How to get harmonized with Guru-Vaishnava—this is the most vital point in our bhajan life (Part 1)

By Śrīla Shyam Das Baba

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru & Gauranga

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Guru said to one of his so-called devotees in a letter written to him that— “You have already left the path of praṇipāt –paripraśna and sevā to avoid connection with the Absolute Truth and you have accepted the way of tarka path (logic) to get lost forever in the ocean of Maya. What we can do for you, except expressing strong grief!”

Actually, our challenging mood or audacity can throw us away into the ocean of Maya forever. Only this kind of benefit we can get, nothing else. Serving temperament and humble mood lost — means everything is lost.

If I want to become successful in this life in my bhajan, I will have to sell my head unto the Lotus Feet  of Śrī Gurudeva. I cannot preserve any personal right. To Śrī Kṛṣṇa Arjuna says “śiṣyas te ’haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam” I am your disciple and I am surrendered unto you Lotus feet, please give me instructions. But his submission seems to be not absolute, because after complete submission we cannot expect any logical interpretation or tarka. Anyway, ultimately, he tried his best to become a genuine disciple of Śrī Kṛṣṇa with full submission unto His Lotus Feet.

One day one rich man wanted to point out some faults of some Brahmachari. He requested Śrīla Prabhupāda to throw him out of Math on this ground. But Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to explain that—”If you find somebody very sick, then where you can send him? The man answered – “To any hospital”. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that —”Come on! Gauḍīya Math is one kind of hospital were the brahmacārī is already admitted, I cannot throw him out – simply because he has done some mistake. Maybe today or tomorrow he can get cured of his disease (bhāva-roga or material disease). Those who are coming to me to get some kind of treatment from me, maybe some of them are not fully cured due to their negligence, but anyway if they are going to follow the process of treatment (Kṛṣṇa Consciousness) sincerely, then today or tomorrow they can come out successful in their devotional life”. Again, that man said – “Then why not you go outside to catch all those material people to give some treatment to them?” Then Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that: “Yes of course I can help them, provided if they approach me with a submissive attitude to declare themselves as patient”.

Śrīla Prabhupāda told that— “Gurupāda-padma is the transcendental medium through which we can see everything in the transcendental world”. That is why it is our prime duty to concentrate unto the Lotusfeet of Gurupāda-padma, in this way all success can come automatically.  Sat guru sevā and kṛṣṇa sevā is not at all separate from each other, all the same. Who serves the Supreme Lord twenty-four hours, he is called a real sādhu or Sat Guru. The perfect Idealism of Gurudev can give the inspiration of continuous sevā-mood inside the heart of a surrendered devotee.

A Sat Guru has the right to speak heavily, otherwise the whole system of ānugatya can collapse.  Most of the people they misunderstood Śrīla Prabhupāda for his heavy mood, but his heart was so soft that even we cannot imagine in dream, but to give absolute guidance to us all, he had to speak very hard. We know the following śloka in favour of the above vichar –

vajraadapi kathoraani mrudooni kusumaadapi

lokottaraanaam chetaamsi  ko hi vigyaatumarhati

Illustrious and noble persons become firm like the ‘Vajra’ the weapon of God Indra and very gentle like a flower depending upon the prevailing situation.  They are famous because of this special trait in them. Who can realize their unusual activities.

The order of Śrīla Prabhupāda was so powerful that nobody could avoid it. Those jīvas are roaming around up and down in these fourteen worlds   for infinite period, and the solution can be found in śāstra, how to get rid of that–

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja              (Cc Madhya 19.151)

 “According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. By the mercy of both Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.

Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Vaman Gosvāmī Mahārāj used to say that— “Gentle punishments and reprimands by guru and Vaisnavas are highly beneficial for their disciples and servitors. The resolve to accept discipline finds its success in the title “disciple”. Even though I became the disciple of Śrī Gurudeva, who is most compassionate, whenever he mildly disciplines me out of his causeless mercy and with the determination to eliminate all the obstacles from the path of my devotional practice, I find it totally unacceptable. At that time, I am even audacious enough to claim that he is heartless, that he lacks affection and that he is biased, unintelligent and so forth. I am willing to be humiliated, reprimanded and heavily beaten by Maya hundreds of times, but I cannot accept or tolerate the affectionate, transcendental discipline of Śrī Gurudeva. Consequently, I forever relinquish devotional service to Kṛṣṇa and thus commit spiritual suicide.”

Also, Śrīla Bhakti Daitya Madhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj used to say that— “To be a disciple means to be disciplined, or controlled. If a person outwardly accepts the shelter of Sree Guru but arrogantly maintains the attitude that he knows best about his spiritual life, then he is but a cheater, deceiving both himself and others. Pure Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas are most magnanimous and bestow the highest auspiciousness. If we can become eligible to understand even a single aspect of their exemplary lives, we will become delightfully dedicated to sādhana-bhajana.”

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī  Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said that—“I was bound to speak heavy to you all, for this reason many of you misunderstood me as enemy. To engage you all in unalloyed hari-bhajan– I was bound to speak that way. May be some day or other you can realise this fact.”

Those who want to take undue advantage of the following quotation from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta “kāya mano-vākye kare udvega na diba” (physically, mentally or verbally one shouldn’t give pain to others) to avoid speaking all about Absolute Truth, absolute way, then surely, they are going to cheat the whole world. Genuine hari-kathā from a genuine source is like apparently bitter medicine, but ultimately this can save us from ruin. Hari-kathā is actually one kind of operation. Any kind of operation is never sweet, if we think that way, then surely we are mad.

From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we can see the following śloka spoken by Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava ji Mahārāj that—

eṣā buddhimatāṁ buddhir

manīṣā ca manīṣiṇām

yat satyam anṛteneha

martyenāpnoti māmṛtam                                       (ŚB 11.29.22)

He is really intelligent among all intelligent people, he is having real absolute perception power among all those Monishis (who is having high perception power), who can realize from heart that by the help of this unstable body we can attain the Absolute Truth –amṛta.

Bonded jīvas have no idea about what is good or what is bad for them, that is why they always like to start argument. One boy has done a very brilliant result in his examination, so naturally all his father, mother, relatives — they all were very happy to celebrate one function due to this reason. The boy wanted to get the scooty of the father to go to one of his friend’s houses, but father was not at all ready because the boy was not at all a trained driver. Mother started speaking in favour of the boy that— “If you have your love for your son then why not you give the scooty for some time! The father was in dilemma and ultimately, he was bound to give the scooty to the boy. The boy started driving with the scooty to reach the spot very quickly and the ultimate result was that—when he came across a big truck, he could not control himself, so he was run over by that truck.

That is the final result of our argument with sādhu-guru-vaiṣṇava. We should get satisfied with whatever they suggest and always we should remember that this is the arrangement of the Supreme Lord. To rectify me Bhagavan has put me in that situation. Bhagavan is sarva mangal moye.  Everything what he does is for my ultimate good.  That conviction we have to develop in our life.”

Gaura Hari Hari Bol