Is our relationship with our guru a vertical relationship or a horizontal relationship?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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So is our relationship with the spiritual master a vertical relationship or is it a horizontal relationship? It is a vertical relationship in the sense that the spiritual master represents Krishna and the spiritual master guides us to love Krishna. At the same time it is not… So in practice, in this world, we do have to have a reverential mode of relationship with the spiritual master. So the spiritual master trains us to love Krishna.
So that’s in practice. If you consider in principle the spiritual master is not Krishna. We have an eternal relationship with the spiritual master.
At the same time, the spiritual master alone is not the eternal object of love. So Srila Prabhupada in an intimate conversation once said that when you return to the spiritual world I will introduce you to Krishna and Krishna will be the object of your love. That doesn’t mean you neglect the spiritual master.
So yes, we could say the relationship with the spiritual master is also a part of the vertical relationship with Krishna. At the same time, it is the relationship with Krishna that is eternal in the sense that Krishna is the eternal longing of our heart. So no jiva, the spiritual master is extraordinarily empowered jiva, but no jiva can replace Krishna.
In fact, in many schools, in many monistic schools of thought, actually it is the relationship with the spiritual master which is itself eternalized and absolutized. And then this guru is thought of as God, which is not the way to understand. So we do respect the spiritual master and that relationship is vertical in the sense that we all want to love Krishna.
And the spiritual master guides us towards loving Krishna. At the same time, the spiritual master is not a substitute for Krishna. We have, in our own tradition, the example of Shamanand Pandit and Rasikananda Thakur.
Shamanand Pandit was the spiritual master and Rasikananda Thakur was his disciple. And both of them were exalted Vaishnavas. And eventually, when both of them, they would travel in Bengal, Odisha, and they would give talks together.
And after that, people would come, they would inspire for initiation, and both of them would give initiation together. Some of them would take from Shamanand Pandit, some of them would take from Rasikananda Thakur. So, ultimately, Prabhupada explained the spiritual master is a person, but the spiritual master is not just a person.
The spiritual master is a principle. That means the spiritual master is a person who infuses in our heart the principle of loving Krishna. So whoever inspires us to love Krishna, whoever inspires us most to develop the vertical relationship with Krishna, that is the spiritual master.