“Who all always try to find faults with Vaiṣṇavas? Those who are averse to hari bhajan, they are cheated by their external material sense organs like eyes, ears, nose, etc—which all are their only support of life, so they always try to find out some faults with Vaiṣṇavas. To try to prove that I am much more important personality than other Vaiṣṇavas [those who all are eternal parṣads of Śrīla Prabhupāda, I mean those eternal members of Sri Gaudiya Matha] is not at all bhakti, this can only prove abhakti.”

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(From Upadeśāmṛta of Prabhupāda)

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What mentality should a devotee maintain?

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Answer by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur

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The Kena Upanisad states that having received specific powers from the omnipotent Supreme Lord, the demigods perform their respective duties. When that power is withdrawn, the demigods lost their potency. Devotees who follow in Sri Rupa’s footsteps rather than placing faith in themselves attribute all glories to their source. We do everything for the pleasure of Sri Krsna Caitanya, Sri Rupa, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur, and our spiritual master. As soon as we give up the path of devotional service, the path of subordination to Krsna, false ego and illusion swallow us.

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“I have one German Godbrother—Sadānanda prabhu. He was very learned. He would stay up all night translating the word of śāstras of Prabhupāda in German. We should have such determination.”

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(Paramahaṁsa Ācārya Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Pramode Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja)

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'Service to guru' cannot imply engaging in jealous competition with other devotees of the Lord for one's Prestige, lured by the greed to acquire promising disciples and affluent wealth

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Using the name of the Lord or the spiritual preceptor to procure money or goods for one's maintenance or as a livelihood is a grievous offence, tantamount to the stealing of gold from a Brahmin. Even to meditate on the seriousness of that offence is enough to make the hairs on one's body automatically rise. Some other examples of such heinous offences are to earn money by exhibition of the Holy Deity of the Lord, to sell the Holy Name of the Lord or to make money in the name of conducting discourses on the Holy Bhagavatam. In short, to put a front of service to the spiritual master, after being initiated into the Holy Name but leading instead a whimsical life of unregulated enjoyment of the senses, in opposition to his orders and those of the Vaishnavas, is never to be considered in the domain of spirituality short of losing one's claim as being a disciple. Without fully executing the orders of the guru, one can never contribute to one's own welfare, what to speak of others !

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The actual purport of the word 'service to guru' is to gather all the important instructions of the guru from his books, magazines or letters and to sit together in the august assembly of like-minded devotees in order to attempt deciphering the inner import of these instructions. In this way, one should attempt to gain for himself the real wealth of the spiritual master. In the episode of Ekalavya, a hunter in the annals of history who became a very great bowman by simply meditating on the great Dronacharya as his guru, later when his guru found out about his acquired marksmanship, he became displeased because it was contrary to his plan. Likewise at every step, we have to realize whether we are pleasing guru with our actions or not. 'Service to guru' cannot connote to act whimsically without any consideration, regardless of whether the guru is pleased or not with our service.

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The spiritual master will never accept the independent behavior cum service of such an arrogant disciple. Further, 'service to guru' cannot imply engaging in jealous competition with other devotees of the Lord for one's Prestige, lured by the greed to acquire promising disciples and affluent wealth. In the execution of real service there is no scope for arrogance. For as the day goes by, one becomes more and more humble, one's level of tolerance and readiness to offer respects to others increases, at the same time he does not hanker after respect for himself and due to these divine qualities, the tongue becomes attuned to chanting the Holy Name constantly. When the spiritual master is pleased, all perfections are attained naturally as a matter of course.

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At that time there will be no more differentiation between the Name, Form, and Qualities of the Lord. The Name will be cognized in complete transcendence above the material qualities without the slightest touch of the material modes of nature. Upon complete avoidance of the ten offences, the pure Name will manifest which will enable one to become a recipient of the real mercy of the Lord. Out of compassion the spiritual master has descended from the spiritual world to distribute this love of Godhead to all the conditioned souls, and what trouble has he not undergone in order to do it! The only price to pay in order to receive this pure devotion is intense greed for attaints it, devoid of hypocrisy. Artifice in one's dealings can never contribute to the achievement of such wealth of devotion. On the contrary, by that serious offence to guru, one may have to undergo perdition or damnation in the very sense of the word. The spiritual master is overflowing with compassion and he gives mercy to the most fallen, poor and even to those without any apparent good qualities. The only stipulation for this mercy is complete shelter of his lotus feet without any tinge of duplicity. In this world, there is no other well-wisher than the spiritual master. Conversely to receive that causeless mercy, our life should be unalloyed surrender to his feet.

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Those arrogant disciples who think they have more knowledge than their spiritual master consequently try to rectify him in myriad ways. They tend to change the style of preaching and code of conduct established by the spiritual master in accordance with their own unique conception, in the hope that they will be recognized by the gullible public and that the outcome will be the ensuing name and fame. Consequently, they will be implicated by the serious offence of considering the spiritual master to be an ordinary person and that will entail not only their own destruction but also that of all their many followers. Certainly in the way it is offensive to depict the guru as an ordinary man; on the other hand, it is equally offensive to recognize a charlatan as guru. Unfortunately, in the framework of committing such offences there is no possibility of being able to perform genuine service to the spiritual master or the Supreme Lord, for all those types of works merely demonstrate one's egocentric character.

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One important point of consideration is whether the spiritual master will accept my service or has he accepted it? Blindly ignoring such crucial type of discrimination in our devotional service and acting in a whimsical manner for the fulfillment of our questionable motives will mean wasting our hard efforts and money for nothing. Besides, there will be no spiritual gain except warranting indulgence in sense gratification. Those who are very inclined to illicit sex may also work very hard and spend huge sums of money in the imitation of doing service for the spiritual master as his beloved associate, but in an envious, competitive spirit, such service also cannot come in the context of guru seva. In the unblemished service to guru there will be no question of arrogance or jealousy. There will be no question of giving any form of pain or distress to others. Rather in his humble mood, such a disciple will be reflecting whether the spiritual master will accept any service from a foolish person like him, while he will always be aspiring for his blessings. There will be a restless longing to engage in the service of Sri Guru. In fact, the arrogant mood of thinking oneself to be the only one who knows what service is and how to do it better than anyone else will never exist. Especially, that type of puffed up mood is not favourable in the execution of proper service to guru. For that matter, those individuals whose hearts are internally polluted with all sorts of bad qualities like jealousy, hatred or enmity, whatever devotional sentiment they may profess to have is just a sham, for the goddess of devotion forsakes them. In the course of Iosing that mercy by offences, they will be instead overcome by intense desires to enjoy and exploit material nature. To mitigate their passionate desires they will make a facade of serving the Guru, Vaishnavas and the Supreme Lord and they will caricature as Vaishnavas, too. The actual truth will be that these so-called devotees have lost their propensity to serve or follow any devotee. The absence of devotion contributes to the real destruction of a person. Offences to the lotus feet of guru and devotees will make one's heart filled with sensual desires to enjoy the fairer sex and to gain wealth by any means. An offshoot of such unwanted aspirations will be also the desire for name, fame and adoration. In spite of these unfavourable currents, the fallen devotee being completely enmeshed in sense gratification will be unable to fathom his impending doom. He remains engaged in all sorts of ungainly activities with his hypocritical nature on the increase.

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I only pray that my revered spiritual master blesses and enables me to be able to serve and fulfil his divine wishes under the guidance of his devoted followers.

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The prayer of this humble soul is that I may always remain in that role of being servant of his servant.

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(Paramahaṁsa Ācārya Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Pramode Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja)