He Who Has Given Me Eyes to See (1/2)

He Who Has Given Me Eyes to See

By Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Gosvami Maharaja

A conversation between Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaj and his spiritual master, His holiness Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj, March 14, 1998 at Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math, Chakra Tirtha, Puri.

Bodhayan Maharaj: The devotees have a question. What mood of the guru is transmitted to the disciple? Is it his service attitude?

Guru Maharaj: If that is so, then the disciple takes on the mood of a disciple.

BM: No, what I mean is: does the disciple necessarily have to serve the Lord in the same mood as his spiritual master?

GM: Just serve. The word sisya derives from the root sds, meaning “discipline.” It means one who submits to the spiritual master’s discipline. Have a look in the dictionary.

BM: They have another question. If someone cannot perfect his service in this lifetime, then how does he resume his relation with the spiritual master in the next life?

GM: This is not an easy question to answer, because the spiritual master is a perfected soul. The characteristics of such a perfected soul are found in the Bhakti-sandarbha and the Bhakti-rasamrta- sindhu. Just like our Babaji Maharaj. He was omniscient. I am talking about my param gurudeva. It is no small matter to be a siddha. I mean, he has to show the symptoms that are described in scripture. When one achieves a very elevated state in one’s bhajan, then certain signs are manifest.

BM: Does this mean that perfection cannot be achieved in a single lifetime?

GM: It could happen in a single moment. On the other hand, it may take many lifetimes. All is dependent on the qualifications of both the spiritual master and the disciple. Someone may only think that he has attained perfection.

And once the question of the guru has been settled, there is still the matter of the disciple. I have made disciples like that. They are never there when you need them. They come and fall prostrate before me with a great noise, but that’s it.

And they have gone and told Ram Das all about the siddhapranali. This siddha or that siddha. BM: Well their question is, if one doesn’t succeed in this life, then…

GM: Do your bhajan. Do your bhajan and then you can take up this siddha-pranali business. First you have to read the books. You have to understand the teachings of the Mahajanas.

BM: What I am getting at is, how will the disciple be reunited with his spiritual master in the next life?

GM: You have to take shelter of the spiritual master. There are many instances of great devotees achieving perfection in one lifetime-like Dhruva or Prahlad. But who has engaged in bhajan in the way they did? These people think that they can attain the highest level of understanding right at the very beginning. It takes lifetimes.

Those who advance quickly in this lifetime demonstrate that they have had experience of bhajan in previous lives. Such a person quickly attains perfection as a result of his devotional practice. After previous lives of experience, he gets the blessings of his guru or another saintly person and then attains the perfection of his practice in this lifetime.

What does perfection mean? It means attaining a very high level of worship, of bhajan-the kind of state that was achieved by Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj. He had practiced bhajan for many lifetimes previously. Then in this lifetime, he attained various mystic powers like omniscience.

Others think that they can attain perfection in just a few days. They think it is like some kind of mundane job. You work for a few days and you earn your monthly salary. This is perfection? You must commit your entire life to the service of the Lord. You are his eternal servant. What is the duty of someone who is the Lord’s eternal servant?

Srila Prabhupada was a perfected soul. Our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, was a siddha purush. He was engaged in the service of the Lord until the very last instant of his life. And what kind of service? He performed a sacrifice of chanting a billion Holy Names. That is no laughing matter. Besides this, he was a lifelong celibate. It is rare that anyone can renounce sexuality as completely as Srila Prabhupada did.

But we don’t need to discuss all these things. If you want to know what it means to be perfected in spiritual life, then read the Chaitanya Charitamrita and Bhahti-rasamrta-sindhu.

BM: Yes, but our question is: Yes, we know that the spiritual master is such a perfected soul, but in this lifetime, if we are not able to attain salvation, who will be our guru in the next i lifetime? Because, as Narottam Das has said, “He who has

given me the eyes to see is my master, birth after birth.”

GM: If he is merciful, he will appear to us again in another lifetime. If it happens, it happens. We can rely on the words of (someone like Narottam Das). In our next life, we will still have to take shelter of a spiritual master.

BM: But who will that be? Please explain.

GM: Take me for example. Did I know Gaura Kishor Das Babaji? I learned about him from my spiritual master. We learn who is the parama-guru, the parat-para-guru and the paramesthi guru from our own spiritual master.

BM: Is it the self-same spiritual master who returns? I mean, does he necessarily reappear in the same disciplic succession?

