The Path of the Saints
by
Shrila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj

 

In our practice of Krishna consciousness the correct steps should be followed very carefully and particularly. agyata sukrti and gyata sukrti, then shraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana kriya, anartha nivritti, nishta, ruci, ashakti, bhava and prema. In this way we have to be very careful and particular about these steps by which we are to go to reach the summit of our desirable aspiration. In the beginning there is a type of sukrti (pious merit) we acquire unconsciously by our good fortune, that comes from the grace of the Lord.

First is agyata sukrti and gyata sukrti (devotional merit acquired unconsciously or consciously). The soul is freely moving in its own way with a general conception of God. Then by chance some tendency towards the truth is acquired unknowingly. By the help of the absolute you will understand who is absolute. As much as you progress you will understand all these previous relative things are of a lower existence, and eliminate accordingly, accepting new truth when you come in connection with higher experience. If you are enlightened then you can understand that in the dimmer light you were under illusion. Qualitative difference is known by qualitative progress.

Shraddha - A Firm Foundation

To advance first we have to learn to have faith (shraddha) which springs from pious merit. The definition of shraddha generally on the surface means:

yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati
yasmin prapte sarvam idam praptam bhavati By knowing Him everything becomes known and by getting Him one gets everything." If one can accept this, "Yes, it is possible," one will acquire a firm foundation. Some will say, "It is impossible, that by knowing Him you can know everything. This is madman’s talk." But those that say that have no faith and their attempt is sure to fail.. The minimum admission fee from us for our purification in this age of controversy is our faith. In the age of Kali-Yuga everything is colored by controversy, everything is covered by doubt, and suspicion. Suspicious minds don’t want to hear without proof. Suspicion leads to suspension. A very minimum admission is necessary for us and a very general thing for our transformation. If I take to this sankirttan (congregational chanting) movement then everything will be added unto me, but underground faith must be there. Hearty sincere co-operation with the agents of Mahaprabhu, and that can purify us very quickly.

With faith and a generous conviction in this movement of Mahaprabhu it is easily approached for all beginners. From that many other aspects of the infinite will manifest to our understanding. It will put an end to all the troubles I am experiencing now and may have to experience in the future.

Sincere Desire:

So let us sing in praise of Shraddha devi, whose grace can take us to Krishna. Faith is the finest thing and it is also something tangible, not imagination. It is reality. We have to realise that, it is not just an abstract thing. Just as electricity can give connection with something far away in an unseen way even though it is very subtle and not known to anyone and everyone we cannot deny its existence. It has got some tangible position. So faith can give us a connection like this. A grand display of it may not be proof of its existence. There may be much show of so-called faith, but it may all be false. So we should be very grateful to maintain a connection with real faith. Sincerity is of course the main criteria to have its connection. Only our earnest desire for God, that is our qualification. So the most essential thing necessary is our sincere desire.

Sadhu-Sanga The Agents of Divinity

Then we have to make progress through sadhu-sanga, that is, those agents of divinity. It is said that of all services, the service of Vishnu is the highest, yet even higher than that is to serve the vaishnava. That is tangible, it can help us more. It is more encouraging and more substantial progress can be made if we can have real attraction for guru and vaishnava, something concrete we will be able to see. Normally we may consider the vaishnava to be just another man and we are searching for God. "Why should I waste my energy in the service of a man? He may well have some devotion but still he is not the highest." But when you really want to make progress, then you have to understand that your attraction for the vaishnava is more helpful. My energy is utilized in a more concrete way. It is very rare to have direct conception and service to God. The Lord states, mad bhaktanam ca ye bhakta. "One who is a servant of My servant, is My real servant." If we can understand that sort of confidence in a real sadhu we are almost safe in that position. By the company of saintly association a journey towards Krishna is more or less guaranteed. If I am going to some unknown place captured by the charm of my goal, and if I meet someone on the road who is also going there who has more knowledge of our destination, then my journey will be very successful.

Oh My Saviors

Our Guru Maharaj Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati on the occasion of his appearance day gave this address to his disciples beginning, "Oh, my dear friends and saviors, you have come to deliver me from great danger through your devotional faith. It is very difficult to make a journey alone but you have to come to help with my journey in the infinite by your precious engagement. You are so many extensions of my guru. Those of you who have come to hear about Krishna, your position is not insignificant, but grace and sukrti is there in you and you have all come to help me in my realization of Krishna, rescuing me from the dangerous position I have fallen in." How exquisitely skillful he presented the philosophy there, of how the position of guru is in service to his disciples. Externally disciples appear to be the servants, but internally we can see guru serving his disciples trying to make them fit for the service of Krishna.

