What does it mean that we should have implicit faith in the spiritual master, as Prabhupada says in his books
Transcript
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question what does it mean to say that we should have implicit faith in our spiritual master actually Prabhupada mentioned in his purpose answer actually this concept of implicit faith comes from the Upanishads Munda Upanishad it says so it says that one who aspires for pure devotion to the supreme lord and then and similarly just as person has faith in the supreme lord that person has faith in the spiritual master and the import of the scripture is revealed to such a person Mahatmana and actually one who has such faith in the spiritual master implicit faith implicit in the supreme lord such a person is referred to as a Mahatma also so now implicit faith means that just as we know that Krishna is our well wisher Krishna is in fact our greatest well wisher similarly we have the faith that the spiritual master is our well wisher generally speaking whenever anyone speaks anything critical to us generally the first reaction is that our falls into defensive mode when we want to want to prove that we are not wrong and that person has understood us wrong so actually our subtle body especially our mind and our ego they generally filter whatever we see so if somebody is criticizing us our first reaction is to defend us and maybe find some fault with that person’s criticism so there should be at least generally we view everyone through our mind but there should be at least one person through whom we view our mind that means that my mind is saying like this so it’s possible that my judgment is wrong and this person is wiser than me and most important not just wiser than me so now of course we know something that the mind says is radically wrong the mind may provoke us to lust greed anger and we know that the mind is misleading us but beyond that we all have our opinions we all have our conceptions about things these are not sinful or immoral but they are still conceptions of what we should do how we should practice spiritual life and they may not be correct so implicit faith means that our faith in the spiritual master is unquestioning in the sense that not that we don’t ask any questions but in the sense that we understand that the spiritual masters are well wisher so it is always possible that with the spiritual master we can have some differences we don’t directly defy the spiritual master but it is always possible because the spiritual master may also have certain certain ways of thinking or acting which we find it difficult to accept so that is that may be because of cultural factors social factors different factors so it’s not that we just when we say that implicit faith that doesn’t mean unthinking or completely blind faith in everything that the spiritual master says but it is the basic understanding that the spiritual master is my salvation my greatest salvation and how does implicit faith come it’s not that we are disqualified if we don’t have that faith actually faith is both a matter of choice and a matter of grace we can choose to develop faith when we hear from the spiritual master when we hear about the spiritual master from the right sources those who are devoted to the spiritual master those who know about the glory of the spiritual master all that helps us to develop the faith along with that it’s also a matter of grace that the faith develops so the most important thing is that we understand that the consciousness which the spiritual master is giving me is the greatest mercy of the spiritual master and for that I am grateful so to the extent we can have this faith that it’s not that when I say implicit faith that everything about the spiritual master I have unquestioningly accepted we don’t generally publicly oppose the spiritual master in anything but it will be possible that certain instructions certain point the spiritual master may say we may not be able to immediately apply it in our life we may feel that it is not relevant to my context right now that is fine but overall the understanding that the spiritual master is my greatest foundation is of course from Krishna and that the spiritual master has given me and expressed his good wishes for me by giving me the process of devotional service which is going to purify and liberate me eventually and in that understanding is just like when a patient goes to a doctor patient may initially have some questions about the treatment but if the patient is constantly suspicious about the doctor why are you doing this why are you doing that why are you doing that then the patient cannot take the treatment properly similarly we can certainly have questions and when there are questions we have a right to seek clarification definitely but beyond that the whole spiritual advancement will depend on how we practice the spiritual consciousness and the spiritual master is the doctor who is administering the process to us so we accept the principle of implicit faith as ideal and then we strive to go towards it reaching that level may take time and till we develop that faith we have to try to cultivate it and pray for that grace but overall these two points that we understand that the spiritual master is our greatest salvation and those salvation are expressed through giving us the process of spiritual consciousness and giving us the grace by which we will make advancement in spiritual consciousness so having that faith is the implicit faith in the spiritual master we aspire