Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Is he?... or is he not?

[krsna]

Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Is he?... or is he not?

 

The following is from a lecture given at ISKCON Bhubaneswar:

 

 

 

Devotees are bewildered in trying to understand who is a real sadhu Guru. We should first ask ourselves, How much faith do we have in Krsna? and then, How serious are we in wanting to fully surrender to Krsna? If we do not have sufficient faith in Krsna and are not prepared to completely surrender to Krsna, there is no question of Krsna revealing Himself to us in the form of sadhu Guru. If we don’t really want Krsna or have little to no faith in Krsna, why should we think that Krsna will reveal Himself to us as Guru? Krsna says in Gita, "I don’t reveal myself before everyone and anyone, only to those who approach me with a sincere desire to render loving service". We are not the seers, we are to be seen. In other words, Krsna reveals Himself to us, by His own sweet will, when He is convinced by our sincere and serious prayers in wanting to surrender and serve Him and to love Him.

 

One who sincerely wants Krsna can recognize a bona fide Guru and deserves a bona fide Guru. The bona fide Guru’s responsibility is to qualify us to get Krsna. If we are not serious and sincere for getting Krsna, why would Krsna send us a real Guru whose only job is to bring us to… Krsna. If we don’t really want Krsna, why should we think that Krsna will send us a bona fide Guru or that we can recognize who is a bona fide sadhu Guru. So to think that we can recognize Krsna or Krsna manifesting as a bona fide sadhu Guru without first making a faithful decision to want to completely surrender to Krsna is, "putting the cart before the horse". To try and measure or to try and understand who is a real bona fide sadhu Guru without meeting these pre- qualifications is a complete waste of time, Sri Guru and Krsna will keep themselves hidden.

 

Whenever anyone asks me to explain to them how to recognize a bona fide sadhu Guru, I always first ask them, "How badly do you want to surrender and serve Krsna and are you willing to pay any price to get Krsna?" If they are serious and sincere in wanting Krsna and are prepared to fully surrender to Krsna, only then can they be completely sure that Krsna will send them a bona fide Guru. Krsna will never cheat a sincere and serious soul who is looking to surrender and to serve Him faithfully. Otherwise, they do not deserve a bona fide Guru sent by Krsna, rather they get maya and a guru sent by maya. They are cheating and therefore deserve to get cheated. If we have been cheated, it only means we deserved to be cheated. Because we were not so serious and sincere, Krsna did not give us the buddhi yogam, the intelligence and therefore we got cheated. Hopefully we learn from that experience(s) or else, we will have to repeat these steps again and again until we learn this valuable lesson, until we get the point.

 

After suffering and being disappointed and thus cheated we will approach Krsna in a much deeper and intense way, praying, crying from the heart, not to have to be cheated again. We will then pray for a real, bona fide Guru sent by Krsna. If we are sincere and we are willing to now do what is required to get Krsna, Krsna will send us a bona fide Guru, a sadhu Guru.

 

Without making these mistakes (accepting a guru sent by maya) and suffering as a result, how will we learn that we have to be much more serious and sincere in getting Krsna and thus deserving a bona fide Guru. Do we think it is so easy and cheap to get Guru and Krsna? We can do any nonsense and expect Krsna to send us a real sadhu Guru, or to be able to recognize who is sadhu Guru?

 

Trying to recognize or measure Krsna or a bona fide Guru without first being convinced of one’s own sincere desire to want to come to Krsna is useless. We have to be serious and sincere for wanting Krsna, if we are not, we will never be able to recognize Krsna manifesting as sadhu Guru. This is most important to understand. How to recognize a sadhu Guru is nicely described and answered in the following Srimad Bhagavatam lecture given by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja.

From SB 8.22.34 Lecture, Bbsr. 13.3.93, by Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja:

 

"All of them, all vaishnavas, great devotees, in Bhagavatam many places you will find such glorification of sadhu sanga. But in the material world the material existence, all people are very proud of their own senses. They want to see sadhus with their material senses, material eyes with material vision. If you ask them, "Oh bhai, Oh my brother, why are you not coming for sadhu sanga?" They reply, "Oh, I cannot see a sadhu. Where is sadhu? I cannot see. I cannot find. I want that thing [a sadhu]. Yes, I am in search of a sadhu. I am searching, searching after it. Yes, I am going on searching." They rely on their own senses. What do they do? They are only finding faults with sadhus. Not seeing the good qualities with sadhus. Because they have such material vision and mentality, they say they are "going, going on, and searching. The day will come when I will get one, a real pure sadhu." But you should understand that these types of persons are impersonalists. They only pretend, they only pose that they are doing bhakti-sadhana. But they are great impersonalists, great pretenders.

