Your anger can burn up the bridge you need to cross over this fearful material ocean

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga

Your anger can burn up the bridge you need to cross over this fearful material ocean

Date 15.04.2025

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhi Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvami Ṭhākura Prabhupāda out of his generous heart has done a great good to the world by pointing out the fundamental difference between who is a genuine sādhu and who is a false sādhu. Śrīla Prabhupāda very often used to say that— “Harikatha is that aprākṛta vāṇī which is only coming out of the lotus mouth of those pure devotees who are 100% established in śrauta panthā.” And he also many times used to say that most of us accept lime water as pure milk.

Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pradīpa Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj used to say that— “A seeming sādhu or a devotee is not necessarily a genuine one. Of course it is very difficult for a lay man to make a distinction between the two. Ṭhākur Bhaktivinode has exposed the ulterior motives of those pseudo-sādhu who hanker after either enjoyment or renunciation. Neither of them can ever lead us to the true realization of the Absolute. The devotional school is free from all such insidious motives. True devotion consists in the normal inclination of all pure souls, in their unfettered state, either for reverential or for confidential loving service to the Supreme Lord, according to the reverential or close attachment of an individual devotee. A genuine devotee seeks no wealth, no followers, no scholarship, not even salvation. He wants unconditional loving service to his Beloved Lord. This is the eternal function of all jīva-souls. Ṭhākur Bhaktivinode realized it fully in his life and preached it by personal practice. Unfortunately, in India as in all other countries of the world, the so-called preachers have been deprived of the eternal and untold blessings of Divine Love, owing to the misconception and wrong interpretation of the Transcendental ‘Name’ or ‘Word’ of God as well as of the real conception of unalloyed devotion which is bereft of the least tinge of the baseness of fruitive acts and dry gnosticism. Undeserving interpreters or preachers of religion of all countries of the world are responsible for such deadly misconceptions. Mechanical preaching by pseudo preachers cannot help the world in any way. In India, such false preachers are abundant and Ṭhākur Bhaktivinode thwarted all their vain attempts, and the intelligentsia of the country soon began to realize the truth of the preachings of this great Saint.”

Here the question may arise for why we at present are not able to follow in the footsteps of such great devotees like Śrīla Saccidānanda Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākur and Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda? Why we cannot see the safe bridge which was built by them so carefully to cross over this most painful material ocean so that finally we can reach our absolute destination? Are all their teachings already forgotten?  Instead of treating that bridge as the most precious jewel we like to set fire to it by criticizing pure Guru-Vaiṣṇava. Many times The Prabhupāda used to say— “We cannot allow the judgment about who is Vaiṣṇava and who is not - to go into the hands of those demons.”

If so, then what can be more dangerous than this? If we allow those so called devotees who all are full of kāma (I mean material desire or anyābhilās), who never heard any actual harikathā, how they pass judgment about who is Vaiṣṇava and who is not. Most of the people have some allergy against those messengers of that absolute truth. They want to destroy either Bhagavān or His Śakti. Each and every one who is not ready to compromise with them will be called a thief. Right? Simply because they are speaking about the absolute truth-absolute way-standing on the absolute platform heavily to save us from the trap of Māyādevī so we cannot bear them. We are bound to accept them as our enemy, that is the arrangement of Māyādevī.

Somebody wanted to put a question in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda that— “Are genuine saints (sādhus) respected in this world?”. The answer by Śrīla Prabhupāda was that— “In such a world which is full of duplicity only duplicitous persons are honoured. Genuine saints (sādhus), who don’t lead the masses along the wrong path, are not respected in this world. In modern times people are simply getting cheated by those who mislead the masses throughout a pretentious form of spiritual discourse has somehow emerged as the religion of the age (yuga-dharma). And because the true saints (sādhus) wish to expose wicked and unholy persons (asādhus) those same unholy cheaters bewilder the masses by condemning the true saints (sādhus) as unholy, duplicitous and thieves themselves in a plot to secure their escape. The illusory potency of the Lord, Māyā, never allows the jīvās to be sincere (niṣkapaṭa) and to that end she has been depriving the jīvās of the association of genuine saints (sādhus).”

A sādhu can only be known by his tremendous Sat-Guru-niṣṭhā, nama niṣṭhā and sampradāya-niṣṭhā etc. Many such āsuras can preach all over the world, but the authenticity of their preaching can only be justified by the standard set by Śrī Śrīla Svarūpa Gosāi. Massive approval of common mass is not the symptom of a successful preacher.

How unfortunate, stupid and ungrateful we are so that we always try to set fire to the actual bridge of Bhakti Siddhānta Vāṇī. At least if we could keep silent mood not to go against pure Guru-Vaiṣṇava then our painful actions driven by our anger attitude might not have burned the bridge that we need to cross over this ocean of material saṃsāra. It is like a foolish person who cutting himself from the branch he is already sitting on. Really we are wondering, how deeply our consciousness level has gone down. Degradation of humanity is really very painful. 

If one house or one company or one ship or one whole country or even the whole world going to  burn down, still that is nothing in comparison to destroying the bridge leading to the eternal life. By setting fire to this bridge in the form of anger towards pure Guru-Vaiṣṇavas we are destroying not only the pathway waiting for us, but also we are going to destroy the future of the coming generation.

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhi Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvami Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said that— “THE SPIRITUAL TEACHER IS OUR DEAREST FRIEND”

He explains that— “A sincere disciple does not serve the Guru to calm his nerves or to get rid of his sins for a while. A true Guru does not succumb to flattery and ingratiation. He will be satisfied only with the disciple's unconditional devotion, because it is the only thing that makes the Lord of Love answer our prayers. His powerful yet love-filled energy will calm the unrest raised by our disorderly materialistic activities.

The spiritual master will not allow us to fall into the nets of māyā spread everywhere. He does not intend to disappoint us in our search for spiritual treasures. On the contrary, he shows us a carefully drawn map to them so that we have the opportunity to learn and reflect on everything. From this map we learn about the nature of the terrain to be traveled and the surest and shortest route. If we wish to subordinate reality to our measurements and calculations, we do not need outside help. But then we become defenseless against the root problems of life. However, when we realize that the spiritual teacher is our dearest friend who has come to us by his causeless grace, when we realize that he will bring true and final deliverance from our ailments, then we will see - in his activity he is like the Lord of Love Himself.

The guru is superior to us in everything, he is the eternal origin in God Himself, the authorized representative of the Absolute Truth. All pseudo-gurus are devoid of this authority; they are only propagating their invented ideas that hide from us the appearance of the Lord, who is filled with eternity, absolute knowledge and infinite bliss, the Lord of love.”

Gaura Hari Hari Bol