango, priyala, jackfruit, asana and kovidara trees! O trees of jambu, arka, bilva and bakula! O amra, kadamba and nipa trees, as well as all other plants and trees growing along Yamuna's shores whose lives are devoted to benefiting others, we have lost our minds in the agony of separation from Sri Krsna, so please tell us where He has gone." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.30.9)]

 

 

Sri Krsna disappeared from the rasa-sthali (the place of the rasa-lila), and the gopis, who are eternally liberated souls, approached each and every living entity in search of Him. Did the gopis simply depend upon the knowledge acquired through their senses to find Him?

 

We receive the opportunity to hear about these subjects from our Gurudeva. The variegated transcendental pastimes of Nanda-Govinda, Yasoda-Govinda, Sridama-Sudama- Govinda, Citraka-Patraka- Govinda, Vamsi-Govinda, Go-Govinda and Kad amba-Govinda are accounts of the rasa-laden pastimes of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda.

 

 

If a person is blessed with the darsana of Sri Guru in his heart, or if he makes a place in his mind where Sri Guru can wander, then such pastimes are revealed in his heart. The one and only way to attain service to the Complete Being is to worship that person who, by his every activity, encourages us to serve the Complete Being. Our Gurudeva's image, reflected in many different ways, constantly manifests newer and newer lessons for us.

 

My Gurudeva manifests in various repositories and, upon seeing their attitude of service to Bhagavan, I pray that I may spend thousands and thousands of lifetimes serving Sri Hari in their association, and that my aversion to serving Him, which has prevailed for millions of lifetimes, is finally destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone is Advancing Except Me

 

 

 

 

Once I went to Mangala-giri in South India to establish the sacred impressions of Sriman Mahaprabhu's footprints. A devotee amongst us raised this doubt:

 

"When I first came to the matha, I noted the character of the matha residents and their attachment to serving Bhagavan. This impressed and inspired me and I cherished a high aspiration to be like them. But now, the standard I once envisioned attaining has lessened considerably. I am engrossed in various mundane thoughts such as thinking about the many brahmacaris who have turned to their homes and entered household life."

 

In reply I said, "I cannot say that they have left hari-bhajana just because they have returned to their homes. In fact I see each and every one of those brahmacaris as amazing Vaisnavas and that their Vaisnava qualities and devotion for the Lord have increased manifold.

 

What a wicked atheist I used to be, but my wickedness substantially abated in their association. I see that I am averse to Bhagavan, but they all are engaged in hari-bhajana. By the mercy of Srila Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, I have come to know this verse:

 

 

 

 

vaisnavera nindyakarma na pade kane

sabe krsna bhaje tinha ai matra jane

 

 

 

 

 

["Gossip about Vaisnavas indulging in abominable activities should never enter my ears. I should only see that all persons are serving Krsna."]

 

 

From my perspective, everybody is advancing in hari-bhajana, and this universe, which was created by Bhagavan, is prospering in every respect. Everyone except me is receiving spiritual benefit.

 

You have become restless without due reason, and because you are intensely eager to serve Bhagavan you want the devotees who left to also be increasingly keen to engage in hari-bhajana. They are, however, engaged in hari-bhajana. Still you are dissatisfied and want their exuberance to serve their beloved Lord to increase a million-fold.

 

My heart, on the contrary, is meager and unable to accommodate the magnitude of their bhajana of Sri Hari. They exemplified living according to an astonishingly high ideal. The only person who is incapable of performing hari-bhajana is me, because I busy myself with finding faults in others. How, then, can I ever make progress?"

 

 

 

 

 

Enthusiastic to Find Faults

 

 

 

 

Who finds faults in the Vaisnavas? Those who depend on their senses to acquire knowledge. Their senses - the eyes, ears, nose and so forth - are their sole support; hence external objects deceive them. In other words, those who are averse to hari-bhajana find faults with the Vaisnavas.

 

When a person tells me that someone has stopped chanting his harinama, I think, "He must have become highly elevated at heart as a result of so much chanting. This is why he has left the path of bhajana, which is the sole source of one's welfare, and become engaged in other activities. Only a rich man is so content that he does not care to earn more."

 

In Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavan says: "na me bhaktah pranasyati - My devotees never perish or face misfortune."

 

 

 

api cet su-duracaro

bhajate mam ananya-bhak

 

 

 

 

sadhur eva sa mantavyah

 

samyag vyavasito hi sah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["If even a man of abominable character worships Me with single-pointed focus, he is still to be considered a sadhu because he is rightly situated in bhakti." (Bhagavad-gita 9.30)]

 

 

 

 

 

ksipram bhavati dharmatma

sasvac-chantim nigacchati

 

 

 

 

kaunteya pratijanihi

 

name bhaktah pranasyati

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["He quickly becomes virtuous and attains eternal peace. O Kaunteya, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes." (Bhagavad-gita 9.31)]

 

 

Can anyone who is one-pointed and unflinching in his performance of hari-bhajana ever become degraded? They have doubtlessly attained full auspiciousness. Our attitude, however, is defective, and this is why we do not attain our own auspiciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

para-svabhava- karmani

na prasamsen na garhayet

 

 

 

 

visvam ekamakam pasyan

 

prakrtya purusena ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["Sri Bhagavan said: Do not criticise or praise the conditioned nature and activities of others. View this world as a combination of material nature and souls who have an enjoying propensity, both based on the one Ultimate Reality." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.28.1)]

 

 

If I depend on my sense-perception for information I will remain deprived of service to the Lord, who is beyond the perception of the senses (adhoksaja), and of Srila Gurudeva. I have not attained my own welfare, but still I meditate on the auspicious behaviour of others, and although I myself am full of shortcomings, I am enthusiastic to find faults in others. If I ever began to really focus on my own welfare, would I have time to obse rve another's imperfections?

 

 

 

 

 

krsneti yasya giri tam manasadriyeta

diksasti cet pranatibhis ca bhajantam isam

 

 

 

 

susrusaya bhajana-vijnam ananyam anya-

 

nindadi sunya-hrdam ipsita-sanga- labdhya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["One who chants Krsna's name just once is a neophyte devotee (kanistha-adhikari) . One should consider him to be his family member and silently respect him. One who, fully understanding the principle of diksa, has accepted initiation from a qualified guru and performs bhajana of Bhagavan in accordance with Vaisnava conventions is an intermediate devotee (madhyama-adhikari) . One should respect such a devotee who is endowed with the correct understanding of reality and illusion by offering him pranama and so forth. One who is adept in the science of bhajana as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vaisnava scriptures, and who performs exclusive bhajana of Sri Krsna, is a maha-bhagavata devotee. Due to his undeviating absorption in Krsna, the pure heart of such a devotee is free from faults such as the tendency to criticize others. He is expert in bhajana, meaning that he mentally renders service (manasa-seva) to Sri Radha-Krsna's pastimes which take place during the eight segments of the day (asta-kaliya- lila). Knowing him to be a topmost devotee whose heart is established in the particular mood of service to Sri Radha-Krsna for which one aspires, and who is affectionately disposed towards oneself, one should honour him by offering dandavat-pranama, making relevant inquiry and rendering service with great love." (Upadesamrta, verse 5)]

 

 

 

Our lives are short. Last year we gathered here to worship Srila Gurudeva. Since then, those who received the mercy of Bhagavan have departed from this world. However, for the purpose of finding faults in others and to show an example of the absence of trnad api sunicena, we are in this material world absorbed in sense gratification.