GM: What will happen to us after we die? And what will we do and how should we do it in our next lives are all things that will concern us when we get there. Right now, this is where we are. There is still a chance that we may fall down, or we might make still greater spiritual advancement. This is why we tell our disciples to engage in bhajan, right here and now. By constantly engaging in bhajan, you will come to the point of spiritual maturity.

Unfortunately people want to get to the perfected stage before mastering the rudiments of bhajan. We don’t have any attachment to the Holy Name and we are worrying about what happens on the perfected platform. Let’s first get a little taste for chanting. We are just thinking of how quickly we can get through our rounds. And then we say the spiritual process is not working?

And these fellows come here and, after a few days of chanting and reading a few books, think, “Isn’t it time I got this siddhaprandli or whatever?”

BM: No, they just want to know about the next life, whether…

GM: In their next life, if they are lucky they will encounter a genuine spiritual master and will then be able to concern themselves with all these things. When they meet the spiritual master, they will follow his instructions to engage in bhajan and they will get this realization.

There are many so-called spiritual masters who are nothing more than pretenders. Srila Prabhupada never did anything like that. It is important to worship on the raga-marga. Prabhupada would quote,

arddhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vmdavanarh ramyo hacid updsana vraja-vadhu-vargena ya kalpita

“Our worshipable lord is the son of the king of Vraja; His abode is Vrindavan. There is no more beautiful mode of worship than that conceived by the brides of Vraja.”

This is the mode of worship into which we have been initiated. This is our diksha mantra. But is it achieved simply by speaking of it? This is all just invention, and it is called siddha. But that is like alu siddha-boiled potato, or some other boiled vegetables.

Attaining the perfected state in worship is not an easy matter. There are signs that one has attained this state. These are described in detail in the scriptures. What is raga-marga? iste svarasiki ragah. In Vrindavan, the devotees were all haranguing me with this raga-marga business. Did I not say that we were following the raga-marga? But first you must have anurdga for the Holy Name. Let that come first.

Raga-marga, raga-marga: raga can also mean “anger.” What we really need is anuraga-“affectionate attachment” or “love.” And it must be spontaneous-svabhdviki. This attitude must be directed to the ista, the supreme object of worship. This can be compared to the way a cow feels for its calf or a mother for her child. A mother thinks of her child’s welfare before her own. In danger, a mother makes sure her child is living before seeing to her own survival. After giving birth, the cow forgets

all the suffering of labor in the joy of seeing her calf. You have seen the cow, licking the calf after delivering it, no?

This is what we call spontaneous love:

vraja-vasira krsne haya svabhavika priti krsnero svabhavika priti vraja-vasira prati

“The residents of Vraja have spontaneous love for Krishna, and he is also naturally affectionate to them.”What is this natural love or spontaneous affection, svabhavika priti? I have already suggested the example of the cow and her calf. You have all seen that. A bitch that has given birth to puppies is also attached in maternal affection to them.’ Such is the pull of maternal affection!

We want to have this kind of spontaneous attraction to Krishna, but how much bhajan are we in fact doing? Our bhajan is in our words only. We hold our japa beads in our hand, but can barely stay awake.

Hari Das Thakur spent twenty-four hours a day in bhajan. What did Mahaprabhu say of him when he left this world? That the world had lost a jewel…

haridasa achila prthivira ‘siromani’ taha vina ratna-sunya ha-ila medini

“Haridasa Thakura was the crown jewel on the head of this world; without him, this world is now bereft of its valuable jewel.” (CC 3.11.97)

Read Jaiva-dharma and you will understand all these things. BM: In that case, Maharaj…

GM: The future of a disciple can be determined by the way he does bhajan. Even then, he may run into trouble at some time in the future. Difficulties are caused by committing Vaishnava aparadh.

yadi vaisnava-aparadha uthe hati mata upade va chinde, tara sukhi’ yaya pata

“If the devotee commits an offense at the feet of a Vaisnava while cultivating the creeper of devotional service in the material world, his offense is compared to a mad elephant that uproots the creeper and breaks

it. In this way the leaves of the creeper are dried up.” (CC 2.19.156)

First we have to chant the Holy Name purely. Are we doing that? Where is the proof that we are doing it? The signs have to be apparent. The sign is that the tongue cannot give up chanting for a moment. Only thoughts of Krishna enter the mind and nothing else. This is called anuraga, anurdga for Krishna’s name.

Krishna’s name and he himself are not two different things. Read the life story of Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj and you will find ample evidence of this.

BM: What we all want to know is how will we recognize you in another lifetime and how we will be able to take shelter of you again.

