FALLEN GURUS ???

[Guest guest]

here's an article by Gaura Govinda swami on this topic of fallen gurus. Excerpts from Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja's book 'Pariprasna.' ==========Devotee: What if someone tries to serve his guru in this way and then later on the guru falls down? Gaura Govinda Swami: That's a bogus guru, nor a bona fide guru. Devotee: In that case one's surrender and service count for nothing? Gaura Govinda Swami: Nothing, zero! They are of no value, because that guru was not bona fide, he was a hypocrite, a follower of Kali, only outwardly posing as a Vaisnava guru. You should be careful before accepting a guru. That's your responsibility. Don't be superfluous. You should be very serious and don't follow gaddalika-srota-nyaya. "Gaddalika" means a flock of sheep. Sheep move in a flock and one is at the head, leading. If that sheep jumps into a ditch the whole flock will jump into a ditch. They never think, "Why should we jump into a ditch?" If the leader jumps, they think, "That is a nice path. We should also go that way." You should use your intelligence. Don't follow this sheep logic. That is your responsibility. You should desire to get Krsna. That is the perfection of human life. This morning I talked about how consciousness should be fully blossomed, cent percent purna-vikacita-cetana. That is the perfection of human life. If someone can get Krsna then he'll have obtained supreme perfection. That means cent percent Krsna. Not twenty-five percent, thirty percent or fifty percent Krsna. No! Cent percent Krsna. Who can give cent percent Krsna? Only the person who has it can give. If someone has only twenty -five percent Krsna, how can he give you cent percent Krsna? He doesn't have the balance in his account. This is your responsibility. You should find such a person and don't follow this gaddalika-srota-nyaya." Oh, everyone is accepting so and so as a paramahamsa, maha-bhagavata. Everyone says so." Alright, don't think anything, fall into the ditch. Don't Find Fault Devotee: It's very easy to understand this point after the fact. But there were many supposedly quite advanced devotees... Gaura Govinda Swami: Don't find fault with others. Find fault with yourself. See good in others. See bad in yourself. You have committed a mistake; therefore such a thing has happened. The caitya-guru, Paramatma, Krsna, He knows your heart. He knows what you are whispering in your heart. You cannot cheat Him. Outwardly you may be speaking very sweet from the lips. Your external dealings may be very nice. But inside, don't be hypocrite. Be a simple, natural vaisnava. You have no simplicity in your heart. Duplicity, pretentiousness, crookedness, politics- so many nasty things are there in you heart. You follow this gaddilika-srota-nyaya logic. Krsna as caitya-guru, Paramatma, knows you are not serious. You should be thinking, "How can I get a bona fide guru? The aim of my life is to get Krsna, cent percent Krsna." You should be crying in your heart. Krsna will know, "Yes, this soul is crying for Me." This crying is most important. In the Adi Purana Krsna had said, "rudanti mama samvidhau.Rudanti" means crying. Aham parikartah- One who cries for Me from the core of his heart purchases Me. Have you ever cried for this? Therefore I say you are not serious. You are superfluous. You are just following this gaddalika-srota-nyaya. That is your mistake. Why do you find fault with others? Krsna knows, "Oh this fellow wants a cheater, not a teacher." Therefore Krsna provides a cheater. You should admit that it is your bad karma, your mistake. Then repent and cry. Cry before Krsna, before Mahaprabhu. Cry form the core of your heart so They'll shower Their mercy on you. Then you'll never be cheated. This is the process. It is a most important and serious thing. This is a personal relationship and a personal responsibility. It is not the responsibility of anyone else. You alone are responsible for your activity. Why should someone else be responsible? It is up to you to accept a bona fide guru, not a bogus guru; to get cent percent Krsna; to make your life successful, not his life, or that life, or anybody else's life. This is a very deep confidential philosophy, try to understand it. Guru Darsana Gaura Govinda Swami: One thing is important: We don't' know who is a real, bona fide guru. Can you know? Can you measure? Can you see with your material vision? You can't see. You can't measure him. Krsna is adhoksaja. He cannot be measured by the defective material senses. Similarly, His true representative the bona fide guru, the dear devotee who is very intimate and very confidential, cannot be measured by your defective senses. You cannot see him with your material vision. You can only see the outward body of flesh, bones, marrow, blood, and urine. In the 11th Canto Krsna says that the guru acarya is as good as He Himself. acarya-mam vijaniyan navamanyeta karhicit na martya-buddhyasuyeta sarva-deva-mayo guruh One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him to be an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods. (Bhag. 11.17.27) In addition, in Guruvastaka (Verse 7) we chant: saksad-dharitvena samastra-sastrair uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya vande guroh sri-caranaravindam Every day you sing saksad-dhari, and Krsna says the same thing: acaryam mam vijnaniyan-"He is as good as Myself." Na martya-buddhyasuyeta-"Don't think of him as an ordinary mortal human being." Sarva-deva mayo guruh- "No, all the demigods are there in him." This is guru tattva. How can you see such a guru with your material vision? As you cannot see Krsna with material vision, you cannot see the guru with material vision. You will only see the outward thing, which is not guru. Only if the guru showers his mercy on you can you be endowed with the vision to see his true form. By the mercy of guru you can see guru, otherwise you cannot see. This vision is only obtained by crying and crying and crying before Krsna: "Oh Krsna, I don't know who is your real representative who can deliver You to me cent percent. I want you cent percent, O Krsna." If you cry before Krsna then Krsna will make an arrangement. He is there in the heart as Paramatma. He will understand, "Now he's crying for Me, so I must help him." He will make an arrangement that you meet a bona fide guru, a genuine representative of Krsna. Otherwise it is not possible. This is the only process. But in our case we try to measure everything. We measure the Lord. We measure the guru. We try to see the Lord with our vision, with our defective senses. Therefore our acaryas and sastras say that the guru is the seer, drasta, and you should put yourself in the position as the object to be seen, drsta. It is very difficult to understand this point because almost everyone thinks just in the reverse. You think you are the seer and the Lord or guru are drsta, the objects to be seen. No! It is the complete opposite. The Lord is the seer and the guru is the seer. You are not the seer. You are the object to be seen by guru or seen by the Lord. Do you understand? This is a very deep philosophy. Cry For Guru What I am saying is from the previous acaryas. Nothing is mine, not a single letter. I follow the path the acaryas have shown. I have done that in my life and therefore I got my guru. That is my experience. Following what our acaryas say, what sastra says, sadhu-sastra-guru-this is the process. But you have never followed it. I think you cannot understand it clearly. Try! It is a simple thing. You cry before Krsna, cry before Mahaprabhu, "Please help me, please help me, please help me!" Krsna is the heart and can understand, "Oh, now he is crying." He will help you. He will make arrangements that you can get a bona fide guru who is Krsna's true representative, a confidential, intimate associate if the Lord-and then your life will be successful. Don't be desperate. There is no question of despondency on this path. There is no pessimism here. It is all optimism. Mahaprabhu is so merciful-maha-vadanyaya avatara. Srila Kaviraja Goswami in Caitanya Caritamrta has used the word adbhuta, wonderful three times; adbhuta-karunya, adbhuta-vadanya, adbhuta-audara, wonderfully munificent, wonderfully merciful, wonderfully magnanimous. This is Sriman Mahaprabhu. Cry before Him. Cry before Krsna to shower His mercy on you. It is the only thing required. Don't try to measure Krsna or His representative the guru with your defective senses. You will only be cheated. You should have complete, unflinching faith in Mahaprabhu, Krsna and sadhu. There is no other way. Confirmation Needed Devotee: How do we discern between the prompting of Paramatma and the ramblings of our mind? Gaura Govinda Swami: Krsna is there in your heart as Paramatma, caitya