When we surrender to our guru, are we surrendering to the guru or to the guru tattva or to Krishna?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. That also includes our practices of bhakti.
Our sadhana bhakti practices. That also includes our various services. That also includes our relationship with our spiritual master.
We can’t fragment one thing and emphasize only that. There are there is a general principle in bhakti that whenever there is glorification, there is no reservation in glorification. There is no qualification or contextualization.
Say for example, the holy name is to be glorified. There is a verse which says the holy name is so powerful in Kali Yuga that even without initiation from a Guru, the holy name will take you to Krishna. Because, when a particular limb of bhakti is to be glorified, the general mood of the tradition is glorified in such a way.
Say for example, the spiritual master is to be glorified. Without the spiritual master’s mercy, you can get no mercy at all. If a dham is to be glorified, if a Vrindavan dham is to be glorified, it says that actually if somebody has never come to Vrindavan, has never sanctified themselves beyond holding the sacred place of Vrindavan, then their whole human life is a waste.
If somebody has never got the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, then why did they even live? Better that they have died before their birth. So there are statements like this in scripture. These statements, if you look at it, they are there for almost every limb of devotional service.
So we needn’t minimize them, but it is for us to contextualize them. That this is the general mood in bhakti literature, in the bhakti tradition, that one limb is glorified, it is glorified without reservation. So we need to understand the broader context and various elements combined together to inspire and propel us on the path of bhakti.
So yes, when we surrender to the spiritual master at the time of initiation or thereafter, it is surrendering to the spiritual master who is in front of us. But it is not just me. A spiritual master is a representative of the tradition.
A spiritual master is a representative of the teacher who is inspiring us to move closer toward Krishna. So we cannot isolate any aspect of the process from the purpose of the process. And that is why we see that when Bali Maharaj gets an instruction from Shukracharya, who is his guru, which is unfavorable to surrender to Krishna, then he turns away from that guru.
So that is of course an extreme example and that is not what has happened. But the principle over there is that there is a process and there is a purpose in the process. So when each of the limbs or each of the processes are glorified, they are glorified as if they are all in all.
That is the mood of devotion. But we need to see the process in the light of its purpose. And we have to take individual responsibility to make sure that we pursue that purpose.
And for us at different times, different limbs of bhakti might be the best processes for us to pursue that purpose. So if we have the close association of a spiritual master and if we can be enriched by that association, when it’s available and it’s enriching, it’s grand. But when it is not available, that doesn’t mean that we have to glorify.
Take shelter of bhakti, take shelter of preaching, take shelter of beauty worship, whatever. So if we see the processes in the light of the purpose, then we can ensure that we respect the process and also we respect the purpose. Both.
Thank you so much.