If you are not merciful unto me, I can only weep,

[Guest guest]

Gurudeva

(from Saranagati)

by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

 

 

(1) Gurudeva, give to this servant just one drop of mercy. I am lower than a blade of grass. Give me all help. Give me strength. Let me be as you are, without desires or aspirations.

 

 

(2) I offer you all respects, for thus I may have the energy to know you correctly. Then, by chanting the holy name in great ecstasy, all my offenses will cease.

 

 

(3) When will such mercy fall to this one who is weak and devoid of intelligence? Allow me to be with you.

 

 

(4) If you examine me, you will find no qualities. Your mercy is all that I am made of. If you are not merciful unto me, I can only weep, and I will not be able to maintain my life."

[Guest guest]

[srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Saranagati.]

 

This is our prayer. This weeping or crying is required. Unless the child cries the mother will not run and the child cannot get the mother's breast.

 

Similarly, unless you cry how can you get the darsana of Sri Guru? When the child cries the mother runs to him. Similarly, although the guru may be in some other part of the world, when the disciple cries the guru runs there.

 

Sri Guru is karuna-maya, he is causelessly merciful. Thus whether he is manifest or unmanifest he gives darsana to his disciple. He may also come in a dream to give his darsana. This guru-tattva is nitya-tattva - an eternal transcendental tattva. It is eternally prakata, manifest. It is not aprakata, unmanifest. There is no question of guru-tattva becoming unmanifest. This sri-guru-carana is inconceivable. It cannot be understood through one's material knowledge, intelligence, or merit.

------------by Srila Gour Govinda Swami

[Guest guest]

This Gaura-tattva is a very deep and confidential tattva. It is the highest and very, very confidential. Therefore it is said to be the postgraduate study, and only the students of that postgraduate class can understand, otherwise nobody can understand it. So this course is there, and two lectures are there every week. Anyone can come and hear, just hear. But if he is not a student of that postgraduate class he cannot understand it. Anyway sit and let it touch your ear, then that is beneficial. The time will come that you can understand it, and in your heart you should cry for that - kabe ha'be bolo se-dina amar. "When will that auspicious day come in my life that I can understand this thing, so that I can relish it? I can become ecstatic, dance and roll and shed tears and be overwhelmed with that bhava, drowned and intoxicated." You should feel like that, cry, cry! Therefore we speak these things, just to put you in such a condition of crying.

 

[Guest guest]

The three words, namely Hara, Krsna and Rama, are transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra, and the chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, for giving protection to the conditioned soul. The chanting is exactly like a genuine cry by the child for the mother. Mother Hara helps in achieving the grace of the supreme father, Hari, or Krsna, and the Lord reveals Himself to such a sincere devotee.

[Guest guest]

Vaisnave Vijnapti

(Prayer to the Vaisnava)

by Srila Narottama das Thakura

 

 

(1) 0 Vaisnava Gosvami, please be merciful to me now. There is no one except you who can purify the fallen souls.

 

 

(2) Where does anyone find such a merciful personality by whose mere audience all sins go far away?

 

 

(3) After bathing in the waters of the sacred Ganges many times, one becomes purified, but just by the sight of you, the fallen souls are purified. This is your great power.

 

 

(4) The holy name delivers one who has committed an offense to Lord Hari, but if one commits an offense to you, there is no means of deliverance.

 

 

(5) Your heart is always the resting place of Lord Govinda, and Lord Govinda says, "The Vaisnavas are in My heart."

 

 

(6) I desire the dust of your holy feet in every birth I may take. Please consider Narottama yours, and be kind upon him.