THE BONA FIDE SPIRITUAL MASTER (part4)
What do you think that it means….that one should please the spiritual master? Someone said in the heart…Yahhh….of course if we follow the standards to a reasonable level the spiritual master will be pleased, he will be pleased but not yet completely pleased, he will be pleased and he will give blessings but when the spiritual master is deeply pleased within his heart then we get his greatest blessings. That is very important, it is not all about us perfectly following the order of the spiritual master either, so it’s his blessings that are coming and more that he is pleased: greater that blessing automatically is, because when the spiritual master is truly pleased then Krishna is very pleased, then automatically the mercy will come down, the mercy will reign upon us and everything will happen, …. So one must really go out of the way to really please the spiritual master, somehow or other and just carry on till he really is, till he really is… it may not be so quick and easy.
Prabhupada was a very kind spiritual master, a very merciful spiritual master, a very qualified spiritual master and…. a very demanding spiritual master.. who would not settle for any compromise, he really wanted, he really wanted everything first class. And if it wasn’t he would point it out and he would constantly, constantly point to his disciples to take care of this and to take care of that to be more serious and so on. That is a fact, that is our position .
So the guru disciple relationship is never a casual relationship. Nothing like I have a cat, a canary and a guru! not like anything in that category! Right, our guru is not a pet, it ‘s not like “ yess do you have a guru?”
“ Yeasss ido , yes I sure do… and a bona fide one as well” “ oh really?”
“oh yess a first class guru I have, from the Brahma Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya, one of the four bona fide sampradayas mentioned in the Padma purana”
“ oh yess, really first class”…….. Like a pet with papers!
No…. Guru is basically the most important person in our life.. Even a husband can tell his wife that! … or the other way round vice versa…. Guru first, right, …Yes… that is actually the fact…. Our spiritual master is to be taken as good as Krishna and.. Krishna undoubtedly is the most important person present at any time. When we had our opening at the Delhi temple in India that was a big event because the prime minister of India came for the occasion and only big VV.I.P s allowed, heavy security, black cat commandos were checking things out and dogs were sniffing everywhere and metal detectors and finally if one was clear for the VVIP special badge he was in.
So I remember the occasion when the prime minister pointed out that it was a very very special occasion and it sure was: everyone was really excited.. because the most important person , the very most important person in all of India was present that day in our temple that day, namely……Lord Krishna. And the prime minister understood that and for that I appreciated him very much,…. right, that he understood that the most important person present here today is Krishna. And again here we are again assembled and the most important person here is Krishna, and where ever we are the most important person present is Krishna.. because Krishna is omnipresent, He is present everywhere every moment. So this is a big mental adjustment.
First of all you have to consider that “ well I guess that I am not the most important person present” and the next thing can be then that my wife is also not the most important person present, then even the little bachha ( kid) is not the most important person present….right? even more than that: Krishna is the most important person present. We see that in the resident s in Vrndavana, we see when Lord Brahma stole the calves and the cowherd boys for one year Krishna took the place of those calves and the cowherd boys and it is said that all the mothers loved their children more than ever before, all the parents, the fathers also…. They loved their children more than ever, more than ever because Krishna had taken their place. So they loved Krishna more than their own children,,Ahh! This is the spirit – Krishna!
So the spiritual master he is a representative of Krishna. Krishna is of course present in the form of his deity but most of the time the deity doesn’t speak to us, but the spiritual master does and he says when he is pleased and when he is not pleased and what he wants and it’s not always so easy….but we must do… that is a major thing , we must allow for the spiritual master to decide what to do with our lives. Not easy at all. What to be, what to be in this life.
So a lower level of relating to the spiritual master is that we are trying to present our own plans and get them approved….( Mahara says in a funny voice )“Please accept my application.. please put your official guru stamp…yes my guru approved it, he said it was alright”
Well….Yes this is how the relationship of the spiritual master is to be taken. We are supposed to not just ask for approval, that’s really the lower level, the higher level is where we ask him…what does he like, what would he really like us to do…That’s scary because he could say anything…oh yes and then you are supposed to do, it’s absolute also, ….the best thing is when the spiritual master comes fold your hands and smile and if he asks how are you just say” fine!” that’s very safe…. And then you can listen to his lectures and you can take all the good instructions from his lectures and for personal matters you consult other devotees, who are not absolute authorities and you ask them advice and then you can decide do you like the advice or not and if you don’t like it , you don’t take it and in this way you can have a spiritual master and stay out of trouble…. A very good system , works well!
So… No… No… one must actually, as soon as one experience a problem in spiritual life so as stated in Caitanya Caritamrita one must in a humble submission present it before the spiritual master and ask him “what should I do now?” And again whatever he says we must follow……. It is scary!
So therefore in the beginning the relationship between guru and disciple is often based on fear, often based on fear because to have anyone who is such an absolute authority in your life is sort of intimidating…quite….then eventually….by following the directions of the spiritual master that relationship can develop into appreciation….into friendship and then eventually into love….that will be the advanced stage of guru disciple relationship. So it is a very serious commitment to have a spiritual master and one should understand from that point on… spiritual life becomes a priority in life……….contd tomo