 

 

This lightest tendency to find faults in others is completely absent in Srila Gurudeva. At the same time, his sole function is to kindly point out our hundreds and thousands of faults, which are the cause of our misfortune. May we not lose sight of this quality of Srila Gurudeva.

 

If I live for one more year, then I will absorb myself in the service of Gurudeva at every moment from today onward and give up my tendency to criticize others. I will not say, "I am valorous, scholarly and a gifted speaker; he is foolish, ignorant and cannot express anything."

 

On the strength of exclusive absorption in hari-katha, I will not foster an attitude of aversion to Bhagavan, and thus I will become truly benefited.

 

 

 

 

Sadhaka and Siddha are Not the Same

 

asa-bharair- amrta-sindhu- mayaih kathamcit

kalo mayatigamitah kila sampratam hi

 

 

 

 

tamce krpam mayi vidhasyaci n aiva kim me;

 

pranairvrajena ca varoru vakarinapi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

["O Varoru (girl with beautiful thighs), I am passing my time with the sole hope of being able to serve You. If You withhold Your mercy, what value to me are this life, the land of Vraja, and Sri Krsna, the enemy of Baka?" (Vilapa-kusumanjali , verse 102)]

 

 

Some people ask me, "Why don't you give siddha-pranali (the identity of one's eternal relationship with Krsna)?" However, I cannot understand how a sadhaka and a siddha can be on the same level. How can one in the stage of sadhana that is full of anarthas cultivate the activities of sadhana that is free from anarthas or that of siddhi (the stage of perfection)? If someone is siddha, self-realized, and he mercifully reveals his svarupa to me, then only can I come to know his eternal constitutional form.

 

 

In madhurya-rasa Srila Gurudeva is Varsabhanavi (Sri Radha). According to a person's eternal nature, he will see that same Sri Gurudeva as a certain absolute reality (vastu). One in the mood of a parent sees him as Nanda-Yasoda. ; one in the mood of a friend sees him as Sridama-Sudama and one in the mood of a servitor sees him as Citraka-Patraka.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The truth of who is visaya and who is asraya appears in the heart of one who remains engaged in service to Srila Gurudeva. This truth does not manifest in the heart by an artificial means. When the tendency to serve arises in a fortunate soul, this truth automatically appears in his heart.

 

We are not obliged to serve anyone other than our Gurudeva. The nature of nitya-lila (Krsna's eternal pastimes with His devotees), which even Sesa, Siva, Brahma and others cannot conceive of, will never be realized by one whose consciousness is polluted with mundane conceptions.

 

 

 

 

 

I offer my obeisances unto the lotus feet of you all, my guru-varga.

 

[krsna 3]

 

 

The mercy of the holy feet of the Vaisnavas

 

 

By

 

 

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

Those who are fit possess an abundant power of devotion. They are strong. I should not apply myself to finding out the shortcomings of the Vaisnavas, condemning service to Lord Visnu or seeking to establish my own point of view by neglecting the method that may enable me to serve the Lord and His devotees. No language can describe the havoc that is wrought in human life by such arrogance.

 

I make this submission with all humility:

 

"Kindly refrain from merely imitating the conduct of the Vaisnavas and please always follow their line of thought."

 

There is no relationship for us other than with the devotees of Visnu. Relationship with other people can only aggravate the desire for sensuous gratification.

Many years have now passed over me one by one. I at last realise that there is no other help for me than the mercy of the holy feet of the Vaisnavas. Every one of my acts is worthy of contempt. Yet I pray to those who look upon me from above that, if they consider it allowable for me to follow their conduct and teachings, they enable me to no longer have a contemptible attitude. I pray to them to kindly impart to me the strength and fitness needed in order to communicate their power to those who are unintelligent, ignorant and devoid of all strength.

He who serves Lord Hari counts himself as the least of all entities. He is lifted to the highest order of the Vaisnavas when he can feel himself the last of all. He can then proclaim the message of the highest devotion to Lord Hari.

"The best of all people deems himself to be less than all others." Such is the great dictum.

 

 

 

 

Even those of low birth can know God

 

 

 

 

It is necessary for the best person to scrutinize his own ineligibility. Why should a person be anxious to pry into the defects of others when he does not seek to scrutinize his own conduct? Is this the disposition of a Vaisnava? On the other hand, even those who are low in the scale of service may attain the higher level. Let us remember the verse:

 

"What to speak of people who listen to and remember the instructions of the spiritual scriptures with care, even those of low birth* - women, sudras, hunas, savaras and the birds of the air - can know God and prevail over His deluding power if they follow the conduct of the devoted servants of the Lord, who covers all the worlds by His wonderful strides"

 

(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.7.46).

*papa-jivah literally means sinful or inauspicious living beings. In Kali-yuga this includes almost every last human being. ( Hey, bro that includes me too, honest to God, man! I come from a one of a clan of them low lifers who some how or other landed in a Hare Krishna Temple! )

 

 

 

Vaisnavas cannot be understood even by the wise

 

 

 

 

"The acts and expressions of the Vaisnavas cannot be understood even by the wise." The devotees are attached to the Lord, who pervades the worlds with His wonderful strides. Let us not be misled by appearances. Many people have been liable to mistake the pebble for the pearl, the snake for the rope and evil for good by relying on appearances and thus falling victim to delusion.

 

It is only when a person allows himself to fall into the clutches of self-delusion that his senses show their eagerness to supply him with the cravings incidental to the phenomenal world because he supposes himself to be an inhabitant of the same.We should carefully consider how we will be delivered from being exploited like this by the deluding energy.

 

 

 

"The Slave Mentality "

 

 

 

Adopting the mentality of a lord in order to compensate for our present inadequacies will never bring us relief. Nor will it bring us relief to avoid what certain hasty observers have been pleased to dub "the slave mentality " of the devotees of God. Such modes of thinking accelerate our march towards the inferno by plunging us into the course of sensuous indulgence.

 

[krsna 3]

<TABLE class=contentpaneopen><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width="70%" colSpan=2>"...words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee."

 

Written by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

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Eulogy of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

 

 

It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. Those who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be pursuing the wild goose chase...

 

The mutual admiration society of dupes does not escape, by the mere weight of their number, the misfortunes due to the deliberate pursuit of the wrong course in accordance with the suggestions of our lower selves...

 

Thakura Bhaktivinoda is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the powers of the pure devotee of Godhead.

 

His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers.

 

His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought, the works of Thakura Bhaktivinoda will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

 

The writings of Thakura Bhaktivinoda are valuable because they demolish all empiric objections against accepting the only method of approaching the Absolute in the right way. They cannot and were never intended to give access to the Absolute without help from the pure devotee of Krishna. They direct the sincere enquirer of the truth, as all the revealed scriptures do, to the pure devotee of Krishna to learn about Him by submitting to listen with an open mind to the transcendental sound appearing on his lips.

