So if you make always this plan, "How to please my guru," then you'll please Krsna.

[krsna]

Devotee: Srila Prabhupada, if we think about our spiritual master, is that as good as thinking about Krsna?

 

Prabhupada: Hm?

 

Devotee: If we think about our spiritual master, is that as good as thinking of Krsna?

 

Prabhupada: Yes, because it is said, yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah: "If you can please your guru, then you please Krsna." So if you make always this plan, "How to please my guru," then you'll please Krsna.

 

 

 

Bhagavad-gita 7.2

 

Nairobi, October 28, 1975

[jayaisvara]

krsna prabhu, what if one doesn't have a external guru?

[AncientMariner]

There is a lot controversy over this question but if you read Prabhupada's books with a submissive attitude and accept him as an authority on the subject matter then there is no difficulty in seeing that Prabhupada is still present in his books so there is no question of being without external guru etc. It's all in the attitude that you approach the books that determines wether Krishna turns on the lamplight of knowledge within the heart.

[theist]

 

There is a lot controversy over this question but if you read Prabhupada's books with a submissive attitude and accept him as an authority on the subject matter then there is no difficulty in seeing that Prabhupada is still present in his books so there is no question of being without external guru etc. It's all in the attitude that you approach the books that determines wether Krishna turns on the lamplight of knowledge within the heart.

 

 

[stonehearted]

Nicely said. And when that lamplight burns brightly enough that we're ready, Krishna sends the "external guru" to help us further, as He did with Dhruva. This is how He works. If we analyze deeply, we may find that, as Swami B.V. Tripurari says, it is "our heart free from the clutter of material desires," our highest aspirations, who appears before us as guru.

[jayaisvara]

Thanks for the replies prabhu's. A couple more questions I have that I hope you all can answer. Will Krsna make sure that one is ready before an external guru comes? And also it is said the guru comes in many forms. What exactly does this mean? Can guru come in the form of my mother? Because sometimes what she says really makes sense to me.

[theist]

Guru can come in the form of your mother and in many other forms as well.

 

A vivid example of this is given in the Srimad Bhagavatam 11th Canto Chapter 7 and on.

 

Here is just a slice, please go to the link at the bottom of my post for the on-line Bhagavatam if you don't have the 11th canto and read from verse 1. The brahman avadhuta.

 

-------

 

SB 11.7.23: Although I, the Supreme Lord, can never be captured by ordinary sense perception, those situated in human life may use their intelligence and other faculties of perception to directly search for Me through both apparent and indirectly ascertained symptoms.

 

SB 11.7.24: In this regard, sages cite a historical narration concerning the conversation between the greatly powerful King Yadu and an avadhuta.

 

SB 11.7.25: Maharaja Yadu once observed a certain brahmana avadhuta, who appeared to be quite young and learned, wandering about fearlessly. Being himself most learned in spiritual science, the King took the opportunity and inquired from him as follows.

 

SB 11.7.26: Sri Yadu said: O brahmana, I see that you are not engaged in any practical religious activity, and yet you have acquired a most expert understanding of all things and all people within this world. Kindly tell me, sir, how did you acquire this extraordinary intelligence, and why are you traveling freely throughout the world behaving as if you were a child?

 

SB 11.7.27: Generally human beings work hard to cultivate religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and also knowledge of the soul, and their usual motive is to increase the duration of their lives, acquire fame and enjoy material opulence.

 

SB 11.7.28: You, however, although capable, learned, expert, handsome and most eloquent, are not engaged in doing anything, nor do you desire anything; rather, you appear stupefied and maddened as if you were a ghostly creature.

 

SB 11.7.29: Although all people within the material world are burning in the great forest fire of lust and greed, you remain free and are not burned by that fire. You are just like an elephant who takes shelter from a forest fire by standing within the water of the Ganges River,

 

SB 11.7.30: O brahmana, we see that you are devoid of any contact with material enjoyment and that you are traveling alone, without any companions or family members. Therefore, because we are sincerely inquiring from you, please tell us the cause of the great ecstasy that you are feeling within yourself.

 

SB 11.7.31: Lord Krishna continued: The intelligent King Yadu, always respectful to the brahmanas, waited with bowed head as the brahmana, pleased with the King's attitude, began to reply.

