Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, May 2013, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Friday) 

“Question: “So if someone says that the Guru himself will personally come back – that is a mundane conception, a wrong conception?

Shrila Shridhara Maharaj: Yes. The main thread is there, but it will not always appear in the same form. Although to the beginners one may say that “he will come back,” ultimately we find that a disciple may even be transferred into another section, and then yet another section, so that he may gradually reach his destination. According to the unfolding of his inner necessity, the departmental change may occur. And he will always perceive his own Guru in newer and newer ways. At first sight he perceived his Guru to be of one type; then again with progress he will see the same Guru in another way, and thereafter another new characteristic will be found in his Gurudeva. The disciple will feel, ’I could not detect so much in my Guru in the beginning. I saw him in one particular way, but now I find that he is something more, and then he is still more.’ In this way there is a divine unfoldment. In this world there is unfoldment, and in the higher domain also there is unfoldment. So the Guru is something like shaktyavesha. Shaktyavesha is this special person who is deputed according to a particular time, place or circumstance, and there is also the permanent shaktyavesha; but in all cases, according to the necessity of the situation and by the divine dispensation of the Lord, the disciple will be connected and he won’t feel any distrust, it is the presence within. He will quench the thirst for the full progress of his heart, there will be divine unfoldment within his heart, and again he will begin a new thirst. And that new thirst will be quenched by whom? His Guru. It will be quenched by his Guru and he won’t have any feeling of unscrupulousness or anything else. As his internal thirst is being satisfied, he will feel, “There is my Gurudeva.”

Wherever there is unfoldment – gradual unfoldment and full attention given to that – then we can understand that from the upper side there is Guru. Gurudeva is my guide; and as I progress, guidance of different types will be necessary for me. Always new guidance, and my progress will take me into different places, and there a new type of guidance, a new life, will again come. In this way a dynamic life is going on and the main thread is there: raso vai sah – the pure rasa, the pure ecstasy is there. And my inner heart will approve: “Yes, I want this. This is my fate; this is my fortune.” Otherwise, if any madhyama-adhikari is appointed as Guru and has so many disciples, and if he is to come back again and again, then he could never enter into nitya-lila. But that cannot be so. In any case, whoever is connected with a genuine Guru will be satisfied, because the Lord is present there”[1].

To see the Supreme in the Master is not in name only – it has a very specific purpose. “Krishna says, “Don’t try to limit the Acharya! You may have come up to a high position, but will you then think that you have surpassed that Acharya through whom you received your initial instruction in spiritual life? No, navamanyeta – don’t think that there is less in him, don’t consider him to be of lower position. No – I Myself was there! I was there in your primary teacher, in your ‘college-level’ teacher, and I am there in your ‘post-graduate professor’ also! So don’t look at only the outside. I Myself am your guide in different forms. It is Me.”

“Sarva deva-mayo guruh: the Acharya has got more spacious characteristics than that of the ordinary, general Vaishnava. Krishna says, “For you, I am there. And mayanukulena, I am backing so many Acharyas. There are so many Acharyas, and I am working through them. The Acharyas are like helmsmen in so many different boats, and I am the favorable wind helping those boats to make progress. So don’t limit the Acharya – try to see him on the same level as Me”.

“Sarva deva-mayo guruh” that’s like a quote, like a proverb – that all the demigods and all the gods are included in Guru[2].

Question of Yashoda: I cannot understand the conception of Shrila Shridhara Maharaj because I had heard that Guru is coming back for the disciple and here it was said that it’s not exactly like this.

Swami Tirtha: I cannot understand his guidance either, but I worship this. Because it’s not necessary to understand the truth. It’s enough to worship. But just imagine a master with a hundred lazy students. Where is the liberation of the master if he has to go after all these guys running up and down the Universes? Or maybe we expect some magic yogic powers from our masters – that they should multiply themselves and go after me, go after the other and the third one. Is this your expectation? Well, if we have that expectation, then we should also qualify ourselves. But somehow all this guidance is a divine function. And whatever is impossible according to human capacities it’s very much possible according to divine power.

[1] The Golden staircase, “Divine unfoldment” by Shrila Shridhara Maharaj

[2] Shrimad Bhagavatam 11. 17. 27.