 

Before we open any of the books penned by Thakura Bhaktivinoda, we should do well to reflect a little on the attitude which serves as the indispensable prerequisite to approach its study. It is by neglecting to remember this fundamental principle that the empiric pedants find themselves so hopelessly puzzled in their vain endeavor to reconcile the statements of the different texts of the scriptures. The same difficulty is already in process of overtaking many of the so-called followers of Thakura Bhaktivinoda and for the same reason...

 

Those who want to understand the contents of the volumes penned by the piecemeal acquisitive method applicable to deluding knowledge available to the mind on the mundane plane, are bound to be self-deceived. Those who are sincere seekers of the truth are alone eligible to find Him, in and through the proper method of His quest.

 

In order to be put on the track of the Absolute, listening to the words of the pure devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken word of the Absolute is the Absolute. It is only the Absolute Who can give Himself away to the constituents of His power. The Absolute appears to the listening ear of the conditioned soul in the form of the name on the lips of the sadhu. This is the key to the whole position.

 

The words of Thakura Bhaktivinode direct the empiric pedant to discard his wrong method and inclination on the threshold of the real quest of the Absolute. If the pedant still chooses to carry his errors into the realm of the Absolute Truth he only marches by the deceptive by-path into the regions of darker ignorance by his arrogant study of the scriptures.

 

The method offered by Thakura Bhaktivinoda is identical with the object of the quest. The method is not really grasped except by the grace of the pure devotee. The arguments, indeed, are these. But they can only corroborate, but can never be a substitute for, the word from the living source of the Truth who is no other than the pure devotee of Krishna, the concrete Personal Absolute.

 

Source:

The Harmonist, Dec. 1931, vol. XXIX No. 6

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[krsna 3]

 

 

Secret of Krsna Consciousness

 

 

This is my favorite story from the biography of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada.

 

"The vice-chancellor of the Benares Hindu University, a very famous man of his time, named Madan Mohan Malaviya came to the Gaudiya Math and had some intricate, philosophical questions to present to Sarasvati Thakura.

 

Sarasvati Thakura said, "I won't answer you, but you should ask the devotees who are washing the arati paraphernalia."

 

The scholar then said, "No. I am asking very difficult questions on Vedanta: They won't be able to answer!"

 

However, Sarasvati Thakura insisted that he go and ask those pujaris, who were cleaning the Deity paraphernalia at that particular time.

 

So, being submissive to the will of Sarasvati Thakura, he went to ask them. When he approached them, they said, "Well now we're busy washing these plates, but please help us, and when we've finished then your question will be solved."

 

Even though he was such a famous, respectable man, he agreed to join in and help do this humble service. After all the brass was cleaned, he returned to Sarasvati Thakura without saying anything more to the pujaris.

 

Sarasvati Thakura then asked him, "Did you get the answer to your questions?"

 

Madan Mohan Malaviya replied, "Yes, even without discussion. When I was helping clean the arati paraphernalia the answers automatically came in my mind."

 

Sarasvati Thakura then replied, "Yes. The philosophy of Krsna consciousness can be understood by a service attitude, not by any amount of intellectualism. 'Sevonmukhe hi jihvado...' Just by reading books and reciting slokas - that won't help you.

 

Serving God will give us all the answers to the questions in the sastras. My guru, Gaura Kisora Das Babaji, was not literate, not a pandit, but all the slokas and siddhantas came to his mouth, because he was sevonmukha - inclined to serve Krsna.":pray:

[Bishadi 0]

 

"Yes. The philosophy of Krsna consciousness can be understood by a service attitude, not by any amount of intellectualism.

 

Wisdom of true caliper!

 

SO no matter how many chants and reflection of guru talks....

 

no matter how many words of stories

 

no matter how well a quote can be returned...

 

none of it matters if the service to existence is not maintained...

 

And precept number one is integrity to representation; nay to honor a guru, a teacher, a book of scripture, intellectually represented; none of these offer the service to existence.

 

Only in servitude to reality, truth and with integrity to all existence can crishna conscious be represented.

 

See the true teacher as one who evolves within compassion!

[krsna 3]

The bona fide method for continuing the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Parampara is given by Sanatana Goswami in the Hari-Bhakti-Vilasa.

 

This book was composed under the direction of Supreme Lord Sri Caitanya the bestower of religious principles for this age of Kali.

 

In the book, a period close mutual examination is prescribed between the prospective guru and prospective disciple.

 

 

The First Vilasa:

<CENTER>Text 74</CENTER>

 

 

The

Mantra-muktavali

instructs,

"The guru and aspiring disciple should live together for a year. They should examine each other to find out their nature, character and compatibility. There is no other way of achieving this

."

 

 

<CENTER>Text 75 </CENTER>

 

 

The

Sruti

states,

"An aspiring disciple who does not stay together with the guru for a year should not be given diksa-mantra by the guru."

 

 

<CENTER>Text 76 </CENTER>

 

 

The

Sarasangraha

also declares,

"The guru should examine an aspiring disciple under his tutelage for a year."

 

 

<CENTER>Text 78</CENTER>

 

 

It is described in the

Krama-dipika

,

"The disciple who is desirous to receive diksa [in the Gopala-mantra] must serve the guru for three years employing his wealth, simplicity of heart, affectionate behaviour, full physical endeavour, gentle speech and favourable attitude with the understanding that the guru is as good as the Supreme Lord. In this manner, when the disciple satisfies his guru, he may beg for diksa."

 

 

[krsna 3]

<CENTER>BHAKTI</CENTER><CENTER>

By

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

 

</CENTER><CENTER></CENTER>Bhakti is often misunderstood. Such misunderstanding may be of different kinds. Those who are very much addicted to the pleasures of the flesh are liable to mistake such pleasure as love of God. Most people nowadays are anxious to acquire wealth and fame and other good things of this world. They often profess appreciation for the religion of love that was preached by Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya.

 

 

 

Bhakti is NOT Bhoga

 

 

Mahaprabhu, as is well known, was opposed to barren asceticism. This attitude of His is much liked by any persons who live a luxurious life. But bhakti or devotion is not bhoga or enjoyment of the pleasures of the senses. There cannot be a greater calumniation of a pure devotee than to call him a worshipper of the goddess of worldly prosperity.

 

The conduct of a devotee is unintelligible to both bhogis (epicureans) and tyagis (ascetics). It is also not less unintelligible to those who study the shastras bythemselves or under teachers who are not true devotees.

 

Few people are sufficiently open-minded to be prepared to recognise the great mercy of Mahaprabhu in rebuking the student, who had studied the shastras under a teacher who had no idea of religion, when the said student, forgetting the propriety of conduct of a kanistha adhikari (neophyte) towards the highest order of devotees, presumed to find fault with the conduct of Mahaprabhu Himself in taking the name of "Gopi" instead of that of Krishna.

