Srila Gurudeva, the Supreme Treasure

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

O Gurudeva, you are so merciful. I offer my humble pranama unto you and am praying from the core of my heart that, with the torchlight of divine knowledge, you open my eyes which have been blinded by the darkness of ignorance.


I LOVE this picture of Gurudeva. It is a very favorite of mine. I look at this picture, and there is Gurudeva looking straight back at me. I feel like he is seeing everything in me, and yet he has such a sweet smile on his face. I am soo foolish, yet he still smiles. And how much love is in that gaze!!

After Gurudeva entered nitya-lila, I attended a very nice program in his honor. This particular picture of Gurudeva was there. When I offered my flower to him, I felt like, yes, his photo is non-different from him, he is right here before me and he is looking right at me. It was a wonderful feeling.

This colored copy I found in Sripad Madhav Maharaja's new book, "Srila Gurudeva: the Supreme Treasure", which has just recently came out. I snagged an early copy from Vasanti didi. I am reading it now, and it is SO nectarean! Madhav Maharaja has so much love for Gurudeva. He has so much knowledge; he even said, Gurudeva would make him give classes on guru-tattva all the time.

I had to stop, even absorbed in my reading as I was, when I came to this picture...it just makes me cry and smile and laugh and cry again...

Here is an excerpt from Sripad Madhav Maharaja's book:

"Service to guru is the backbone of devotional absorption. Whoever wants to enter into the realm of bhajana must first dedicate his lie to the service of a bona fide guru. Such a guru will never consider the disciple to be his own property. Rather, he will consider the disciple to belong to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the Divine Couple, Sri Sri Radha-Krsna. The bona fide guru will transfer the disciple's attachment and dedication for himself (for guru) to Them.

Although he is an expansion of Sri Krsna, he never considers himself to be Sri Krsna; he always thinks that he is His eternal servant.

Our beloved Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Goswami Maharaja, is such a guru. Whoever reads this work will have a clear conception of the subject of Srila Gurudeva and his teachings. This book will be like a lighthouse that guides those aspirants who want to progress in Krsna consciousness to reach spiritual perfection. Just as Srila Vyasadeva got inspiration by hearing the life history of his gurudeva, Sri Narada Rsi, one can get inspiration from hearing the biography of Srila Gurudeva. Without hearing about and serving sri guru, no one can advanced in Krsna consciousness either now, or in the future.

The mercy of sri guru and the vaishnavas is causeless, as it is independent of any material cause or piety. It is only by such causeless mercy that the jiva can obtain the merciful, sidelong glance of the eternally youthful couple of Vraja, Sri Radha and Sri Krsna, and join Them in Their eternal loving pastimes."

Srila Gurudeva ki JAI! Sri sri guru-varga ki JAI!