 

You are all ready living on the banks of the Ganges, but are so foolish you are trying to dig a well on the bank of the Ganges to get water. Digging some little and the water is not coming out, "no water is available in this place, lets dig in another place." And water is not available there, "lets go to another place." Just moving from here to there, here to there and digging wells on the bank of the Ganges. Digging on the bank of the Ganges looking for water , so foolish. So what is the consequence, what will you get? You cannot get Ganges water, you cannot get any water. You will die out of thirst. This is their lot. I said, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. They say this thing. This is nirvisesvadi. This is the consequence of these impersonalists.

 

Bhaktivinoda Thakur therefore says pure sadhus are always there in the world. If there would not have been this sun and the moon in the world, how could the world go on? Similarly, if there would not have been sadhus here, how this Krishna’s samsara will be there? Sadhus are always there, always present, but those who are asadhus they cannot recognize a sadhu. They have no vision to recognize a sadhu, therefore they say, "Oh, I am searching but I cannot find one." They say so.

 

Again Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has said : "In life we meet many sadhus. But due to our duplicitous dealings, we cannot get any benefit by association of sadhus." This is a most important thing. Such people think that, "we have an instrument in our hand. Like a goldsmith has a stone to test the gold." You test gold with that stone. You just rub it and some marks are there and then he puts some chemicals there to test. Then he can understand whether it is pure gold or impure gold. And these people think that, "we have such a stone in our hand and with that, we can examine the sadhu, test him. Then we can accept him."

 

All right if you have such instrument in your hand, why are you engaged in creating something and again destroying it? Why have you been deluded? Why have you been cheated? Why have you become the das of your mind? If you have such an instrument, stone, in your hand, why today you build something and then tomorrow you destroy it. Why are you going on like this? Why are you are so fickle? You are not fixed in the siddhanta. If you have this instrument in your hand, then why are you in misconception of the pure siddhanta? Tell me, why is your mind oscillating? Your mind is not fixed, dusta mana, stupid mind rascal mind. Why is it not fixed? Always oscillating. So fickle mind. Why do you have such a fickle mind, if you have such instrument in you hand. You think you can test, examine a sadhu?

 

But those who are simple hearted persons, no duplicity in their heart, they are always crying how to get real sadhu sanga. They have developed such greed for it. Krishna, who is there in the heart, He knows this thing. He then makes all arrangements for one to meet a real sadhu. And he puts complete faith in his words. He immediately surrenders to such a sadhu and thereby he gets the mercy of sadhu. Then he develops such vision whereby he recognize a sadhu.

 

Sadhu has two things, kripa and vanchana. Mercy and cheating. What one deserves he gets. If some one deserves cheating he is cheated. If he deserves mercy he gets mercy. Sadhu has two things. In other words you may say, sadhu keeps himself hidden. He keeps himself hidden. Yes. Just as Krishna keeps Himself hidden. Krishna says that thing in Bhagavad-gita, ‘I never manifest myself everywhere and before everybody.’ Yes. one who is a real pure devotee, who is completely surrendered, a dear devotee, only he can see the Supreme Lord everywhere. As for example Prahlada Maharaja saw the Supreme Lord in a stone pillar whereas his demoniac father Hiranyakasipu couldn’t see. Same stone pillar. Prahlad Maharaja sees but his father does not see. Krishna is not revealed before Hiranyakasipu but he is revealed before His devotee Prahlada. This is a question of vision. Prahlada has gotten that vision, where as his father has not gotten.

 

How does one gets such vision? By the mercy of sadhu. One can have such vision only by the mercy of sadhu. So you can see a sadhu, recognize a sadhu through that vision. Otherwise, how can you see a sadhu? Do you have such vision? You have material vision, defective vision. Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that thing, "In life we meet so many sadhus, but because of our duplicitous dealings we cannot get any real benefit out of that association. So one can only recognize a sadhu by the mercy of a sadhu, then one can develop such vision to see sadhu. Only by the mercy of the sadhu can one see. Otherwise, nobody can recognize a real sadhu."