 

Similarly Srivas Pandit's conduct in requiring the assistance of a scavenger for removing wine, meat and other articles for the tamasic worship of the goddess of worldly desires, that had been placed at the doorstep of his house by Gopal-Chapal in order to discredit him in the eyes of the people, has also been misunderstood by certain persons who think it is the business of human life to grow rich and live a life of pleasures.

 

 

 

Greatest possible obstacle in attainment of love of God

 

 

The pure devotees, by their sharp rebukes, direct our attention to the gravity of the offence of misunderstanding and misrepresenting the conduct of pure devotees, which is the greatest possible obstacle in the way of the attainment of love of God, although it is liable to be regarded as comparatively trivial by most people, it is, therefore, necessary not to rashly declare such conduct of the pure devotees to be prompted by malice or anger, especially as it is in reality the most unambiguous expression of the highest magnanimity.

 

 

 

 

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(From “Counterpoint”, issue two, as edited by Sriman Devashis Prabhu. No changes to the text have been introduced in this online version.)

[krsna 3]

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada Speaks out:

 

 

"Krsna is most compassionate and one day He will shower His mercy upon us. We have to pray to the holy name, and He will certainly bestow His mercy on us.":pray:

[krsna 3]

 

 

The Service of the Holy Name

 

 

 

The service of holy dham frees one from the jaws of Illusion, the terribly wrong theory that a jiva or creature is himself God and Master, and that there is no existence, except in the human imagination, of the holy Name, Form, Attributes, Pastimes and Paraphernalia of Godhead.

 

The service of Krishna's Desire saves one from the hand of the great foe of hankering for one's own sensuous gratification. One is thereby freed from serving the earthly passions and may be installed in the service of the Desire of the Transcendental Despot, in the singing of the saving hymn of transcendental love. ~

 

from Testimony of Love by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

 

[krsna 3]

 

 

THE BAD DESIRE TO BE GURU

 

 

 

SRILA BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASWATI

THAKUR PRABHUPADA

 

 

 

"It is my Gurudeva who is graciously present

in all different forms. If he were not graciously

present in all of these different forms then who

would preserve me?

 

Those whom my Gurudeva made his own are my saviors. But may I never have occasion to see the face of that wicked person, who is a source of evil, who

maligns the lotus feet of my Sri Gurudeva or

who countenances in any way such a slanderer.

 

The moment I fall away from the lotus feet of

Sri Guru or forget them, I certainly fall away

from the truth. As soon as I fall away from the

lotus feet of Sri Guru I find myself encompassed

by innumerable wants. I run in a hurry for my

bath. I become busy for preventing a cold. I run

after other occupations different from the service

of Sri Gurudeva. It is the lotus feet of Sri

Gurudeva that alone protect me constantly from

all this attachment for objects other than the

truth.

 

If I do not remember the lotus feet of Sri

Guru at the beginning of every new year, every

new month, every new day, and every new moment,

then I am sure to fall into far greater inconveniences.

 

If I do not remember his lotus feet

then the desire will come to dress myself in the

garb of the guru. I will become liable to the bad

desire of seeking to be worshipped by other

people as guru. It is this which constitutes addiction

to things other than the truth.":pray:

 

[krsna 3]

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The Correct Angle of Vision

 

 

 

by

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

(This is a reproduction of a conversation with Major Rana N. J. Bahadur at Armadale, Darjeeling on June 14th, 1935. It was originally published in The Harmonist (Vol. XXXI, No.21) on the 27th of June, 1935.)

Question: I cannot understand this world.

Answer: It is camp life. This world is not our original abode. It is meant for certain purposes. After that we are to proceed to our original home.

This world is not a desirable place. It is not good to be enticed to stay here for a long time, forgetting our original abode. We stay there with Godhead. We are the eternal servants of Godhead. When we decide to lord it over the universe we are allowed these facilities for temporary purposes. They do not serve our eternal purposes.

It would be better to seek for a place where we can find the real peace. Here we are always liable to be disturbed. By these disturbances Providence wants to teach us that world is not our eternal habitation, but that all real peace is to be found in Him.

Being thus troubled we would naturally like to go back to the original place. Life in this world should be conducted peacefully instead of in the spirit of retaliation. We should learn to suffer all these things by submitting to His Holy Wishes. If we do so we may have that very peace here. It is because we are ambitious to dominate that we are brought here.

Conditions here are so that they dovetail the whole position. If we require more than we are allowed, we are in trouble. We should better go back into our own position, to our only Friend. He is the only Resort of all our needs and desires.

But if we take the burden upon ourselves to run into wrong we run into troubles in the shape of our daily transactions. We should not be so tempted. The aesthetic culturer's offers are meant to delude us when they lead us to think this world to be a comfortable place.

All real improvement should lead to Godhead. It should give us all useful things by which to get rid of these temptations. As we are men we should lend our ears to know about the better situation of the transcendental world where the best aspects of the Reality are exhibited.

Here we suffer from the difficulties of our eclipsed vision. It is, therefore, better to look after that region where all sorts of manifestive Nature are in vogue.

The servitors of Godhead will always look to our interest. Here our friends sometimes like us and sometimes they turn against us. But here there is opportunity of hearing about our original home from the lips of persons who are quite familiar with the same. If we neglect the opportunity we shall repent in the long run.

Their words will lift us and change our mentality. All sorts of puzzling questions will be solved if only we give our lending ear to those persons who have very little to do with this world. Our situations in this world are liable to change like fogs and mists. As intelligent men our prudent nature should manage sometimes to hear of the transcendental world and the manifestive nature, instead of being unaccountably diffident. Such incredulous attitude will not give us the opportunity.

This external body will be changed and also our present situations. But we have got a transcendental frame. As soon as we will learn that the transcendental frame is working in us, this mortal coil will cease to trouble.

The people of the West think that the mind is the soul. We differ from them. There exists an ample Indian literature in support of the view that the soul is the proprietor of the mind. The mind is the proxy of the soul to deal with the external world in five different relations as husband and spouse, master and servant, parent and child, as friend and as neutral.

The soul is now enwrapped by some other foreign agency. Body is different from apparel. The soul is enwrapped by the gross and subtle material bodies. They are meant for the use of the soul for a certain period. When the true activity is latented the mind acts with the impetus of the senses alone, covering the soul by the material molecular substances. But the soul is the real entity.

The senses are the working things, some of them for external and some for internal use. Grossness has an attraction for the ordinary run of people. It is meant for such people. Even the so-called philosophers are found to to the slogan that the gross material body should have the preference in all religious affairs of this world (sariram adhyam kalu dharma sadhanam). They are very busy with the gross and subtle material things, ignoring the very health of the soul.

The material things will change. This change sometimes gives us facilities and sometimes hinders our progress. But the soul does not change and cannot be destroyed, although he is susceptible of being covered up by the subtle or abstract form of material grossness in the shape of our passing mentality which is a gift of Maya. She has given us the senses to measure the pleasing things for selfish aggrandisement.

Religious people think they need not gratify the senses which are meant to delude only. As for instance we are liable to be deluded if we suppose the air of the atmosphere to be meant for our enjoyment or for the purpose of giving us temporary pleasures. That very opportunity will be taken away to let us know that is is not meant for our good.

