Begin from the Root

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."

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Gosvami Maharaja:

Begin from the root of the tree and climb up from there.

Srila Vallabhacarya's bhajana, Sri Madhurastakam, tells us that everything is sweet (madhura) about Krsna, the original lord of sweetness. His Yamuna is madhura, His nikunjas (groves wherein Radha and Krsna perform their confidential amorous pastimes) are madhura, and His flute playing and sidelong glances are also very sweet.

Who is actually speaking about the sweetness of Krsna here? Is it Kamsa Maharaja, Aghasura, Bakasura, or Putana? Radhika herself is telling this; She alone is qualified to speak in this way. The history behind Her words is that a sakhi once told Her, "Krsna has left Vrndavana. He now has 16,108 queens, and millions of others also want to marry Him. Why do you have so much love and affection for that crooked Krsna? He has no love for you and no love for Vrndavana. Give Him up and try to forget Him forever." Srimati Radhika replied, "O sakhi, what you are saying is true, but I cannot forget Him. Everything about Him is so sweet"

Demons like Kamsa, Jarasandha, Duryodhana, Putana, Bakasura, Aghasura, Kesi, Canura, and Mustika were seeing that very same Krsna, but they thought of Him as a very cruel, powerful, and dangerous enemy. They did not see or experience His sweetness.

Do you know why I am speaking in this way? These demons are against Krsna. Therefore instead of experiencing His sweetness, they simply experience their own enmity. Similarly, if we imagine that we are meditating on Krsna's asta-kaliya-lila and we have not reached the stage of rati, we will also not experience His sweetness. Rather, we will experience our own lusty and other material desires. In this connection, Kamsa and other demons represent our material desires. Krsna, and the realization of the sweetness of Krsna, is our goal, but do not try to "jump up to the top of the tree." Begin from the root of the tree and climb up from there; then you can realize your goal.

aspiring to serve,
Rain-drop

The Mercy of the Spiritual Master

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."


Today I am very happy to be posting again, after nearly one year away. This will be a good encouragement for me to keep reading spiritual books and keep me accountable. Today, I am sharing from Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja.

Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja: Guru, the spiritual master, is the representative of Krsna. He is a very dear devotee of Krsna, who is caitya-guru, seated in the heart as Supersoul. The spiritual master is always there. Don't think that he is not physically present...He is always there. If you have developed love for the spiritual master, if you have developed that eye, ten you can see him, you can talk to him. And he is also present in the form of books, vani-rupa; his instructions are there.

<Katha Upanisad 1.2.23 quoted>

You cannot understand the absolute truth through your own mundane scholarship, you own mundane intelligence....those who are not devotees, who never come under a bona fide disciplic succession, cannot know it. 

 Then how can you know? ...Assuming a body, He personally comes as spiritiual master to teach paramatma tattva. He is caitya-guru. Unless He speaks, you cannot understand.

 ...by Krsna's mercy you get a bona fide spiritiual master, and by the mercy of the spiritual master you get Krsna. Paramatma arranges that meeting. So we must be very eager, very inquisitive, as Dhruva Maharaja was, to get the Lord. Paramatma arranged for Narada Muni to appear before him. "All right, he is very eager now. You go and show him the path, help him."

Similarly, for that disciple who is crying, "O my spiritual master has disappeared. How can I be helped? Who will teach me? How can I know? His instructions, books are there, but I cannot understand the purport. Although it is there, it is very difficult for me to understand it."

When you become very, very inquisitive, sastra has its mercy.......One who is very, very eager and very, very inquisitive, prays to his spiritual master, "O my spiritual master, you have departed. You are not physically present, so I cannot understand. I am such an ignorant fool. I have not qualification. Though your instructions are there, I cannot understand what you have said. Please help me."

- from After the Disappearance of Sri Guru, a darsana, 18 July 1986, Paris, France