Maintaining Eagerness

PICTURES LATER, SORRY


The following is from a booklet of lectures called "After the Disappearance of Sri Guru" by Srila Gour Govinda Swami:


Devotee asks: I was eager to have guru. Now I have guru, but how do I maintain this constant eagerness?

Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja: You must maintain it by thinking, "Out of Krishna's mercy I met my guru. But how can I always get the association of my guru?"

You should be very eager to always have the association of guru and listen to him. Unless you listen to your guru, your doubts cannot be dispelled. If you cannot get the mercy of guru, you cannot get Krishna. So you should be very, very eager, "How can I best serve my guru and please him?"

If gurudeva is pleased, then Krishna will be pleased and and you will get Krishna's mercy; if gurudeva is displeased then where is your position, where is your place? So our concern, our duty, is to please the spiritual master. How is that done?

guru mukha padma vakya, cittete koriya aikya, ara na kariha mana asa
One should carry out the orders of the spiritual master. Gurudeva has many instructions. Some of his instructions are general, and some are specific. General instructions are for everyone. Specific instructions are what he tells specific, individual disciples. One should be especially eager to follow the individual instructions that gurudeva gave to you.

One should think, "Gurudeva has ordered me to do this. How can I best do it? How can I best please my spiritual master? How can I best serve and please him? Doing so I will get the mercy of Krishna. Otherwise, my life is unsuccessful."

...One should think, "Oh, I can't do anything. I'm such a wretched, unqualified, unworthy person! I cannot render any service to my guru. I cannot please him. I have not gotten anything. I have not got the mercy of my guru. I have not pleased him. I have not taken advantage of meeting my guru. Oh, what shall I do? I have not done anything. I do not have the mercy of my guru! How can I get his mercy?"

You should always think like that. ...This is how you maintain eagerness.



Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja ki jai!

At one point he adds that one should not think, "I have got guru, I have pleased him," because then we will not have eagerness.

In some ways I think this is hard, and painful - to think that we have not gotten the mercy, when we are so fortunate to have met Srila Gurudeva. But, we have to have that greed for more, for his mercy, greed to be a good disciple, to follow his instructions. And I have found that when I am trying to be humble and when I am thinking, "Am I pleasing guru?" then actually there is a kind of spiritual satisfaction that comes, somehow, of knowing this is good, to think like this...

I want to maintain eagerness.

If anyone has anything to add, please do.