Sharanagati

Whatever you have – time, energy, knowledge, ability – whatever, you can harmonize that with the divine will. In the beginning a very good guidance is necessary for that. And if we have that guidance, if we are under the spiritual care of the divine master, then we are very fortunate. Because a real master will help us come closer to the Absolute Truth, God.

It is suggested that those, who do not know how to live, should go to guru. Do you know how to live? We have some little ideas how to survive, but that is not life. Survival and life – there is a big difference. To understand what is the goal of life, we have to inquire. And later on, when you start to have some spiritual insights or some divine experiences, do not be afraid. Many people start spiritual practices too fast and too cheap. In a weekend course they open the third eye, they purify all the chakras and are given divine wisdom. And there are some courses, where they teach you how to become avatar (divine incarnation). Ah, very popular! “I have my document; I have finished the avatar course.” But they start to do it quickly and they are not ready to digest the results. Because the more sensitive you become, the more influence will come to you. And the different influences will have different effect on you. And if we do not know what type of energy is coming to us, we might be disturbed. But I can tell you for sure, if you belong to a traditional line which provides shelter, that gives you protection from bad influence. In this way, joining a good school of spirituality is very useful.

Once a spiritual master and a young devotee were talking. He was living in the ashram, but he was not sure what type of life to start and to live – whether he should become a Krishna bhakta or not. So he told the master: “Maybe this is not my path. Maybe I should go to some other group, some other path I should choose.” And the master said: “Yes, you can go, no problem. But even there you should find a strong and good master.” Because he can provide the shelter.

One specific mark of the spiritual master is that he can dispel, remove the doubts of the disciples. We are so much full of doubts. “Does God really exists?” Or: “Am I the Supreme? Is this the right path? Does it make any sense what I am doing? Am I not cheated? Is this for me?!” So many doubts…

And to have positive doubts is good. Positive doubts mean that you want to understand more and more, deeper. “I am not satisfied by hearing about Krishna this much; I want more! I am not satisfied by sixteen rounds! I doubt that this is enough for me.” But the real doubts, doubts of the other type, sometimes are killing. And it is a divine arrangement if you can get rid of your doubts.

I think to have doubts is quite human. Yet not to have doubts, but to have deep faith – this is divine. If we can come to the divine platform, there are no doubts anymore.