Sharanagati

Question of Yadunath: You are constantly giving us instructions for which we are very thankful, but a bit on the dynastical part of the picture: imagine we have a friend who is a king and he is trying to unite the angry landlords, and he has to build the kingdom of God. But unfortunately the landlords have their own experiences and ideas, so apart from a big bhajana and getting rid of anarthas what else our friend could do?

Tirtha Maharaj: Complicated question and a simple answer. Because if I translate your question, the achariya is building this kingdom, right, and the gurus are having opinions.

Yadunath: No. How come? The king was serving his gurus.

Tirtha Maharaj: I think here only I have the right to say “no”. But this is one reading of your story. There is the head – achariya means beyond the guru platform. Achariya means you don’t have to do anything, whatever you do is a proof of your spiritual conviction. He teaches by actions. Guru teaches by words, achariya teaches by actions. But anyway, the active preachers might have different opinions, because they are working on different fields. And sometimes they want to prove themselves more and more. Therefore there must be an achariya who controls the whole situation. And of course there are different ways to control the powerful preachers. One is like what Srila Prabhupada did. In one occasion he started to give instructions to his sannyasis. There were many in the room, and he asked one preacher sannyasi: “What are you doing?” and he said: “Well, Prabhupad, every week I am in a different temple, and I am trying to help, I am managing things. Sometimes I feel so overburdened and it is so heavy to travel this much that I feel like I need a little rest.” Then Prabhupad said: “Well, it’s not enough. You shouldn’t stay one week in one place, maximum three days and you move on to the next place.” And he stressed on this: “You should not stop, you should not stay in one place”. So he finished with this sannyasi, then he asked the next one: “And what are you doing?” He said: “Prabhupad, I am also traveling here and there.“ Then he said: “What? You travel?! You should not move, you should stay in one place! You are not allowed to move!”

So, instructions are according to need. Srila Sridhara Maharaja used different method. When all the great preachers came to him, they were giving their reports how the things are going in America, in South America, in Australia, in Europe, in England – different parts of the world. And they were enquiring: “Please, Maharaja, can you give us some advice how to do it, give us some instructions?” and he said: “You know it better.” And then later on he said: “I empower you to do this.” Everybody was fully satisfied. So, different acharyias apply different methods to control the very powerful preachers. This is one reading of your question. But repeat for me again, how was that?

Yadunath: If we have a friend king, and if he tries to build the kingdom of God in a dynastical perspective, and is trying to unite other powerful beings, what shall we do apart from what you have already prescribed?

Tirtha Maharaj: I don’t see the part of the dynastic way, but anyway, it’s a mistake. This whole way of thinking is a mistake. Because the kingdom of God is already done. It’s accomplished.

Yadunath: But isn’t it the dynastical approach that the kingdom of God should reach other worlds also? It’s like expanding or intensifying, so the dynastical approach would be – others should also be able to live in this kingdom of God and experience this kingdom of God, which is already here.

Tirtha Maharaj: Time will come. Time will come. It doesn’t depend on us. We are only servants of some higher master plan. Sometimes we have to maintain small little things in order to preserve and survive the hard times. Other times we scatter the seeds. Next time we harvest.