Our Spiritual Master

PRABUPADA


PRABHUPADA-GURU OF THE UNIVERSE

PRABHUPADA IS OUR PERSONAL GUIDE

"I shall remain your personal guidance physically present or not physically. As I am getting personal guidance from my guru maharaja." Srila Prabhupada July 14, 1977.

No one should become a spiritual master nor a relative, father, mother, worshipable Deity or husband if he cannot help a person escape the imminent path of death. (SB 5.5.18)

GURU SAVES US FROM BIRTH, DEATH, OLD AGE AND DISEASE

Every living entity is wandering within the universe, subjected to the law of karma and transmigrating from one body to another and from one planet to another. Therefore the whole Vedic process is meant to save the wandering living entities from the clutches of maya birth, death, disease and old age. This means stopping the cycle of birth and death.
(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 3.181 p)

GURU DELIVERS SUFFERING HUMANITY

Gurus first business is to deliver the suffering humanity from the forest fire of this material existence. This material existence is compared with forest fire. You know there is fire in the forest. Big forest, nobody goes there to set fire. But automatically there is fire. Therefore this material existence has been compared with the forest fire. Here everyone wants to be happy, but there is fire. Even if we do not want, there is fire, miseries. Because this place, this material world, is place for suffering This place is for suffering. But under the spell of maya, sufferings, we have taken as happiness or enjoying. This is called maya. Actually there is no enjoyment here. Where is enjoyment? When we have to die, then where is the question of enjoyment? Does anyone want to die? No. Nobody wants to die. If there is some danger immediately, immediately we shall flee away. That is- nobody wants to die. Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gita the four principles of unhappiness [are] described by the Supreme Lord Those who are intelligent, they will see four principles of major suffering. What is that? to take birth, to die, and to suffer from disease, and to become old. So, so long you have got this material body, you have to suffer. Now, under the spell of maya you can accept suffering as enjoyment, that is your business, but it is suffering.
So therefore, gurus business is to deliver the disciple from the suffering condition So one who has got this mercy from the Supreme Lord, and he can deliver (Festival Lecture, Fiji, 5/2/76)

PRABHUPADA CHALLENGES THE FALSE GURUS

We do not interpret the words of Krsna by saying, In my opinion, the Battlefield of Kuruksetra represents the human body. Such interpretations are set forth by rascals. In the world there are many rascal gurus who give their own opinion, but we can challenge any rascal. A rascal guru may say, I am God, or, We are all God. That is all right, but we should find out from the dictionary what the meaning of God is. Generally, a dictionary will tell us that the word God indicates the Supreme Being. Thus we may ask such a guru, Are you the Supreme Being? If he cannot understand this, then we should give the meaning of supreme. Any dictionary will inform us that supreme means the greatest authority. We may then ask, Are you the greatest authority? Such a rascal guru, even though proclaiming himself to be God, cannot answer such a question. God is the Supreme Being and the highest authority. No one is equal to Him or greater than Him. Yet there are many guru-gods, many rascals who claim to be the Supreme. Such rascals cannot help us escape the darkness of material existence. They cannot illumine our darkness with the torchlight of spiritual knowledge.

A BONA FIDE GURU WILL NOT CHANGE THE PURE MESSAGE OF GOD

The bona fide guru will simply present what the supreme guru, God, says in bona fide scripture. A guru cannot change the message of the disciplic succession. We must understand that we cannot carry out research to find the Absolute Truth. Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself said, My Guru Maharaja, My spiritual master, considered Me a great fool. He who remains a great fool before his guru is a guru himself. However, if one says, I am so advanced that I can speak better than my guru, he is simply a rascal. In the Bhagavad-gita (4.2) Sri Krsna says:
This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

GURU IS NOT A FASHION

Taking on a guru is not simply a fashion. One who is serious about understanding spiritual life requires a guru. A guru is a question of necessity, for one must be very serious to understand spiritual life, God, proper action, and ones relationship with God. When we are very serious about understanding these subjects, we need a guru...