The First Shall Be The Last

This is the strategy of remaining in the relativity of the highest quarter of service to Krishna. Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Prabhupad wanted us to teach in this way, He ordered for a cottage to be built at Govardhan stressing, "I shall live there, but I am not fit to live in Radha-kund. My guru, Gaur Kishore das Babaji, Bhaktivinode Thakur and others they are fit to serve there but we shall go and serve them in the next lower position and there we shall stay." Otherwise, if we think we are in the highest quarter that will vanish from us. Only from a lower respectable position can we have that vision. This is the right attitude.

From a respectable distance we can have some view of that wonderful thing, this is a peculiar principle. It is like espionage, like watching someone from a distance to get a clearer picture of the person’s activity. So in approaching direct He may vanish from our vision. Krishna is also playing like that in a stealthful way. The play is in a particular order and in that way we can have the highest experience of the ontological truth. As if by chance the truth in person comes to us and accepts us suddenly, we can’t find Him, but He can find us for He is the absolute autocrat. Whenever whimsically He comes to give His connection to me then I can have that, He is never within my clutches. All comes by His sweet will. By nature He is not a thing to come directly under our control, He’s always above. Face to face transaction is absent and with this system we can come to the highest realization. The approach is an indirect one, this is the way recommended for the poorest to come in contact with the richest. It is wonderfully devised. Everything is stealthily performed and there in the highest area of autocracy, we find we gain through holy black marketing even though autocracy is considered to be a low conception in our present living, so much so that we can’t tolerate it.

His Magic Touch

But the highest quarter of the transcendental world can harmonize with everything considered to be of the lowest type - that is beautiful. What is undesirable and nasty, that can be given the highest position just by His grace. The harmonious strength is there, His peculiar position is there so much. The lowest has been transformed to the highest by His magical touch, Krishna consciousness, the touch of Krishna, beauty of the highest order. Just as the touchstone converts iron and lead into gold, the touchstone is so powerful. The lowest type of everything in our conception gets the highest position by the magical touch of that wonderful substance, and He is called Krishna.

Das Goswami says if you are not prepared to accept this as the truth, then you will be thrown down to parabrahman and have to live where the general law rules and fair dealings are applied. Go down to vaikuntha the land of fair dealings, a very high understanding which can’t be imitated. Brahma and Mahadev, even the demigods are all eager to know Krishna. Brahma confessed, "How can I know that a cowboy with a flute under His armpit taking His simple meal with His friends from one plate is the highest truth?" How wonderful. Brahma says, "I have got some intimacy with my father Narayana, but never have I come in contact with such supreme power as this."

The Highest Subservient To The Lowest

There in the unknown realm so much wealth and sweetness alludes us. To find our highest mastership, our Lordship, the master of All is a thief. Everything in whoever’s possession belongs to Him anyway, but He is playing the part of a thief. What is the symptom ofpure devotion? Where the highest authority is submissive to the servant - there is devotion. The highest has been forcibly taken down to serve the devotee, His servant. That is the peculiar power of devotion. The last acquisition of devotion is this, that it can control the Supreme Lord and forcibly take Him to the devotee as a friendly servant. The master submits, surrenders to the servant, a most peculiar thing. That is there, so what more could we expect. The infinite at the disposal of the finite. Can you conceive of this? And it is done very stealthily in various diplomatic ways. So the finite has got its supreme most glorious unthinkable position, and that can be obtained only through love. So how precious is that all-powerful love. To acquire a drop of that divine love, no sacrifice is sufficient.

So association of similar nature but superior to ourselves is the best thing which can help us in our search for the absolute. My faith will increase by association of the devotees who are also in a sincere search for Him. We may have a little tendency towards that goal, but there are others who have deeper intensity in their endeavor, so we must contact them and try to receive their grace. And there is the program also, sravarnam, kirttanam visnoh smaranam We should try to live and breathe in that spiritual atmosphere by hearing about Hari, chanting to Hari and remembering Hari.