We are liable to be troubled by these impeding agents. Their number will show us that they are more numerous than the things that can give us bliss, the only thing that should be sought. The whole ecstatic centre is in Godhead. All pleasing sensation of this world, if properly judged, is found to hold for temporal purposes only, in order to have our fruits later on. It is the training plane. On this plane we are liable to suppose that everything is meant to serve us. But the real truth is that we are to serve Godhead in the five different capacities.

It is only when we deem it fit to come down to this world to lord it over other finite entities for our enjoyment that our real position happens to be forgot to some extent. This contingency arises when we want to deprive our Lord. That tendency was innate with us. It led us to prefer this temporal region by our own desire. These entanglements will be slowly removed when the true suggestions will come to us on our meeting with persons who are cognisant of our interest.

Optimistic people are apt to avoid such apparently pessimistic thoughts. They prefer to run into the troubles. But we should have the only Resort in the Absolute. Aural reception is the only track that we should follow. We should be prepared to hear how we can live a peaceful life and aspire after eternal bliss from the Absolute who can give it. Unless we submit to Him there is no possibility of getting to the Eternal Region. If we do otherwise we would be multiplying speculations that will only be checks.

Instead of posing as the predominating agent we should pose as predominated agents in order to serve Godhead Who is the Source of all manifestive things; and all activities should tend to Him without hoping for any commercial return. We are Philistians averse to theological thought. We are for making money, earning fame and enjoying pleasures. This is the natural inclination here. All this non-Absolute propaganda is due to aversion to the service of the Absolute.

We should, therefore, lend our ear to the descriptions of Transcendence in order to be able to understand how to get the true fruit of the soul instead of being misled by the mind.

The mind is the proxy of the soul. He is always on the look-out for aggrandising his own interest at the expense of the principal if the latter thinks to pass his days in indolence, when he will be naturally deluded by the mind.

The slumbering soul requires to be roused up. The best use of our intelligence, foresight, desirability, should be to make progress towards the eternal life. Temporal pleasures are bound to trouble us in the long run.

 

[Sarva gattah 0]

 

 

"He had now realized that Krsna is in the heart and that He can do anything, even put an elephant through the eye of a needle Why not? He is God".

 

 

 

Can Krishna and Guru be found within one’s heart? Then sent to find you, no matter where you are?

I remember the amazing story of a boy who went into an old Cathedral in Melbourne on February 18th 1972 to desperately pray to God within his own heart and within the Church for guidance and direction, crying out within, ‘Oh my Lord, please show me the way’.

He had entered that church in a totally helpless condition, prayed, and begged to God to ‘please’ show him the way. He felt totally useless and lost in this world and believed no one on the planet has any real understanding of Spiritual life. He had experienced so many from Christianity, TM, Yogananda, Kahlil Gibran, Mere Baba, and Timothy Leary to Lennon. But something was missing.

What could he do? Who could he turn too as a ‘personal’ guide? He tried so many paths, realizing he was not enlightened enough to just accept God in the heart as his only Guru and guide, he needed someone to be there embodied right in front of him.

He new so many people were already his Guru’s or teacher by showing him so many tasks from day to day in different fields, but there was still something missing, he never had a initiating Spiritual Mater.

There was something not quite right. Something that Books just could never give him that would help him advance to the next stage of Spiritual re-establishment. He needed that personal touch to eulogize the teachings of God he was searching for within his own heart.

So here he was, on his hands and knees in this marvellous old Cathedral praying for guidance, for leadership, for association, for a Spiritual Master. It was during those prayers he heard this low pitched mumbling sound; he looked up and saw a devotee of Krsna standing there looking at religious artefacts.

Something amazing just fell into place for this young boy on that hot Summers day in February 1972, call it intuition or whatever, but he new that God in the heart had answered his prayer for the ‘personal embodied guidance’ of a Spiritual Master that he so desperately needed.

What’s more, the power of God in his heart was a truly amazing experience, that seemed unbelievable, or more to the point, no less than a miracle.

The young Krsna devotee had also left a magazine on the seat; the boy picked it up, found where the Temple was and left the Cathedral knowing exactly what to. The date was February 18 1972.

On arriving at the Temple, he found a festive atmosphere; it was the Appearance day of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Some will say that was a coincidence however, this boy knew from deep within his heart, it was Krsna IN the heart directing him to the most auspicious day of the Vaishnava calendar.

The young boy shaved up that day and moved into the Temple. A week and a half later His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in Melbourne. With tears in eye, the young boy presented Srila Prabhupada with a beautiful red rose at the Melbourne Airport.

This boy also was previously convinced before entering the Cathedral, that an embodied guru just doesn’t exist. He had now realized that Krsna is in the heart and that He can do anything, even put an elephant through the eye of a needle. Why not? He is God.

This means if one looks deep enough within their own heart, believing it necessary to have an embodied Guru instructing them as a prominent initiating teacher above all others, then Krsna, from within the heart, will direct a bonafide Guru to you, WITHOUT A DOUBT.

Remember, the boy never went searching for Krsna, he just prayed to God within his own heart and God sent him Krsna and Guru, twice.

At the Cathedral where he was directed by a devotee (Sharmananda das) to Lord Caitanya’s Appearance day (where he was asked to play the part of Haridas Thakur in a play) and again when Srila Prabhupada, his Guru, came to Melbourne 10 days later.

The point here is the embodiment of Guru does exist if you want. and Krsna will sent him if you want. It all depends on us. If we are convinced we do not need an embodied Guru, then Krsna from within the heart will not send one, as you desire.

But even if you’re in the faraway corner of the planet, if you REALLY want the help and association of an embodied Guru, then Krsna from within the heart WILL send you one.

You couldn’t get a place further away from the rest of the world than down under Melbourne Australia. This young boy never found Prabhupada, Prabhupada came all the way down there and found him.

Although to be satisfied with the Guru in the form of his books can also be very personal and instructing, I just believe some of us need the personal embodied touch of a Guru as well, simply for the purpose of helping us with their personal association and instructions.

This is because we are really not that advanced to do it on our own just with books. That’s how I feel anyway.

Krsna is in the heart that we must NEVER forget.

God’s representative will come to us in the embodied form if we want, if we pray unconditionally, if we learn to have faith in Krsna in the heart. Why not? Why does it have to be Prabhupada? His embodied pastimes on this planet finished in 1977, you don’t think Krsna also has other great devotees here waiting for us to attract them by our helplessness? Do we genuinely feel helpless and materially exhausted like that boy did in the Church?

The young boy in the story previously found many ‘gurus’ but none of them found him. He eventually saw through them all and just kept praying and new His Guru (Prabhupada), who found him eventually, was the answers to his helpless prayers back then 36 years ago

It’s a question of what one really wants. This may mean that one can only accept Prabhupada through his books because of a world in crisis, struggle, and suspicion in this age of Kai-yuga but remember, that has nothing to do with Krsna in our heart.

The material world is always in crisis but the Guru is ALWAYS one and represents Krishna within our own hearts, and is always somewhere externally here on the planet.