GM: That will happen by the will of the Lord and the blessings of the spiritual master. Nevertheless, I think that when searching for the spiritual master… I searched and found a spiritual master in this life. Do we have any memory of previous lives? And it will be in our next lives.

Let the Lord take care of our destination in future lives. Then, when the time comes, we will make contact with the spiritual master and receive his mercy. Is it possible for everyone to take shelter of a siddha punish?

Srila Prabhupada took permission of Bhaktivinode Thakur to go to Gaura Kishor Das Babaji, but Babaji Maharaj was extremely renounced. When Prabhupada saw him, he was shouting, “Ha Radhe! Ha Radhe!” and tears were flowing from his eyes onto his chest. Prabhupada said, “I had heard of the renunciation of Raghunath Das Goswami, but I have seen it manifested in this world in the person of Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj.”

So I am telling you, read the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Chaitanya Bhagavata and the books of Bhaktivinode Thakur, like Jaiva-dharma. And as we engage in our bhajan, we should try to understand the process of advancement so that we can see where we are and how developed our bhajan is.

But these people are not doing any bhajan at all and they are crying for the raga-marga. They don’t understand that we are initiated in the raga-marga-our bhajan is in the raga-marga.

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanariv rdmyo kacid updsand vraja-vadhu-vargena yd kalpita

“Our worshipable lord is the son of the king of Vraja; His abode is Vrindavan. There is no more beautiful mode of worship than that conceived by the brides of Vraja.”

The Lord taught the raga-marga. We are initiated in the raga-marga.

braja-gopi-bhava, hoibe swabhava, ano-bhava na rohibe

Bhaktivinode sings, “I shall take my birth in the town of King Vrsabhanu and be married in Yavatagram. My sole disposition and character shall be that of a cowherd girl, and I shall know no other.” (Saranagati, Siddhilalasa, 15)

BM: Maharaj, they are not asking about the raga-marga. They want to know if they do not attain perfection in this lifetime, then how will they be able to find you again in another life?

GM: The Lord is then merciful to them and brings them to the shelter of the spiritual master. He gives them the necessary qualifications. This is called destiny or “the unseen” because it is difficult to see how it is working in one’s life. I am a very insignificant being. I don’t consider myself to be a spiritual master. I say, “Srila Prabhupada is the guru. All of you take shelter of Srila Prabhupada.”

BM: What is the underlying truth operating here, Maharaj? We have taken shelter of a particular person, but if we cannot achieve our goal in this life, then…

GM: The good deeds that we have performed in this lifetime will follow us and give us the qualifications and the capacity to find a spiritual master in the next life. But it is not necessarily the same specific person that we will encounter.

And then there are offenses, like offenses to the devotees, to the Holy Name, to the Lord’s form and to his person.

BM: But what if someone hasn’t committed offences and still hasn’t attained salvation. How will he find the same guru?

GM: The spiritual master in another life-that is another matter. That will take place in the next life. But we can pray right now. We should pray for completion, fullness. That will be the perfection of our prayer. As we engage in our bhajan, continuously, persistently, it will happen.

I have been initiated, but do I act like an initiated devotee? I mean that some of us seek wealth, others profit, adoration or prestige. We can observe all these desires in certain devotees. How many of them really want to engage in bhajan?

We have to pray to the Lord, and we have to engage in the bhajan of the Holy Name. And that means aviksepena satatyam-“constantly and without being distracted.” Have we reached that stage?

We are chanting and thinking of all kinds of other things. We think of whatever we happen to see. We think of what we will have to do later in the day. There are so many types of distracting thoughts. Do you call this really chanting the Holy Name? Where is the constancy and the freedom from distraction?

While we chant, we must think of nothing but the Lord. But in fact, we don’t think of him at all. We don’t even try. We memorize a few verses, give a lecture or two and think that we have finished our business.

Nevertheless, it is true that the Lord has ordered us to preach his message everywhere. Mahaprabhu said,

prthivite ache jata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibek mora nama

“My name will be glorified in every town and village of the entire world.” (Cbh 3.14.126)

Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Lord himself. At the same time, Jagadananda Pandit reports in the Prema- vivarta.

sadhu paowa kastha tiara jivera jdniya sadhu-guru-rope krsna dila nadiya

“Krishna knew that in the age of Kali it would be very difficult to find a genuine saint, so he appeared as a saintly guru in the town of Nadia.” (Prema-vivarta, 7)

If you want to know what the word sadhu means, then analyze Mahaprabhu’s life. To be a sadhu means to be like Mahaprabhu. You want to know what a guru should be like? Study Mahaprabhu’s example.