 

Jagadananda pandit has sung this: sadhu paya....... nadia. In this kaliyuga it is very difficult to get a sadhu guru on the part of a jיva, a conditioned soul, therefore Krishna Himself appeared here in Nadia as a sadhu guru. That is Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Yes, He is Krishna but, He appeared here as a sadhu guru, for the benefit of the conditioned souls. Because it is very difficult on the part of a conditioned soul to find a real sadhu, in this kaliyuga. He appeared as a sadhu just to show and to set up the example. Krishna appeared in Nadia as sadhu guru, that is Gauranga Mahaprabhu. But how many actually recognized Him? How many have recognized Him as sadhu guru? Did Ramachandra Puri recognize Him, recognize Mahaprabhu? Though he saw Him, why didn’t he recognize Him? Because of his duplicitous dealings, crookedness he could not recognize. What did he see in Mahaprabhu? He saw a sannyasi eating too many sweets, a sannyasi eating too much, that he is a glutton. He saw only this thing. He cannot see the sadhu in Gaurasundara, even though Gaurasundar is there before him. But for whom does he manifest Himself and before whom he doesn’t manifest? That is the question.

 

The pasandis of Navadwip they cannot see. They couldn’t see the sadhu uttara in Gaura sundara. They criticized Mahaprabhu so much. Amhoga, the son in law of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, he couldn’t see. What did he see? He saw the same thing that Ramachandra Puri saw, a sannyasi eating too much. Though Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself, He appeared as sadhu guru, but how many could see Him? You see. You think that, "I can see. I can see with my eyes. I can test".

 

So with your material vision how can you recognize a sadhu? Unless you are endowed with proper vision, that is obtained by the mercy of a sadhu, you cannot recognize a real sadhu. By the mercy of sadhu one can see a sadhu. Otherwise nobody can see a sadhu. How can you see a sadhu? You cannot see through your materialistic eyes. See a sadhu through the ears. You cannot see a sadhu through your eyes. You see through your ears. In this path of devotion, bhakti path, there is no question of measurement. You cannot measure a sadhu. Have you a measuring rod in your hand that you can measure a sadhu? No question of measurement here. Those who are impersonalists, materialistic, those who rely on their material senses they are after this measuring, they say, "We can measure. We have a measuring rod in our hands", but the consequence is that they are cheated. Unless one has developed proper vision, he cannot recognize a sadhu who is an uttamadhikari, maha-bhagavata. Without recognizing and understanding him, if someone calls him ill names, blames him, and finds fault with him, such a person becomes a great offender. He commits a great offense. He cannot be delivered, life after life he will go to hell and suffer there.

 

And the same activities they (pure sadhus) do. As the material persons do, a great elevated person does the same thing, outwardly activities are the same. Activities are the same, but what is his consciousness? How he has developed pure Krishna consciousness. How he is always with Krishna. He is not attached to all these things. All external things. So those who have developed reliance on their own material senses, they cannot recognize him. So they are blaspheming, calling ill names to such a pure devotee. Committing great aparadha. And as a result they suffer in hell. If someone has gotten the real mercy of Krishna, then he can recognize a sadhu, otherwise he will be put into a fix. A very dangerous situation. A great dilemma. "Is he really sadhu or not? Really sadhu or not?" Yes, he is in a fix, a great dilemma and this is a very dangerous situation.

 

If someone has really gotten the mercy of Krishna, then he can recognize a sadhu, otherwise nobody can. He will then be able to come out of this dangerous situation. Otherwise, two things will happen, he will develop doubt in such a sadhu, and then blasphemes him and thinks ill of him. Gadadhara Pandit thought like this in his mind, just by mere thinking he commits aparadha. Such a dangerous situation. If some one has gotten real mercy from Krishna, he can immediately recognize, "He is a real sadhu." Otherwise, he will commit aparadha and he will have to suffer. He will go to hell and suffer. One may be delivered or one may die. They cannot see, rather they commit aparadha. They are most unfortunate persons. They have not gotten the mercy of the Supreme Lord Krishna and therefore they cannot see and sadhu cannot reveal himself before them. But those who are really fortunate and have gotten the mercy of Krishna and developed such vision, sadhu cannot hide himself before them.

 

Who cries in his heart, how to develop devotion, how to get association of sadhus. Krishna gives him pure intelligence, thereby he gets the association of sadhus and he recognizes a sadhu. Otherwise, you will commit aparadha, and welcome all sorts of inauspiciousness. There will be no auspiciousness, at all. Krishna puts him in a test. There is a test. Yes, very severe test, and you have to face that test, and you have to pass the test. This is a dangerous situation, a dilemma. In such a dangerous situation, one is delivered or one is destroyed. Cry, Cry, Cry before Krsna only he can save us."

 

 

Thank you very much!