guru. He is your friend. The Upanisadas say, dva suparna sayuja sakhayah- Your friend the Supersoul prompts, but you cannot hear Him. A liberated soul can hear, but a conditioned soul cannot. A conditioned soul only hears the promptings of maya. If, within and without, that prompting in confirmed by sadhu and sastra, then it is all right. Confirmation is needed. Then you can understand, "Yes, that prompting was inside me. Now the same thing has come out from the lips of sadhu." If sastra says the same thing then it is confirmed, otherwise not. A conditioned soul cannot hear what the Paramatma prompts. Only a liberated soul can hear. Though He prompts, you cannot hear because you heart is filled with dirt. Clear the contamination. Cleansed of the dirt, you heart will be purified. Then you can hear, otherwise not. How will you hear with a filthy heart? Devotee: Sometimes we cry for something and we get some help. But then we become again satisfied in life. Gaura Govinda Swami: There should always be crying. Then we will always get help. Not that you should say, "Oh, now I have gotten, finished." There should always be crying, "I cannot get, I cannot get, I cannot get anything!" Mahaprabhu was always crying. He has taught us to cry: "Hari Hari bolite nayane ba'be nira"- uttering the name of Hari and shedding tears. Devotee: You explained that to please you we have to become simple and not duplicitous. I was wondering what practical service is pleasing to you? Gaura Govinda Swami: That's individual, not general. There are specific and general instructions. For individual instruction, you come to me and I will speak. Those instructions differ form person to person. It's not the same for one and all. Don't be so foolish as to ask such a question. Devotee: All this talk of crying for Krsna: I was just reading in the Nectar of Devotion that we should not cry before the Deity. Gaura Govinda Swami: Don't cry before the Deities- cry in your room! This crying should be in the heart. Krsna is everywhere. If you cry, Krsna knows, Krsna sees. Genuine Sadhu-sanga Devotee: Paramatma is comparable to guru in some ways? Gaura Govinda Swami: Paramatma is the manifestation of guru and guru is the manifestation of Paramatma. Katha Upanisad says: nayam atma pravacena labhyo na medhaya na bahuna srutena yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyas tasyaisa atma vivrnute tanum svam The Supreme Self can never be known by any amount of argument, reasoning, intelligence, or by much hearing. To those whom He chooses, however, He may reveal His personal form. If someone is crying for Krsna, Paramatma knows. Then Paramatma assumes a body and appears. When He appears externally he is guru. "Tanu" means body. Vivrnute tanum svam- He assumes a body and is known as caitya-guru. Therefore I say, cry,cry,cry! Paramatma will know, "Now he is crying for Me." In this regard, sadhu-sanga in most important. And that means a real sadhu in the true sense, not a hypocrite sadhu, not a bogus sadhu- a real sadhu. "Guru" means heavy, not laghu. These words have their meanings and you should understand them. If you really meet guru then you association with laghus will be bitter. That's a most important thing. That's the test who is guru. "Laghu" means material things. You are associating with material poets, material politicians, materially wealthy persons, and materially learned persons. They are laghus. When you associate with a sadhu and get his krpa then automatically the taste will be bitter and you will no longer like to associate with laghus. You should associate with a real sadhu. Sadhu-krpa, then mercy of sadhu, is powerful. It is a most important thing. It is said, vaisnava- krpaye tare sarva siddhi- If you can get the mercy of a sadhu then you will achieve all perfection. Moreover, it must be with a real sadhu, a sadhu is the true sense of the term. Not a hypocrite or bogus sadhu or kali-cela! They are only posing like sadhu. If a genuine sadhu casts his merciful glance on you then you have it! Sadhu-sanga is most important, most important. One should develop greed for such a type of sadhu-sanga. Don't resist such greed. You are greedy for material accumulations. That is you enemy. That will lead you to hell. Now become greedy for this, to have such sadhu-sanga. "How can I get it, how can I get it?" Develop this greed. It should not be resisted. It is the only thing needed.