Devotee: What advice do you have for a devotee who is struggling along in his spiritual life with no taste for Krishna consciousness?
Srila Guru Maharaj: The first question is, struggling for what? ‘Struggling’ means struggling for something. A struggle presupposes something: its aim and object, its purpose. So, what is the aim of that struggle?
The German philosopher, Hegel, has given his philosophy called ‘Ideal Realism’. He says that the ideal is not unreal or abstract imagination but is real and all-important, whereas the material body is nothing. Rather, it is only a servant to obey the dictation of the ideal. First, there is the idea, then the body follows after it. So, the ideal is real. This philosophy was put forward by Hegel.
So, ‘struggle’, but struggle for what? A struggle may be of two types. First is the case where there is no taste for mundane enjoyment or renunciation, but there is the desire for something unknown but at least above these two aims of life. If the person feels, «I can’t tolerate the world of enjoyment, but also I dislike renunciation», then it is presupposed that he has some previously acquired sukrti, devotional credit, in the background. From his subconscious region will come the desire, the struggle, for the company of a sadhu, a good agent, a good master who can help him. He will feel, «I am in a vacant position. I want some shelter. Who is there who can give me shelter? Who can save Me?» He may feel this sort of uneasiness: both dissatisfaction with the present, and also no sight of any positive engagement in the future. Yet he is unconsciously wanting something. To have this hankering for something positive presupposes some sukrti. This is one type of struggle.
Another is where there is no positive aim but only the aim to get out of the undesirable negative side. This desire for renunciation — to enter samadhi and be reduced to zero, to be finished — is like committing suicide. Just as when a person who cannot tolerate an unfavourable situation feels, «I cannot maintain my life any more», and so commits physical suicide; similarly, renunciation is spiritual suicide. He feels, «I have no taste for this mundane world where there is always struggling amongst so many transient things. I have no prospect here.» Feeling in this way, he desires to enter into samadhi. This is like putting a living man into a tomb and then sealing it up. But if one is neither satisfied here in the temporary mundane world, nor wants to commit suicide and so efface his existence, then if he is even subconsciously hankering for some bright life, it means that sukrti is underground within the foundation of his subconsciousness. After that, some sadhu may come to visit him and give him some good news and instructions, «Do this, do that.» He will have some tendency to follow that advice, and from that stage gradually his positive life begins.
There is an example in one godbrother. When he was a boy of perhaps eighteen or so, he was dissatisfied with his existing life within his family household, so he went to Jagannath Puri. Within his mind and from the bottom of his heart, he wanted to find the association of a sadhu and join with him. At that time, our Guru Maharaj was in Puri, and one of his followers, who was a very learned and clever man, met him and asked, «You are a very simple boy. Why have you come here?» «I have come in search of a sadhu.»
«Oh, then come with me!» He took him to the camp of our Srila Prabhupad, and he joined. The acquisition from his former life was such that when he went to search for the positive spiritual path, he easily found it, and so he joined, and joined forever. He joined at the age of eighteen years and received sannyas at twenty-eight. But before accepting sannyas, someone had discouraged him saying, «You are so young, and it is not sure how long you will live, so to take so much risk is not very wise!» He was also hesitating and said, «Prabhupad has proposed this, but I am hesitating, and some of my friends are also misleading me.»
I put it to Srila Prabhupad that he was hesitating. Prabhupad’s response to him was, «You are frightened? Fear is in this world, but you are going to take shelter in the abhaya-pada, the fearless holy feet. Where is the fear? Don’t have any apprehension. All fear is confined here in this plane, but you are going to take shelter above this area of fear. You want to enter into the fearless area; you are going to connect with the fearless world. Rather, this world is the fearful place!» This came from his mouth. At last he accepted, and his sannyas was given by Prabhupad in Puri. Every day in the morning for about a month, he used to sing Srila Prabhupad’s favourite bhajan: Sri Rupa Manjari Pada. Practically, Prabhupad took him from Gaya to Puri only to hear it sung by his sweet voice. He sang:
radha-padankita dhama vrndavana yara nama
taha ye na asraya karila
Bhakti Vinod Thakur says, «What is Vrndavan? It is where there are the footprints of Sri Radhika. The criterion of Vrndavan is this: that it has on its head the footprints of Srimati Radharani.» This is Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s finding. So, if we want to see what is Vrndavan, and who is Radharani and who is Krishna, then we must take some note, some clue, and some impression from this. Bhakti Vinod Thakur says that Radharani is all-in-all:
radha-padankita dhama vrndavana yara nama
taha ye na asraya karila
«Where does the name ‘Vrndavan’ belong? Upon whose head the footprints of Radharani are borne — that is Vrndavan!» It is all-sweet! And there everything is sweet because the paraphernalia has all emanated from Her. Just as the entire screenplay for a film evolves from the brain of the director, who then himself may come to act his own part within it, similarly, the entire paraphernalia of Vrndavan has come from Sri Radhika.