Krishna in our hearts is always accompanying us EVERYWHERE, therefore He can also externally manifest here on the planet in the representative form of the Guru – if you really want. That is up to us. And yes, he will appear just like magic, beyond the juvenile meaning of that word.

Trust Krishna in you heart. You do not think He will manifest externally for you no matter how corrupt and fallen this world is?? He will send you His embodied representative to you if you pray and look within you own heart. It is not magic, it is recognising what real reality is, seeing with clear eyes.<?xml:namespace prefix = u1 /><u1:p></u1:p>

The word magic is simply another word for ignorance.<u1:p></u1:p>

<u1:p></u1:p>Look within your own heart and Krishna will respond by sending you an embodied bonafide Guru you can trust to initiate you and take you back home back to Godhead.

Krsna WILL send His embodied initiating Guru when we are ready, when we need such association and the personal embodied guidance to help us understand and then initiates us into the guru-shishya parampara

Copied from Gauragopala dasa ACBSP

[krsna 3]

 

 

No Compromise!

 

 

 

"If I were to desist from lecturing about the Absolute Truth due to fear

that some listeners may be displeased, I would be deviating from the path of

Vedic truth and accepting the path of untruth. I would become one who is

inimical to the Vedas, an atheist, and would no longer possess faith in

Bhagavan, the very embodiment of truth. He who compromises is finished."

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

[krsna 3]

http://therealexplanation.org/article/pref_initiate.html

The ceremony of diksha or initiation is that by which the spiritual Preceptor admits one to the status of a neophyte on the path of spiritual endeavour. The ceremony tends to confer spiritual enlightenment by abrogating sinfulness. Its actual effect depends on the degree of willing co-operation on the part of the disciple and is, therefore, not the same in all cases. It does not preclude the possibility of reversion on the novice to the non-spiritual state, if he slackens in his effort or misbehaves. Initiation puts a person on the true track and also imparts an initial impulse to go ahead.

 

It cannot, however, keep one going for good unless one chooses to put forth his own voluntary effort. The nature of the initial impulse also varies in accordance with the condition of the recipient. But although the mercy of the good preceptor enables us to have a glimpse of the Absolute and of the path of His attainment, the seed that is thus sown requires very careful tending under the direction of the preceptor, if it is to germinate and grow into the fruit-and-shade-giving tree. Unless our soul of his own accord chooses to serve Krishna after obtaining a working idea of his real nature, he cannot long retain the Spiritual Vision. The soul is never compelled by Krishna to serve Him.

But initiation is never altogether futile. It changes the outlook of the disciple on life. If he sins after initiation, he may fall into greater depths of degradation than the un-initiated. But although even after initiation temporary set-backs may occur, they do not ordinarily prevent the final deliverance. The faintest glimmering of the real knowledge of the Absolute has sufficient power to change radically and for good the whole of our mental and physical constitution and this glimmering is incapable of being totally extinguished except in extraordinarily unfortunate cases.

It is undoubtedly practicable for the initiated, if only he is willing, to follow the directions of the preceptor that lead by slow degrees to the Absolute. The good preceptor is verily the savior of fallen souls. It is, however, very rarely that a person with modern culture feels inclined to submit to the guidance of another specially in spiritual matters. But the very person submits readily enough to the direction of a physician for being cured of his bodily ailments. Because these latter cannot be ignored without consequences that are patent to everybody.

 

The evil that results from our neglect of the ailments of the soul is of a nature that paralyses and deludes our understanding and prevents the recognitions of itself. Its gravity is not recognized as it does not apparently stand in the way of our worldly activities with the same directness as the other. The average cultured man is, therefore, at liberty to ask questions without realizing any pressing necessity of submitting to the treatment of spiritual maladies at the hands of a really competent physician.

The questions that are frequently asked are as these: ‘Why should it be at all necessary to submit to any particular person or to to any particular ceremony for the purpose of realizing the Absolute Who by His nature in unconditioned? Why should Krishna require our formal declaration of submission to Himself? Would it not be more generous and logical to permit us to live a life of freedom in accordance with the principles of our perverted nature which is also His creation. Admitting that it is our duty to serve Krishna, why should we have to be introduced to Him by a third party? Why is it impossible for one to serve Sri Krishna directly?’ It would no doubt be highly convenient and helpful to be instructed by a good preceptor who is well-versed in the Scriptures in understanding the same. But one should never submit to another to an extent that may furnish a rascal with an opportunity of really doing harm. The bad preceptor is a familiar character. It is inexplicable how those gurus who live in open sin contrive nevertheless to retain the unquestioning allegiance of the cultured portion of their disciples.

Such being the case, can we blame any person who hesitates to submit unconditionally to a preceptor, whether he is good or bad? It is of course necessary to be quite sure of the bonafide of a person before we accept him even tentatively as our spiritual guide. A preceptor should be a person who appears likely to possess those qualities that will enablemhim it improve our spiritual condition.

Those and similar thoughts are likely to occur to most persons who havereceived an English education, when they are asked to accept the help of any particular person as his spiritual preceptor. The literature, science and art of the West, body forth themprinciple of the liberty of the individual and denounce the mentality that leads one to surrender tohowever superior a person his right of choosing his own course. They inculcate the necessity and high value of having faith in oneself.

But the good preceptor claims our sincere and complete allegiance. The good disciple makes a complete surrender of himself at the feet of the preceptor. But the submission of the disciple is neither irrational or blind. It is complete on condition that the preceptor himself continues to be altogether good. The disciple retains the right of renouncing his allegiance to the preceptor the moment he is satisfied that the preceptor is a fallible creature like himself. Nor does a good preceptor accept any one as his disciple unless the latter is prepared to submit to him freely. A good preceptor is in duty bound to renounce a disciple who is not sincerely willing to follow his instructions fully. If a preceptor accepts as his disciple one who refuses to be wholly guided by him, or if a disciple submits to a preceptor who is not wholly good, such preceptor and such disciple are, both of them, doomed to fall from their spiritual state.

No one is a good preceptor who has not realised the Absolute. One who has realised the Absolute is saved from the necessity of walking on the worldly path. The good preceptor who lives the spiritual life is, therefore, bound to be wholly good. He should be wholly free from any desire for anything of this world whether good or bad. The categories of good and bad do not exist in the Absolute. In the Absolute everything is good. We can have no idea in our present state of this absolute goodness. Submission to the Absolute is not real unless it is also itself absolute. It is on the plane of the Absolute that the disciple is required to submit completely to the good preceptor. On the material plane there can be no such thing as complete submission. The pretence of complete submission to the bad preceptor is responsible for the corruptions that are found in the relationship of the ordinary worldly guru and his equally worldly-minded disciples.

All honest thinkers will realise the logical propriety of the position set forth above. But most persons will be disposed to believe that a good preceptor in the above sense may not be found in this world. This is really so. Both the good preceptor and his disciple belong to the spiritual realm. But spiritual discipleship is nevertheless capable of being realised by persons who belong to this world. Otherwise there wold be no religion at all in the world. But because the spiritual life happens to be realizable in this world it does not follow that it is the worldly existence which is capable of being improved into the spiritual. As a matter of fact the one is perfectly incompatible with the other. They are categorically different from one another. The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence.

