In Service to Srila Gurudeva
BY: SRI VRINDAVAN DAS
Jan 20, 2015 — SRIDHAM MAYAPUR (SUN) — Excerpts from a lecture delivered by Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada in the Sarasvata Assembly Hall, Sri Caitanya Matha, Mayapura Saturday, 9.00 pm, on the 28th day of the month of Magha (January) 1931.
Everyone is Advancing Except Me
Once I went to Mangala-giri in South India to establish the sacred impressions of Sriman Mahaprabhu's footprints. A devotee among us raised this doubt: "When I first came to the matha, I noted the character of the matha residents and their attachment to serving Bhagavan. This impressed and inspired me and I cherished a high aspiration to be like them. But now, the standard I once envisioned attaining has lessened considerably. I am engrossed in various mundane thoughts such as thinking about the many brahmacaris who have turned to their homes and entered household life."
In reply I said, "I cannot say that they have left hari-bhajana just because they have returned to their homes. In fact, I see each and every one of those brahmacaris as amazing Vaisnavas and that their Vaisnava qualities and devotion for the Lord have increased manifold. What a wicked atheist I used to be, but my wickedness substantially abated in their association. I see that I am averse to Bhagavan, but they a ll are engaged in hari-bhajana. By the mercy of Srila Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, I have come to know this verse:
vaisnavera nindyakarma na pade kane
sabe krsna bhaje tinha ai matra jane
["Gossip about Vaisnavas indulging in abominable activities should never enter my ears. I should only see that all persons are serving Krsna."]
From my perspective, everybody is advancing in hari-bhajana, and this universe, which was created by Bhagavan, is prospering in every respect. Everyone except me is receiving spiritual benefit. You have become restless without due reason, and because you are intensely eager to serve Bhagavan you want the devotees who left to also be increasingly keen to engage in hari-bhajana. They are, however, engaged in hari-bhajana. Still you are dissatisfied and want their exuberance to serve their beloved Lord to increase a million-fold. My heart, on the contrary, is meager and unable to accommodate the magnitude of their bhajana of Sri Hari. They exemplified living according to an astonishingly high ideal. The only person who is incapable of performing hari-bhajana is me, because I busy myself with finding faults in others. How, then, can I ever make progress?"
Enthusiastic to Find Faults
Who finds faults in the Vaisnavas? Those who depend on their senses to acquire knowledge. Their senses -- the eyes, ears, nose and so forth -- are their sole support; hence external objects deceive them. In other words, those who are averse to hari-bhajana find faults with the Vaisnavas. When a person tells me that someone has stopped chanting his hari-nama, I think, "He must have become highly elevated at heart as a result of so much chanting. This is why he has left the path of bhajana, which is the sole source of one"s welfare, and become engaged in other activities. Only a rich man is so content that he does not care to earn more."
In Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavan says: "na me bhaktah pranasyati -- My devotees never perish or face misfortune."
api cet su-duracaro
bhajate mam ananya-bhak
sadhur eva sa mantavyah
samyag vyavasito hi sah
["If even a man of abominable character worships Me with single-pointed focus, he is still to be considered a sadhu because he is rightly situated in bhakti."
(Bhagavad-gita 9.30)]
ksipram bhavati dharmatma
sasvac-chantim nigacchati
kaunteya pratijanihi
name bhaktah pranasyati
["He quickly becomes virtuous and attains eternal peace. O Kaunteya, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes."
(Bhagavad-gita 9.31)]
Can anyone who is one-pointed and unflinching in his performance of hari-bhajana ever become degraded? They have doubtlessly attained full auspiciousness. Our attitude, however, is defective, and this is why we do not attain our own auspiciousness.
para-svabhava-karmani
na prasamsen na garhayet
visvam ekamakam pasyan
prakrtya purusena ca
[Sri Bhagavan said: "Do not criticize or praise the conditioned nature and activities of others. View this world as a combination of material nature and souls who have an enjoying propensity, both based on the one Ultimate Reality."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.28.1)]
If I depend on my sense-perception for information I will remain deprived of service to the Lord, who is beyond the perception of the senses (adhoksaja), and of Srila Gurudeva. I have not attained my own welfare, but still I meditate on the auspicious behavior of others, and although I myself am full of shortcomings, I am enthusiastic to find faults in others. If I ever began to really focus on my own welfare, would I have time to observe another's imperfections?