And from Sri Gauranga we receive the combined gift of the grace of all these things. His gift is full of so much transcendental sweetness and is eternal in its play.
There is a bird called a chatak which always faces towards the sky praying for water. His nature is such that he can only swallow from above and cannot collect from the ground. We should be converted into that type of bird in our hankering temperament for a divine drop of the divine sweetness, of the divine nectar which Mahaprabhu is distributing. Nectar, not honey, is the sweetest liquid of which we can ever conceive. Honey is mundane, but nectar is something from above the mundane world. Honey is found here in this lower plane, but nectar is only of our imagination. We have no experience of nectar in the mundane world; its character is transcendental. It is called amrtam or ‘God’s food’. There is nectar for the devotees, the godly, and poison for the demons.
Mahadev, who gave indulgence to the demons, had to take poison generated from churning the Ocean of Milk. This appears to be a peculiar thing, but he took that poison on the order of Visnu. Therefore, through the connection of being engaged in Visnu’s service, he did not die; rather, that poison became ornamental to him by making his throat blue. So, sometimes Mahadev puts a petition to Narayan, «You have given me this undesirable service only to deal with the culprits. What to do? It is Your will that I should be given charge of dealing with the demons, so sometimes I have to become friendly with them. But Your will is supreme.» This is the position of Mahadev, who has the touch of the world above but who is the master of the whole of the misconceived area.
Devotee: What is the most direct and effective means to attain a taste of Krishna consciousness?
Srila Guru Maharaj:
satam prasangan mama virya-samvido
bhavanti hrt-karna-rasayanah kathah
taj-josanad asv apavarga-vartmani
sraddha ratir bhaktir anukramisyati
«One will rapidly progress on the path of liberation and naturally will develop firm faith, attraction, and devotion when he cultivates the activity of engaging in discussions about My glorious Pastimes in the association of pure devotees. Such activities are very nourishing to the ear and heart.» And,
Krishna-bhakti-janma-mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’
krsna-prema janme, teho punah mukhya anga
«By associating with the sadhus and gaining their mercy, one can get Krishna-bhakti right up to the stage of Krishna-prema. Furthermore, the practitioner’s very life depends on the association of the sadhus. Without sadhu-sanga, it is not possible to receive the real seeds of bhakti.»
krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita matih
kriyatam yadi kuto ’pi labhyate
tatra laulyam api mulyam ekalam
janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate
«Pure devotional service to Krishna cannot be obtained by performing pious activities even for millions of births. It can be purchased only by paying one price: intense eagerness. Wherever it is available, one must purchase it immediately.» And,
sadhu-sastra-krpaya yadi krsnonmukha haya
sei jiva nistare, maya tahare chhadaya
«If, by the blessings of a pure devotee and the scripture, a jiva-soul becomes devoted to Krishna, he naturally becomes liberated, and Maya withdraws.»
Do you have your answer?
Devotee: Yes. The most effective means of attaining Krishna consciousness is to associate with the exalted devotees of Lord Krishna: sadhu-sanga.
Srila Guru Maharaj: What does it mean to keep company and to have association with the sadhus? What have you understood to be sanga?
Devotee: Pariprasnena sevaya (by relevant enquiry from a real Guru and by serving him).
Srila Guru Maharaj: Yes, but that is not up to the mark. Sadhu-sanga means it must be of this nature:
dadati pratigrhnati guhyam akhyati prchchhati
bhunkte bhojayate chaiva sad-vidham priti laksanam
This is sanga, and in this way we can get the benefit of the association of a sadhu. Firstly, to give something to the sadhu for his pleasure, and to take something from him as his prasadam: dadati pratigrhnati. Then, guhyam akhyati prchchhati: whatever is concealed within our own heart, we are to divulge the whole of that to him, and we are to receive his instruction. Bhunkte bhojayate chaiva: we are to give the raw materials to him for his taking of prasadam, and then we are to receive his remnants. Sadhu-sanga means this.