Jagadananda says this in Premavivarta. You don’t need to look anywhere else. Mahaprabhu is the exemplary sadhu, the exemplary guru. He set the standard.

apani karimu bhakta-bhava angikare apani acari’ bhakti sikhaimu sabare apane na kaile dharma sikhana na yaya ei ta’ siddhanta gita-bhagavate gaya

“I shall accept the role of a devotee, and I shall teach devotional service by practicing it Myself. Unless one practices devotional service himself, he cannot teach it to others. This conclusion is indeed confirmed throughout the Gita and Bhagavatam.” (CC 1.3.20-1)

What Mahaprabhu did was first to behave in accordance with the teachings that he then advised others to take up. Practicing and preaching are not two unrelated things. This is why Sanatan Goswami glorified Hari Das Thakur by saying,

apane acare keha, na kare pracara pracara karena keha, na karena acara

‘acara’, ‘pracara’, — namera karaha ‘dui’ karya tumi — sarva-guru, tumi jagatera arya

“Some behave very well but do not preach the cult of Krsna consciousness, whereas others preach but do not behave properly. You simultaneously perform both duties in relation to the holy name by your personal behavior and by your preaching. Therefore you are the spiritual master of the entire world, for you are the most advanced devotee in the world” (CC 3.4.102-3)

Sanatan Goswami said these things to Hari Das Thakur. So if we are to publish books, we should publish Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata. We should not think that we can invent some new doctrine.

BM: That being the case, Maharaj, our question was, in this lifetime…

GM: Look, everything that I have done in this lifetime-if I have engaged in pure bhajan, the pious deeds that I have accumulated will all have their effect in my next life. In this way I will be able to find a bona fide spiritual master. That is why I will be able to do so.

I thought, in my previous life I must have had a guru like this, because that made it possible for me to find a guru again in this one. That previous guru gave me this guru, he gave me the disciplic succession, the Bhdgavata-parampara, and told me to follow them. Don’t worry about the next life.

This is what I was saying. In this lifetime we have seen rainfall. In the next life, rain will fall in exactly the same way. Now in this life I have seen the ideal image of what bhajan is meant to be. As a result, I can expect to encounter the same ideal in my next life. I will be able to find a guru of the same caliber.

But where is my service to the spiritual master? I am sitting quietly next to the spiritual master and spending his money.

Just spending money. Paying obeisances means spending money. What is the meaning of the eightfold prostration or the fivefold prostration?

First take up bhajan. First see that your enthusiasm for chanting increases. Ask yourself, is my mind free from distractions? When that day comes, you will know that you have received the blessings of the Holy Name. Otherwise, you will get nowhere by discussing all these esoteric aspects of devotional life, or by having all these exaggerated expectations. And if you don’t achieve anything in this lifetime, then how will you be better situated in the next?

If I can chant properly in this lifetime, if I can acquire a taste for chanting, then the Divine Name will be merciful to me again in the next life and bestow that same enthusiasm on me.

You have all come to this country to hear about Mahaprabhu. First learn Bengali. Learn Mahaprabhu’s language. Then you will be able to study Mahaprabhu’s scriptures. There are so many purifying processes that you must undergo. If you can accept them, you will make progress.

So many people have come. There was that one fellow, Schultz. He was a German. He spent day and night at the Yoga Pith translating all of Mahaprabhu’s books into German. This kind of exclusive determination is good.

But we also hope that the people of our own country will learn about Mahaprabhu and his teachings. That would be a good thing, indeed.

But as far as what happens in our next life, that is up to Mahaprabhu. All depends on the blessings of Krishna, the spiritual master and the Vaishnavas.

BM: Maharaj, I read in the Gaudiya magazine where Srila Prabhupada said that if any of his disciples do not achieve salvation, he would come back personally in order to save them.

GM: If the required qualifications are there, if one has eagerness for bhajan, and so on. Do you think that next life is something simple to understand, like child’s play? You still have to worship the Lord. You still have to engage in bhajan.

Even so, it must be said that if you had no sukriti, then all of you would never have come to the land of Mahaprabhu from so many foreign countries. This would have never happened if you had not had some experience in previous lives. Whatever we have is a result of our previous sadhana and bhajan.

At some time or another, all these devotees came into contact with a saintly person, perhaps in their childhoods, just as Raghunath Das Goswami served Hari Das Thakur as a young boy. These eternally perfect souls were associates of the Lord himself, yet they showed how important it is to have the blessings of a true saint. If one does not get such blessings, one will never come into contact with a spiritual master.