krsneti yasya giri tam manasadriyeta
diksasti cet pranatibhis ca bhajantam isam
susrusaya bhajana-vijnam ananyam anya-
nindadi sunya-hrdam ipsita-sanga-labdhya
["One who chants Krsna's name just once is a neophyte devotee (kanistha-adhikari). One should consider him to be his family member and silently respect him. One who, fully understanding the principle of diksa, has accepted initiation from a qualified guru and performs bhajana of Bhagavan in accordance with Vaisnava conventions is an intermediate devotee (madhyama-adhikari). One should respect such a devotee who is endowed with the correct understanding of reality and illusion by offering him pranama and so forth. One who is adept in the science of bhajana as described in Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vaisnava scriptures, and who performs exclusive bhajana of Sri Krsna, is a maha-bhagavata devotee. Due to his undeviating absorption in Krsna, the pure heart of such a devotee is free from faults such as the tendency to criticize others. He is expert in bhajana, meaning that he mentally renders service (manasa-seva) to Sri Radha-Krsna's pastimes which take place during the eight segments of the day (asta-kaliya-lila). Knowing him to be a topmost devotee whose heart is established in the particular mood of service to Sri Radha-Krsna for which one aspires, and who is affectionately disposed towards oneself, one should honor him by offering dandavat-pranama, making relevant inquiry and rendering service with great love."
(Upadesamrta, verse 5)]
Our lives are short. Last year we gathered here to worship Srila Gurudeva. Since then, those who received the mercy of Bhagavan have departed from this world. However, for the purpose of finding faults in others and to show an example of the absence of trnad api sunicena, we are in this material world absorbed in sense gratification.
The slightest tendency to find faults in others is completely absent in Srila Gurudeva. At the same time, his sole function is to kindly point out our hundreds and thousands of faults, which are the cause of our misfortune. May we not lose sight of this quality of Srila Gurudeva.
If I live for one more year, then I will absorb myself in the service of Gurudeva at every moment from today onward and give up my tendency to criticize others. I will not say, "I am valorous, scholarly and a gifted speaker; he is foolish, ignorant and cannot express anything." On the strength of exclusive absorption in hari-katha, I will not foster an attitude of aversion to Bhagavan, and thus I will become truly benefited.
Sadhaka and Siddha are Not the Same
asa-bharair-amrta-sindhu-mayaih kathamcit
kalo mayatigamitah kila sampratam hi
tamce krpam mayi vidhasyaci n aiva kim me;
pranairvrajena ca varoru vakarinapi
["O Varoru (girl with beautiful thighs), I am passing my time with the sole hope of being able to serve You. If You withhold Your mercy, what value to me are this life, the land of Vraja, and Sri Krsna, the enemy of Baka?"
(Vilapa-kusumanjali, verse 102)]
Some people ask me, "Why don't you give siddha-pranali (the identity of one's eternal relationship with Krsna)? However, I cannot understand how a sadhaka and a siddha can be on the same level. How can one in the stage of sadhana that is full of anarthas cultivate the activities of sadhana that is free from anarthas or that of siddhi (the stage of perfection)? If someone is siddha, self-realized, and he mercifully reveals his svarupa to me, then only can I come to know his eternal constitutional form.
In madhura-rasa Srila Gurudeva is Varsabhanavi (Sri Radha). According to a person's eternal nature, he will see that same Sri Gurudeva as a certain absolute reality (vastu). One in the mood of a parent sees him as Nanda-Yasoda; one in the mood of a friend sees him as Sridama-Sudama and one in the mood of a servitor sees him as Citraka-Patraka.
The truth of who is visaya and who is asraya appears in the heart of one who remains engaged in service to Srila Gurudeva. This truth does not manifest in the heart by an artificial means. When the tendency to serve arises in a fortunate soul, this truth automatically appears in his heart. We are not obliged to serve anyone other than our Gurudeva. The nature of nitya-lila (Krsna's eternal pastimes with His devotees), which even Sesa, Siva, Brahma and others cannot conceive of, will never be realized by one whose consciousness is polluted with mundane conceptions.
I offer my obeisances unto the lotus feet of you all, my guru-varga.
