From Sri Guru and His Grace p.1

[Guest guest]

Slaves of the Truth

 

We are slaves of the truth. We are beggars for the pure current of truth

that is constantly flowing: the fresh current. We are not charmed by any

formality. I will bow down my head wherever I find the river of nectar

coming down to me. When one is conscious that the Absolute Truth is

descending to him from the highest domain, he will think, "I must surrender

myself here."

Mahaprabhu says to Ramananda Raya, kiba vipra, kiba nyasi, sudra kene naya,

yei krsna-tattva vetta sei guru haya. "Wherever the truth appears, wherever

the nectar of divine ecstasy descends, I shall offer myself as a slave. That

is my direct concern." Whatever form it takes doesn't matter much; the form

has some value, but if there is any conflict, the inner spirit of a thing

should be given immense value over its external cover. Otherwise, if the

spirit has gone away, and the bodily connection gets the upper hand, our

so-called spiritual life becomes sahajiya, a cheap imitation.

When we are conscious of the real substance of Krsna consciousness, the real

wealth we are receiving from our spiritual master, then our spiritual life

cannot be sahajiyaism, imitationism. We must be aware enough to detect our

guru's advice when we find it in another. One who is awake will see, "Here

is my guru's advice, I find it here in this man. Somehow or other, it has

come here. How, I do not know, but I see my guru's characteristics, his

dealings, and behavior in this person." When we are able to recognize a

thing for its intrinsic value, then, wherever we find it, we cannot neglect

it.

 

***

 

One Krsna in Many Gurus

 

We must have the vision to recognize the presence of our guru's temperament.

Mahaprabhu says madhavendra purira sambandha dhara jani. When Mahaprabhu met

the Sanodiya brahmana, upon seeing his movements, he at once detected that

this brahmana must have some connection with Madhavendra Puri. He said,

"Without his connection, I could never find such symptoms of transcendental

ecstasy. It must come from Madhavendra Puri." So, we must know Krsna

consciousness in Truth. It is said acaryam mam vijaniyan, the spiritual

master is not to be differentiated. One thing is coming down from the

Supreme Lord, so the oneness of continuity is not to be ignored. Guru can be

here; guru can be in another body also. The same teacher may come in a

different body to inspire us; he may come to give us new hope and higher

education. The substance should always be given a higher value than the

form.

First understand the degree of purity in Krsna consciousness. The followers

of form are only imitationists; they want only to exploit Mahaprabhu and not

to serve him. They are our worst enemies. They are traitors; they have taken

the garb of Mahaprabhu's sampradaya, and they are saying something bogus.

This is cheap marketing; they are extensively selling adulterated things

very cheaply. They have no inner necessity to attain the purest thing

(pujala ragapatha gaurava-bange). Although he was such an exalted Vaisnava,

our guru maharaja never presented himself as a great devotee. He always used

to say, "I am a servant of the servant of the Vaisnavas." That was his

claim. And he would say, "The higher devotees are my guru, they are so

exalted." First come and practice all these things, and then you can hope to

reach the goal. It is not so easy, or so cheap. "Out of many liberated

persons, a pure devotee of Lord Krsna is extremely rare." (koti-mukta-madhye

'durlabha' eka krsna-bhakta).

Krsna consciousness is an internal thing, and those who cannot see the

internal truth will make much of the external cover. We do not support that.

Rather we are interested in the real spirit. All the opposing elements who

are interested in externals cannot touch us. Dogs may bark, but the barking

of a dog has no importance. Because they make so much of the outer thing,

they have no real purification of the heart to accept the pure thing, to

discriminate what is purity, or what is love of Godhead, prema, after which

even Brahma and Mahadeva aspire.

 

***

 

Guru Is Not a Doll

 

But at the same time we offer reverence to gurudeva, we must not conceive

that the guru is a doll, a lifeless figure. Because we are familiar with a

particular figure and accept that as our guru we should not become misled.