The much vaunted individual liberty is a figment of the diseased imagination. We are bound willingly or unwillingly to submit to the laws of God in the material as well as in the spiritual world. The hankering for freedom in defiance of His laws is the cause of all our miseries. The total abjuration of all hankering for such freedom is the condition of admission to the spiritual realm. In this world we desire this freedom but are compelled against our will to submit to the inexorable laws of physical nature. This is the unnatural state. Such unwilling for forced submission does not admit us into the spiritual realm. In this world the moral principle, indeed claims our willing submission. But even morality also is a curtailment of freedom necessitated by the peculiar circumstances of this world. The soul who does not belong to this world is in a state of open or court rebellion against submission to an alien domination. It is by his very constitution capable of submitting willingly only to the Absolute.

The good preceptor asks the struggling soul to submit not to the laws of this world which will only rivet its chains but to the higher law of the spiritual realm. The pretence of submission to the laws of the spiritual realm without the intention of really carrying them out into practice is often mistaken for genuine submission by reason of the absence of fullness of conviction. In this world the fully convinced state is non-existent. We are, therefore, compelled in all cases to act on make-believes viz. the so-called working hypotheses. The good preceptor tells us to change this method of activity which we have learnt from our experience of this world. He invites us first of all to be really and fully informed of the nature and laws of the other world which happens to be eternally and categorically different from this phenomenal world. If we do not sincerely submit to be instructed in the alphabets of the life eternal but go on perversely asserting however unconsciously our present processes and so-called convictions against the instructions of the preceptor in the period of novitiate we are bound to remain where we are. This also will amount to the practical rejection of all advice because the two worlds have nothing in common though at the same time we naturally fail to understand this believing all the time in accordance with our accustomed methods that we are at any rate partially following the preceptor. But as a matter of fact when we reserve the right of choice we really follow ourselves, because evenwhen we seem to agree to follow the preceptor it is because he appears to be in agreement withourselves. But as the two worlds have absolutely nothing in common we are only under a delusion when we suppose that we really understand the method or the object of the preceptor or in other words reserve the right of assertion of the apparent self. Faith in the scriptures can alone help us in this otherwise unpracticable endeavour. We believe in the preceptor with the help of the shastras when we understand neither. As soon as we are fully convinced of the necessity of submitting unambiguously to the good preceptor it is then and only then that he is enabled to show us the way into the spiritual world in accordance with the method laid down in the shastras of that purpose which he can apply properly and without perpetrating a fatal blunder in as much as he himself happens to belong to the realm of the spirit.

The crux of the matter lies not in the external nature of the ceremony of initiation as it appears to us because that is bound to be unintelligible to us being an affair of the other world, but in the conviction of the necessity and the successful choice of a really good preceptor. We can attain to the conviction of the necessity of the help of a good preceptor by the exercise of our unbiased reason in the light of our ordinary experience. When once this conviction has been truly formed Sri Krishna Himself helps us in finding the really good preceptor in two ways. In the first place he instructs us as regards the character and functions of a good preceptor through the revealed Shastras. In the second place He Himself sends to us the good preceptor himself at the moment when we are at all likely to benefit by his instructions.

 

The good preceptor also comes to us when we reject him. In such cases also it is certainly Krishna Who sends him to us for no reason what-so-ever. Krishna has revealed from eternity the tidings of the spiritual realm in the form of transcendental sounds that have been handed down in the records of the spiritual Scriptures all over the world. The spiritual Scriptures help all those who are prepared to exercise this reason for the purpose of finding not the relative but the Absolute Truth to find out the proper instructor in accordance with their directions. The only good preceptor is he who can make us really understand the spiritual scriptures and they enable us realise the necessity and the nature of submission to the processes laid down in them. But there is still every chance of foul play.

A very clever man or a magician may pass himself off as a person who can properly explain the Scriptures by means of his greater knowledge or deceptive arts. It is very important, therefore, that we should be on our guard against such tricks. The Scholar as well as the magician pretend to explain the Scriptures only in terms of the object or happenings of this world. But the Scriptures themselves declare that they do not tell us at all of the thing of this world. Those who are liable to be deluded by the arts of pervert yogis who persuade themselves into believing that the spiritual is identical with the perversion, distortion or defiance of the laws of physical nature. The laws of physical nature are not unreal. They govern the relation of all relative existences(.)

 

In our present state it is therefore, always possible for another who possesses the power or the knowledge to demonstrate the merely tentative character of what we choose to regard as our deepest convictions by exposing their insufficiency or inapplicability. But such surprises as they belong to the realm of the phenomenal, have nothing to do with the Absolute. Those who have an unspiritual partiality for scholarship or for magic fall into the clutches of the pseudo-religionists. The serious plight of these victims of their own perversity will be realised from the fact that no one can be delivered from the state of ignorance by the method of compulsion. It is not possible to save the man who refuses on principle to listen to the voice of reason. The empiric pedants are no exception to this rule.

The plain meaning of the Shastras should, therefore, be our only guide in the search of the good preceptor when we actually feel the need of his guidance. The Scriptures have defined the good preceptor as one who himself leads the spiritual life. It is not any worldly qualifications that make the good preceptor. It is by unreserved submission to such a preceptor that we can be helped to reenter into the realm that is our real home but which unfortunately is veritable terra incognita to almost all of us at present and also impossible of access to one body and mind alike which is the result of the disease of abuse of our faculty of free reason and the consequent accumulation of a killing load of worldly experiences which we have learnt to regard as the very stuff of our existence.

Nitya-lila Om Visnupada 108 Srila Prabhupada Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

[AncientMariner 0]

Never met Prabhupada but I can tell from reading his books that he was most likely a very pleasant fellow even if he did say some deragatory things about women and homosexuals or get some scientific stuff backwards or whatever.

[krsna 3]

Question: What is the difference between shanti and ananda (peace and bliss)?

Answer: Impersonalists think that Godhead should offer a neuter race. Buddha thought cessation of perception at the end. Sankaracharya argued that Godhead should have no form at all, that there should not be any sexological question in regard to Him, that everyone should go back to the Absolute, that there should be no difference between the individual soul and Godhead, the three situations of the Observed, observer and observation being merged into one viz., the Brahma who is full of joy and at the same time void of joy, there being no distinction between the two.

 

The third school is the devotional school. According to this school whatever we find here such as trees, rivers, hills, etc., are all present in the transcendental world. Here we have only screened entities and sometimes miss the sparks of the Reality.

Question: Why does the study of Philosophy not give me peace now?

Answer: Because we choose to stick to the miserable situation and do not pay attention to Godhead.

 

<CENTER> </CENTER>

(This is a reproduction of a conversation with Major Rana N. J. Bahadur at Armadale, Darjeeling on June 14th, 1935. It was originally published in The Harmonist (Vol. XXXI, No.21) on the 27th of June, 1935. This reproduction is not edited, except for a few ortographical changes.