Devotee: What is the process for one to test whether or not a sadhu or a Guru is genuine? Isn’t it that one should first of all try to be sincere himself, then he will get a sincere Guru and sadhu-sanga?
Srila Guru Maharaj: But from where will that sincerity come?
bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhakta-sangena parijayate
sat-sangah prapyate pumbhih sukrtaih purva-sanchitaih
Actually, we can recognise a sadhu by sukrti. Apparently, we can know him from the sastra, the scriptures, because the sastra helps us to know who is a sadhu, and the sadhu gives us the interpretation of the sastra. So, sadhu and sastra are interdependent, but the sadhu holds the more important position and the sastra has the secondary position. The living sastra is the sadhu, but to know who is Guru, who is sadhu, we are to consult the descriptions given about them in the scriptures. The symptoms of the sadhu, both of the Guru as well as the disciple, have been written in the Bhagavatam, in the Gita and in the Upanisads. In the Bhagavatam, we find:
tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreyah uttamam
sabde pare cha nisnatam brahmany upasamasrayam
«A person in search of the ultimate good should surrender to the Guru who knows well the Vedic scriptures (sabda-brahma) and the Supreme Absolute Lord (Parabrahma), and for whom the mundane world holds no charm whatsoever.» And the Gita says:
tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah
«You will be able to attain all this transcendental knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.»
So, in the Upanisads, in Bhagavatam, and in Bhagavad-gita, it is clearly mentioned what should be the symptom of a Guru and also what should be that of a disciple. If such a qualified disciple comes to a qualified Guru, then the real transaction begins. Otherwise, there may be so many bogus transactions; such black-marketing is going on in this world in the name of religion. But from the association of the real devotee comes devotion — bhaktis tu Bhagavad-bhakta-sangena parijayate. And, sat-sangah prapyate pumbhih sukrtaih purva-sanchitaih: one can come to a proper guide, a sadhu, as a result of his previous activity. Sukrti is of two kinds: jnata and ajnata.
Ajnata-sukrti is in the beginning when, unknown to him, he is utilised in the service of the Lord through the sadhu. Suppose a man has built a dharmasala. So many persons of different types come to stay there, but because they take advantage of the energy of the builder, the results of their actions will go to him. A dacoit may come and stay. A pilgrim may also come, and a sadhu also. If a dacoit will stay, then because he utilises the energy of the owner of the dharma-sala, the owner will have to take some bad reaction (papa) and will suffer for that. But if an honest man will stay there, then the owner will get some punya, pious credit. In this way, papa and punya will come to him, but after duly suffering or enjoying those fruits, they will be finished. However, if a real sadhu, a devotee, will stay there and utilise the owner’s energy, then that owner will acquire something permanent.
nehabhikrama-naso ’sti pratyavayo na vidyate
svalpam apy asya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat
«In this bhakti-yoga there is no loss of initial endeavour and there is no diminution of results. Even the slightest performance of this bhakti-yoga saves one from the great fear of birth and death in this material world.»
Some permanent acquisition is deposited in his ‘account’, and everything else, both the happiness resulting from accommodating a good, honest man in the worldly sense, as well as the suffering resulting from his accommodating a dacoit, will be finished. This sort of acquisition is permanent, and when it accumulates to a sufficient degree, it will attract the man to do some sort of vague service to the sadhus, though not very consciously. That is also accumulated, and when it reaches a certain stage, the search for the truth will awaken within him. He will think, «For what are those sadhus living?» Then, he will approach them, and if he goes in the proper mood as described in the scriptures, the transaction will begin. The association or connection with a real sadhu occurs by some underground activity known as sukrti. Sukrti is of two types, ajnata and jnata: unconsciously acquired and consciously acquired. Sat-sangah prapyate pumbhih sukrtaih purva-sanchitaih: of this sukrti stage, Mahaprabhu says,
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
«Wandering throughout the material universe, the very fortunate living entity who receives the grace of Guru and Krishna receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.»
Sukrti is described by the word bhagyavan, good fortune. There are so many different types of sadhus. Among the tyagis, there are so many different classes: the naked naga babas and others. And among the theistic group also there are so many different sections like the Ramanujas, the Ramanandis, the Nimbarkas, the Vallabhis, and the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. The Gaudiya Vaisnavas are the followers of Mahaprabhu. So, even in the theistic section there is a graded classification, but it is through our sukrti that we shall be guided from the subconscious area to have connection with a sadhu of a particular section.