Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, summer 2024, Poland)

It’s a great honor to be here, and this is not only an official remark, but it’s a heartfelt exchange. First of all, I have to express my gratitude to Shripad Tripurari Maharaj, the dear god-brother of my spiritual master.  By meeting him, in one sense I could meet my master. This is such an intense moment of memories and not only memories of the past, but also memories of the future. And as you know, the past and the future will meet in the present moment. If right here and now we can enjoy the benefits of this real sadhu-sanga, then we embrace both the past of our spiritual life and we our future prospect, our prayojana, our eternal connection, our eternal life. For us memory is not some recollection of the past, for us memory, smarana, is like a permanent engagement in spiritual activities.
While coming here, I was thinking what to say. You have been practicing for ages, maybe lifetimes; what can I add to your experience and realizations? You know everything, at least the majority of what is necessary to know. Because actually, our process is not only knowing. Our process is more like feeling. And as they say, the path that we cover from our present condition to the lotus feet of Shri Guru is much longer than it takes from Guru to the Divine Couple, to Radha-Govinda. That means if we have taken the shelter of our spiritual masters, we covered the bigger part of our journey back home, back to Godhead. In that sense you are very fortunate to enjoy the shelter of such a great soul, who is a stalwart of a great generation, bringing the direct connection and the direct blessings of such exceptional devotees as Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupad and also Shrila Shridhara Maharaj, who come maybe once in a century or maybe once in a yuga – who knows. The great ones are our hope and it is said in the shastra: mahajana yena gatah sa pantha[1] – the path of religion, the path of dharma is marked by the footsteps of the mahajanas, the great souls, who are experts in understanding and in feeling the depth of spiritual commitment and also who are ready to leave some marks for us to follow. Because if you are such a great saint that you move one inch over the earth, there are no footsteps, right? You have to be little bit down to earth, just to touch the surface, so that the followers who come after you could read the signs, could see where you were heading.
And this is something very important, because it is not the question “where did you come from”, but the real question is what is your destination, where are you heading for, what is your ideal. As Shrila Shridara Maharaj said: “You can judge a person according to his ideals”. If the ideals are high, then very soon the practice of that person, and also the ambition of that person, and probably the realization and the reach of that person will be also very high. If our ideals are low, we are low class. If our ideals are high, maybe I am still low class, but at least my ideals are high. And hopefully very soon these ideals will embrace us, will invite us and in this way these ideals will make us great souls. Because for people in general the main motivation is goals. Do you have some goals? I think we all have some goals. I want to survive today – this is one goal. I want to chant my rounds today – this is one goal. And so many goals we have. But I tell you, goals are small and little. Choose ideals – which are high. Find something that is so high, so precious that it will be like a guiding light, like a rising star for you for this whole lifetime. Such an ideal will stay with you and you will stay with that ideal. Then you are inseparable one from the other.

(to be continued)

1. Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.117