How can we prevent the doubt that one’s spiritual master can fall down from becoming an obstacle in keeping firm faith?

From: Vivek Kulkarni

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
question from Vivek Kulkarni Prabhu the doubt that a guru can fall down can become an obstacle in keeping firm faith on the guru how can we tackle this problem in developing faith in ourselves as well as those with whom we are sharing Krishna consciousness answer we have to understand that ultimately everyone is an individual and as an individual everybody has free will if person uses the free will properly the person gets spiritually healed and uplifted person doesn’t use the free will properly then the person doesn’t get cured so with this understanding we focus on the process of Krishna consciousness the transformation happens not just because of the faith in the guru our faith in the guru is not independent of the process if our faith in the spiritual master is independent of the process that means if we start thinking that the spiritual master is great because he is great then we have not really understood the philosophy of Krishna consciousness it is actually the process of Krishna consciousness that is glorious that is what Krishna glorifies in Bhagavad Gita and those who practice bhakti yoga by their consistent practice become glorious so to understand this consider a simple example if there is a place where there is an epidemic of some malignant disease and then there is a proper cure available so if somebody takes the cure properly that person will get cured and if that person gets cured after that the same person may return to the epidemic area or may become active in that area to share that cure with others so now everybody around that person is sick that person is healthy why is that? it is not because of any speciality within that person, the speciality is that he has followed the process for getting cured and he is taking the precautions by which he doesn’t become sick again there are many cases in which relief workers went to an epidemic area and these doctors worked tirelessly, fearlessly to heal people of their diseases and somehow while doing some surgery while offering some treatment, if they are a little careless they did not wear the gloves properly they did not wear the masks properly then at that time they themselves get infected and if they get infected that way they may fall sick and they will die also does that mean that they are useless, that all the curing work that they had done in the past was all a hoax or that the whole process of getting cured is false no, not at all all that it indicates is that the process is powerful and when a person follows the process of getting cured and takes the precautions, the person stays healthy if somehow because of negligence or because of overconfidence a person does not follow the process then that person will be infected by the disease and that person will fall away so we should not have the expectation that when I practice a process that I need a absolute 100% guarantee that my spiritual teachers or my spiritual master will absolutely have no chance of problem if we have that expectation then we are expecting the spiritual master to be God because God alone is Achyuta God alone is never going to fall from his position everyone else is a Jeeva and in the Srimad Bhagavatam itself it is said that apart from Nar Narayan Rishi who is actually incarnation of Lord Narayan, nobody else is free from the temptations of lust so not only is it conceptually wrong from the point of view of philosophy to expect a soul no matter how exalted he is even if he is a spiritual master to be all perfect with no possibility of flaw, it is also not scripturally warranted so both from philosophical and scriptural point of view this is an unrealistic expectation what can we expect then what we expect is that a person who has followed the process of Krishna Consciousness for many decades has achieved an exalted level of consciousness now and is continuing to follow that process and will keep making more and more advancement and going closer and closer to Krishna and that person will also share Krishna with us so if we keep the analogy of medical treatment in mind then we will be clear that there is no need to fear even if in future there is some problem with the person who is guiding us, still what was the person guiding us about if we think that the person was guiding us with his own concocted process then with his fall, his process also falls because his fall falsifies his process but if we observe carefully, we will see that those who fall away neglect to follow the process properly they either become careless in chanting Hare Krishna, in avoiding contaminating or dangerous association they may neglect good association they may commit offenses to other devotees because of excess of self confidence or pride and because of these, because they are not following the process properly so they have some difficulties so therefore even the fall of exalted people in one sense vindicates, confirms the process of Krishna consciousness and its potency that means, no matter how great a person is, if that person doesn’t follow the process, that person will experience problems and rather than letting our faith get disturbed because of such things we should see that this indicates the process is potent and it is the process that is potent now, no matter how trained and competent a doctor is if the doctor neglects to take the precautions the germs may infect and even inflict serious miseries and even death on the person so for a person who is sick, the doctor is almost like the messenger of God similarly for the conditioned souls in this world, the devotees who are coming with the process of Krishna consciousness which is the spiritual master is like a messenger of God but we have to understand that what the doctor is giving is important, not just the doctor himself this does not mean that the doctor is not important because after all the doctor will tell us how to take the treatment, similarly we should not infer in an unwarranted way from this example that the spiritual master is of no consequence, it is only the process of Krishna consciousness that matters yes, it is the process of Krishna consciousness that matters but how to practice the process of Krishna consciousness is taught to us by the spiritual master and along with that the process of Krishna consciousness itself includes having faith and serving the spiritual master so therefore we cannot unduly minimize this process this process of respecting and having faith in the spiritual master and serving him, but at the same time we should not unwarrantedly make it all important in our spiritual life now it is said that our relationship with the spiritual master is the most important relationship because it is by his mercy that we will get Krishna’s mercy what does it emphasize? it is that he is not important independent of Krishna he is important because he is the means by which we get Krishna’s mercy so if we make the spiritual master all important we remove Krishna from the picture if we make only Krishna and the process of Krishna consciousness all important then we remove the spiritual master from the picture we have to have a balance between these two extremes of our conceptual errors and recognize the balance situation that the spiritual master is important because he is the most important person teaching me the process of Krishna consciousness at the same time the spiritual master is not more important in the process and it is the process that is going to transform me I can have an exalted spiritual master and if I don’t follow the process I may stay a fallen person on the other hand I may have a spiritual master who later on has some difficulties but if by the instruction and inspiration of the spiritual master I start following the process of Krishna consciousness and I can become advanced I can become purified I can become spiritually, devotionally healed by following that process therefore our focus always has to be on the process of Krishna consciousness and without unduly neglecting or minimizing the spiritual master as unimportant and nor unduly maximizing the spiritual master’s position as being all important in a balanced way when we understand the philosophy then we can march ahead with confidence at the same time without unrealistic demands or expectations now the case of spiritual master’s falling is rare it is something which is not happening frequently now if we see the first generation of Prabhupada’s disciples many of them were given huge responsibilities at a very very early age at an age when we get introduced to Krishna consciousness in our first few years of Krishna consciousness they were made world leaders so in one sense the first generation history of ISKCON was a recipe for disaster that 80 year old spiritual master was succeeded by 25 year old disciples who were supposed to become the next acharyas of the world 25, 30, 35 years old disciples, 35 at the most generally speaking but the proof of the potency of Krishna consciousness is that although it seemed to be a recipe for disaster, still the Krishna consciousness movement has survived and has flourished and even if a large number of spiritual masters were to fall away, still if you observe those who are practicing and those who are advanced then we can see by their example that the process is potent and if we practice in our own lives we will see from the experience of our own lives that the process is potent and it is this potent process that has raised the spiritual master to exalted level and it is this potent process that can raise us also to that exalted level so therefore we should focus on practicing the process and choose a spiritual master that person whom we find as most inspirational for inspiring us to take up the practice of the process Thank you