 

SB 11.7.32: The brahmana said: My dear King, with my intelligence I have taken shelter of many spiritual masters. Having gained transcendental understanding from them, I now wander about the earth in a liberated condition. Please listen as I describe them to you.

 

SB 11.7.33-35: O King, I have taken shelter of twenty-four gurus, who are the following: the earth, air, sky, water, fire, moon, sun, pigeon and python; the sea, moth, honeybee, elephant and honey thief; the deer, the fish, the prostitute Pingala, the kurara bird and the child; and the young girl, arrow maker, serpent, spider and wasp. My dear King, by studying their activities I have learned the science of the self.

 

SB 11.7.36: Please listen, O son of Maharaja Yayati, O tiger among men, as I explain to you what I have learned from each of these gurus.

 

SB 11.7.37: A sober person, even when harassed by other living beings, should understand that his aggressors are acting helplessly under the control of God, and thus he should never be distracted from progress on his own path. This rule I have learned from the earth.

 

SB 11.7.38: A saintly person should learn from the mountain to devote all his efforts to the service of others and to make the welfare of others the sole reason for his existence. Similarly, as the disciple of the tree, he should learn to dedicate himself to others.

 

SB 11.7.39: A learned sage should take his satisfaction in the simple maintenance of his existence and should not seek satisfaction through gratifying the material senses. In other words, one should care for the material body in such a way that one's higher knowledge is not destroyed and so that one's speech and mind are not deviated from self-realization.

 

SB 11.7.40: Even a transcendentalist is surrounded by innumerable material objects, which possess good and bad qualities. However, one who has transcended material good and evil should not become entangled even when in contact with the material objects; rather, he should act like the wind.

 

SB 11.7.41: Although a self-realized soul may live in various material bodies while in this world, experiencing their various qualities and functions, he is never entangled, just as the wind which carries various aromas does not actually mix with them.

 

SB 11.7.42: A thoughtful sage, even while living within a material body, should understand himself to be pure spirit soul. Similarly, one should see that the spirit soul enters within all forms of life, both moving and nonmoving, and that the individual souls are thus all-pervading. The sage should further observe that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the Supersoul, is simultaneously present within all things. Both the individual soul and the Supersoul can be understood by comparing them to the nature of the sky: although the sky extends everywhere and everything rests within the sky, the sky does not mix with anything, nor can it be divided by anything.

 

SB 11.7.43: Although the mighty wind blows clouds and storms across the sky, the sky is never implicated or affected by these activities. Similarly, the spirit soul is not actually changed or affected by contact with the material nature. Although the living entity enters within a body made of earth, water and fire, and although he is impelled by the three modes of nature created by eternal time, his eternal spiritual nature is never actually affected.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Will Krsna make sure that one is ready before an external guru comes?

••no one is completely ready for guru.. we are conditioned souls and guru is a gift of krsna, not something we deserve. So simply guru comes and we decide how much we want to be serious in following his instructions

 

And also it is said the guru comes in many forms. What exactly does this mean?

••he comes mainly in the form of a pure uttama adhikari vaishnava who gives diksa, siksa or both. When we are well situated in parampara' and our intelligence is made vivid and enlightened by the mercy of guru and gauranga, we learn to recognize krsna's will and instruction in everyone who comes in contact with us. But our vaishnava masters, if they are authentic, will be ethernally at the first place in our consideration (janme janme prabhu sei)

 

Can guru come in the form of my mother?

••yes.. but you will be completely able to recognize if who is speaking is maya or krsna only when, following the procedures stated by acharyas, you will be conected to parampara' through an acharya who will volontarily and officially will accept you as a disciple. The guru is the torch who let us see the reality even if it is expressed by someone who is not officially a guru.. but if there's no torch we see only darkness and we cannot discriminate if we are listening to maya or to krsna

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

so then what happens?

on the edge of our seats! more story please

[theist]

it increases the desire to hear and when Krsna sees that increase He gives more nectar... which increases our desire ...and on it goes without end, ever increasing.

 

Here is a link to Canto 11 chapter 7 verse 1

 

Lord Krsna is instructing Uddhava.

 

http://srimadbhagavatam.com/11/7/en1