I myself remember thinking after I was initiated by Srila Prabhupada that I must have had some kind of sukriti from my previous births and that for this reason I had been able to encounter a spotless personality like him. Srila Prabhupada’s entire life was without blemish. It is inconceivable for people like us for whom such a life is impossible.

This is why Prabhupada was able to challenge the Babajis when he went to bring Gaura Kishor Das Babaji’s remains to this side of the Ganges. They said to him, “You haven’t taken sannyas. You haven’t taken bhek. We are Babajis.” Prabhupada then challenged them, “Which one of you has not had sexual relations in the past six months?” And no one came forward. You have heard this story? “Which one of you did not sleep with a woman last night?” He roared this question at them. You can read about this in the biography of Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj.

A doctor who was there asked Prabhupada, “How can you tell if they are telling the truth or not?”

Prabhupada said, “They

are bloodsuckers. They are sucking the blood from the body of my Guru Maharaj! Who dares touch him?”

A genuine acharya can speak fearlessly like this. This is no simple matter. Therefore I know that since I have taken shelter of Prabhupada’s lotus feet, no inauspiciousness can come to me. This I can say with confidence.

BM: The tattva is not this, then, that in my next life I will get the very same guru that I have in this lifetime?

GM: This is a matter of sukriti. As a result of previous good deeds, you have the good fortune to meet a genuine spiritual master. Then you get to hear about pure devotional service. This opportunity is the result of previous lifetimes lived meritoriously. And if you continue to live in this way in this birth, you will go on to improve in future lives.

But there is also the chance that you attain perfection in just a moment’s time. just like King Khatvanga, who came to the Lord’s lotus feet in half a moment. This kind of thing happens when there is a special blessing.

You should know that if you have been able to take shelter of a genuine spiritual master in this life, it is the result of good deeds done in a previous lifetime. “Because a Sat Guru blessed me in a previous birth, I have been able to find a spiritual master again in this lifetime.”

Ordinarily, when a jiva gives up one body he forgets everything that he did in that lifetime. He then takes another birth according to his karma. So if you want to assure yourself of a good future, then take advantage of the opportunities that this life affords you. Seek out the blessings of the spiritual master and you have nothing to worry about on this account.

guru-krpa-jale nasi mai visaya-anala radha-govinda bolradha-govinda bol

“Put out the fire of material life with the water of the guru’s blessings. Sing the names of Radha Govinda! Sing the names of Radha Govinda!” (Gitavali, Sri-nama-kirtana, 5)

The mercy of the spiritual master is available to anyone who sincerely serves him. If I do so, then I am sure to get an auspicious result from it. Then in a next lifetime, I will again have the chance to take shelter of a genuine spiritual master and continue on the path of worshiping the Lord.

BM: Maharaj, in Narottam’s song we worship the guru saying, “He who has given me the eyes to see is my master, birth after birth.” Does that mean that in my next life I will meet the very same person who is my guru in this lifetime?

GM: It is possible.

BM: That is what we would like to know. What is the philosophy behind this?

GM: It is possible that the same person will become your guru again. But right now we have no way of knowing. If you have taken shelter of a spiritual master then you should know that you have had blessings of a guru in a previous life. You should not be proud. Humility is a most important qualification in devotional life.

You were born in the family of my godbrother Madana Mohan Prabhu. He had a spontaneous attraction to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. He would read the Gaudiya magazine day and night. He would send copies to all his relatives. There were very few householders like that.

BM: So at present, we see that in certain mathas, in order to preserve their institutions, some spiritual masters are saying that if you take shelter of them you will get everything, but if you go elsewhere you won’t. The disciplic succession seems to have split in two on this issue. Is this authorized according to the scriptures or is it against the scriptures?

GM: The idea is that if you have good deeds, namely previous devotional activities or bhajan, then you will certainly be able to take shelter of a spiritual master. If you don’t have that, only some external show, or only an allegiance to one party or another, then you are likely to get attached to karma or to the moods of worshipers of other gods. There are so many. But Mahaprabhu completely rejected the paths of karma and jnana.

karma-kanda jnana-kanda kebala bisera bhanda amrta baliya jeba khaya

nana joni sada phire kadarja bhaksana kare tara janma adhah”-pate jaya

“The sections of the Veda dealing with fruitive activities and spiritual knowledge are reservoirs of poison. Anyone who drinks from them thinking them to contain the nectar of the gods are doomed to repeated births in various species, where they will eat the unspeakable. Such a person’s life is one of degradation.” (Prema-bhakti-candrika, 8)

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