[AncientMariner 0]

All glories to the Godhead, apparently even Sankaracarya was just messing with the peoples at the order of Krishna in order to create more and more unwanted population.

[krsna 3]

 

 

Positive Spiritual Function

 

 

"...there is a positive and concrete function of the pure soul which should not be perversely confounded with any utilitarian form of worldly activity.

 

Mankind stands in need of that positive spiritual function of which the hypocritical impersonalists are in absolute ignorance. The positive function of the soul harmonises the claims of extreme selfishness with those of extreme self-abnegation in the society of pure souls even in this mundane world. In its concrete realisable form the function is perfectly inaccessible to the empiric understanding. Its imperfect and misleading conception alone is available by the study of the Scriptures to the conditioned soul that is not helped by the causeless grace of the pure devotees of Godhead.

 

-Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada,

The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6

[krsna 3]

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...from Sri Caitanya's Teachings -

Colloquies with Foreigners

-by

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We believe there is a Personality of Godhead and also that we are persons.We want all our troublesome situations removed and wish to reach a position where we can move freely and have all our needs satisfied. This has resulted in our turning towards that Supreme Absolute Personality.

 

In the Supreme Lord we find three features - He is ever existing, full of knowledge and the source of unending happiness. In Him there is no inadequacy, no discrepancy, no defect, no influence of time, nor any ignorance.

 

Because He is an "emporium" of all bliss and all knowledge, we should not seek after anything for our worldly purposes, leaving Him aside. We are His servants. He is the Lord. Nevertheless He need not give us anything. We are simply meant to serve Him and eternal peace comes from our eagerness in His service.

 

God has got spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, spiritual tongue, spiritual nose, spiritual skin and a spiritual mind: nothing material like us. Our senses are made of material elements, but there are no material elements in Him.

 

Although He can choose to delegate power to certain infintessimal souls and thereby enable them to transact affairs with Him, ordinarily we are placed in a region where all sorts of imperfection and undesirables are prominent.

From this bitter experience, we should recognize the need to devise some means to get free from unpleasant situations and become prepared for the stage wherefrom we can realize the nature of our own true selves.

 

-9th of January 1926

 

 

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[krsna 3]

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

 

 

Appreciate the beauty of the lotus-feet of God's devotees

 

 

" The root of it all is humility or the due realization of one's own ineligibility. If the conviction of our own unfitness for the service of God is revealed to us, either automatically, or by the instruction of others, only then are we in a position to appreciate the beauty of the lotus-feet of God's devotees."

 

 

 

---

 

If we worship God and disregard the worship of His devotees...???

 

 

 

" If we become arrogant after having adopted the path of devotion, If we worship God and disregard the worship of His devotees, we would be put into manifold difficulties for our offfence at the feet of the servants of God. We would be overtaken by the greatest of all misfortunes, by becoming afflicted with apathy for the principle of devotion itself.":pray:

[krsna 3]

The Scienctific Truth of Guru

 

 

 

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

 

 

Sri Guru-Tattva and Seva

 

 

Excerpts from a lecture delivered by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada on January 28th, 1931, in Mayapura Dhama, India.

 

 

A Golden Opportunity to Serve Collectively

 

 

Today I have an opportunity to worship my Sri Gurudeva (Srila Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji Maharaja). Last year, also, I had the good fortune of worshiping him, and today that auspicious occasion has come again. By the mercy of Bhagavan, I had the fortune of being able to serve Srila Gurudeva for another year. If Srila Gurudeva had wanted to deprive me of service to him, I would not have survived this past year. Since I have been granted this one year, I must again, today, contemplate whether I have properly taken advantage of that opportunity and served him accordingly.

 

 

Srila Gurudeva said that we shall collectively engage in the service of Bhagavan. He used the word “we” which means he was not referring to one person alone. Many persons egotistically profess, “I am Bhagavan’s exclusive servant” or “I have been selected to perform a particular service to Him because no one else is qualified to do it.” But Srila Gurudeva’s words issue from a heart melted with loving compassion: “Come! Let us forget our tendency to block each other’s spiritual progress; this is violence. Service to Bhagavan is superior to all else.”

 

 

By saying “superior to all else” he is not implying, “No one can do this service but me; I will not allow anyone else to do it.” My Srila Gurupadapadma’s nature contains no such violence.

 

 

 

Humbly Praying for Help

 

 

“Bahubhirmilitva yat kirtanam tadaiva sankirtanam – sankirtana means congregational chanting.”

 

 

Glorification and prayers are included in sankirtana. From an external perspective, one who offers stuti (Vedic prayers) holds a lower position than the object of the prayers. A third party however, can best understand the glories of a person by hearing his prayers.

 

 

Sri Gaurasundara explained that to genuinely call out for Bhagavan, one has to more humble than a blade of grass (trnad api sunicena). We cannot cry out for someone until we have accepted our own insignificance in relation to that person. We beg for assistance when we are forced to acknowledge our helplessness.

 

Whenever we find ourselves incapable of completing a task on our own, we are left with no choice but to seek another’s help. Alone I cannot complete a task that requires five people to accomplish.

 

 

Sri Gaurasundara has instructed us to genuinely cry out for Bhagavan, which means He has urged us to solicit Sri Bhagavan for help. This we have heard from Srila Gurudeva. However if I cry out to Him with the intention of involving Him in service to me, or if I petition Him for the purpose of accomplishing any task, my cries lack the real humility of trnad api sunicena.

 

Real humility is never found in an external show of humility, which is actually mere duplicity. Calling out to Bhagavan in the mood of being His master, expecting Him to obey like a servant, is ineffective. He does not hear such a call because He is supremely independent and fully conscious. Consequently, He is not controlled by anyone. Until a person’s egoism establishes roots in sincere, non-duplicitous humility, his prayers will not reach Bhagavan, who is fully independent.

 

A person who is more humble than a blade of grass may cry out to Bhagavan, but unless he is endowed with the qualities of patience and tolerance, his calling out will still not bare fruit. If we show impatience by hankering after our own interests, our behavior is in direct opposition to the mood of trnad api sunicena. If we are fully confident that Bhagavan is the Complete Being, and that our calling out to Him will never result in scarcity, we will not experience any dearth of patience.

 

But if I become greedy, intolerant and restless, and if I remain adamant that I will accomplish my task on the strength of my own ability and competence, I will not be able to call out to Bhagavan in the true sense.

 

If we are excessively vain, we cannot properly call out to Him. And also if we try to annihilate our real self-interest, then we will not be able to cry out to Bhagavan properly. Often, I think that I am obliging Him by my prayers, and therefore I engage in other activities in which I don’t need to ask for His help. This mentality also indicates the absence of tolerance.

We therefore require a guardian to save us from such tendencies until we become qualified to sincerely pray in the mood of trnad api sunicena. His shelter and support are necessary to shield us from such unfavourable inclinations. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura says: “asraya laiya bhaje, tanre krsna nahi tyaje, ara sabe mare akarana – one who performs bhajana under the shelter of personalities who are the abode of love for Krsna, is not neglected by Krsna; everyone else lives in vain.”