Reading Srila Prabhupada Straight: Is there a formula?

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna,

 

There is no formula that guarantees going back to Godhead.

 

-- Is following the orders of the guru enough? Not unless one follows all

the orders. If one follows selected orders, then the service may not be

enough. If one follows the orders, but has a tinge of personal desire, he is

not perfect in following orders.

 

-- One may follow orders, rules, regulations, but if one does not have

the mercy of Guru and Krishna, he can never obtain love of God. There is no

way to guarantee mercy. Mercy is causeless and cannot obtained through any

action. We should act so as to deserve mercy, but we cannot demand it in

exchange for faithful service.

 

-- If one follows even 99% of the orders of the spiritual master, but

offends Vaishnavas, he can never become elevated.

 

-- Following orders must be accompanied by development of love of God in

order to reach fruition.

 

-- We cannot serve Krishna except if we are pure. However, the spiritual

master can accept our impure service and offer it to Krishna. It that way

our service becomes pure. Prabhupada once told the pujaris, "You are not

serving Krishna. I am serving Krishna and you are assisting me."

 

-- Prabhupada once said the reason we are given spiritual names is so at

the time of death, if we can only remember our names, we will go back to

Godhead.

 

I'm not trying to take a side in the "works versus faith" issue. I only

want to point out that no formula can be applied to everyone. We are

eternally individuals, Srila Prabhupada is an individual, and so is Sri

Krishna. Developing our eternal relationships is, in the end, a highly

personal process. We each need to take personal responsibility for doing the

needful, while remembering, "All paths do not lead to the same destination."

 

Your servant,

Sri Rama das

 

[srirama (AT) bbt (DOT) se], or

[srirama (AT) reachme (DOT) net]

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