The important thing is what he says, his instructions. That is attracting

our inner hearts. I am not this body. I am the inquirer. That thing which is

satisfying me, drawing the inquirer to the inquired - I must try to locate

that thing in him. I must not rely on material calculation. I am not this

body. Who am I, the disciple? Am I only this body, this figure, this color,

this caste? Or am I this temperament, this scholarship and intellectualism?

No. I am he who has come to seek. Who is the party within me, and who is the

party in guru? We must be fully awake to that. What is the inner thing? I

have come for that. We must be awake to our own interest. There is the

relative principle and the absolute principle. We shall have to eliminate

the form, ignore the form; we shall always have to keep the spirit.

Otherwise, we become form worshipers, idol worshipers.

 

Guru: More than Meets the Eye

 

It is said, of course, that the connection with the spiritual master is

eternal (caksudana dilo yei, janme janme prabhu sei). But we must not

identify our guru with the appearance we perceive with our physical senses.

Our inner identification of him will be clarified according to the growth of

our vision. When our vision increases and takes shape from material to

transcendental, his look will also change accordingly.

A man is sometimes known most externally, by his uniform, and then by his

body, then by his mind, then by his intelligence. As much as our eye will

develop to see things rightly, what we are seeing will also change its face.

Krsna says, acaryam mam vijaniyan, "Ultimately it is I who am the acarya."

It is the function of divinity, and in different stages there may be

different forms. Different acaryas may work at the same time.

The knowledge, the ideal, is growing from subtle to gross. And the depth of

the vision of the eye will disclose the different figures of the different

acaryas. It will go in different rasas to the highest position, by a gradual

process of realization. Otherwise our knowledge will be based on the

material conception. And to force the material conception onto divinity is a

crime, it is ignorance, it is erroneous.

We have to free ourselves from the snare of identifying reality with the

physical form presented to our senses. The eyes deceive us; they cannot give

us the proper form or color. The ears cannot give us the proper sound. The

concrete reality is beyond the experience of our senses. So, then what is

that thing? Because we are in such a low position, we can gradually go there

to the inner world only with the help of our guru.

But how can we recognize our guru? Sometimes in the winter he wears a

particular dress, and in the summer he wears another dress. If we attach so

much importance to the external dress, then what should we do? Should we

think that the dress is indispensable to the body? The guru may come to us

in a particular body. Suppose the guru appears as a young man. When he has

become an old man, and the young form has grown into another form, how are

we to recognize him? How are we to differentiate? Again, in one birth, he

may have come in a particular body, and another time, he may appear in a

different body. The same guru may appear differently at different times. How

are we to recognize him? From the external consideration we must go to the

internal.

If I am devoid of flesh and blood, and I exist only in a subtle body, then I

shall also find my guru there, in a subtle body. The demigods, gandharvas,

and siddhas, the perfected beings in the heavenly planets, also have their

gurus, but they do not have a material body, nor does their guru have a

material body.

So, by eliminating the external conception, we have to enter into the

internal, and that will be all-important to a progressive disciple. That

does not mean that one should disregard the physical form of our guru. But

the real importance is within. We must worship the remnants of the guru, his

coat, his boot, his sandal. But that does not mean that his shoe is superior

to his body; we must serve his person. In a similar way, if we are eager to

do some physical service for him, if we want to massage his feet, but he

does not desire that, and says, "No, no, no," then should we do that? Our

internal obedience to him will be higher. In this way, we have to make

progress from the gross to the subtle.

Who is guru? Where is he to be located? What is his ideal? What does he

really want me to do? These things must not be dismissed from our ears. We

must not give only formal adherence. We want the spiritual way. The

spiritual man is going to the spiritual world to have the spiritual

realization. It is all a spiritual transaction. And all conceptions of

mundane, whether physical, mental, or intellectual, should be eliminated in

our journey if we want to go to the inner world of substance.