So association means to give something to the sadhu for his pleasure and take something from him as prasadam, to divulge whatever is concealed in our heart and to get his hearty instruction in reciprocation. So when we are grace dwith that connection to the real servitor of Krishna then we acquire something extremely precious. So one who has got an abstract attraction for Krishna, his position is considered to be primary, kanistha adhikari, but the better position is he who has aspiration to serve His servants, this is madhyam adhikari.

The Nature Of Affection

Devotee: We have heard the guru can only be defeated by his son or disciple. Can you explain this?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: It is desirable that one will attain victory at every place, but only defeat from his own son or disciple. That is, the disciple will be of greater merit and prospect because that will enhance his guru’s position. It is also said that a person’s merit of his past lives is judged by what type of son he has got. That will show the merit of his previous birth. So the guru sincerely wills that his disciple may surpass him even in his own service to the Lord. He will expect more from his disciple than himself, that he may have a greater position in the circle of the eternal servitors. Such affection the guru has towards his disciple, he is such a well-wisher of his disciple.

Mahaprabhu gave everything that He knew to Rupa Goswsami and when in Puri, He stated, "He is a proper person to propagate devotion, so I have given My everything to him. And I request that you also give whatever you have got to him." So guru loves his disciple, making himself empty and feels pleasure by giving everything to the disciple. Such is the nature of the affection that a true guru reveals to his real disciple. This is the principle. And how will the disciple respond in turn? He should give more respect to his guru than to Lord Krishna. He is abiding by the order of guru, so radha-dasyam comes from there. He will be servant to his immediate master. He does not know what the absolute purpose of the Lord is, but he will be more faithful to his master, one’s great well-wisher. Whatever he requires him to do, that is his life.

So through him one will go to Krishna, never by crossing over guru. According to his own progress, the outside vision may change, but the guru’s position remains constant. Conception of guru will always be of that type. He is making himself vacant to give his all to the disciple and the disciple also in turn will give wholesale to his master’s divine feet, and that should be the highest of the pure, divine relationship between guru and disciple, and in the physical world also, it is the same with father and son. Also in the case of Krishna, He says, "I can do anything and everything for my devotees." It is also mentioned in many places in the scripture. Like in the case of breaking His own promise in order to keep the promise of Bhisma. Bhisma left the battlefield with folded palms in praise of Krishna, he said, "What sort of devotion and affection You have for Your devotee. I am the lowest worst type of devotee, if one at all and to keep my prestige and promise, You have left Your own promise that You will not take any weapons in this war of Kuruksetra. But you have taken up Your weapon for me because I have promised that I shall force You to take up Your weapon today. You have kept my promise and left Your own. So merciful and affectionate to such a mean so-called servant of Yours." This was Bhisma’s statement. This is the nature and relation of love. Great or small, high or low, no distinction. That is the peculiar nobility in the substance of love. Pure love is where the great descends to be the servant of the least, this is bhakti. Krishna is all in all. He is present everywhere to the extreme. So we should not be afraid of risking everything for His service. Whatever small thing we risk that is insignificant, but what we receive is infinite to such a vast degree.

Mahaprabhu is the perfect example of this grace, where He Himself says, "I am in such a position that I am dependent on my devotee." This is the sweet relationship between the servant and the master. Mahaprabhu’s lila, the highest prospect of the soul, where outwardly one is a slave but mastership of the absolute is there in reality.

We are wandering endlessly in this universe and until we connect with the sadhu, we are nowhere, lost in the infinite. So the day in which we do not find any sadhu, for us to hear hari-katha, we are the loser thereby that day. So the company of genuine sadhus is of absolute necessity.

Bhajana Kriya

Bhajana kriya is that instruction which is recommended for us through guru or sadhu. We must practice whatever wish guru has given for our purification and if we follow and observe that guiding advice strictly with determination and one-pointed attention, we will find that through carrying out his order accurately, another position will be given to us. That instruction is generally to practice certain principles and prescribed formula to clear our anarthas (bad habits). Then we can feel those unwanted habits leaving our consciousness over a period of time, relative to our sincere desire to become purified. We must strictly observe and take this advice to heart to reach the next highest stage, then anartha nivritti.

Anartha Nivritti

The ulterior demand of our superficial nature will disappear when those unrelishable desires that are haunting and disturbing our heart in so many different ways start to vanish. I don’t want them but sometimes they stealthily enter and take possession for some time and then retire. Those six enemies of the jiva soul try to set up residence in our heart and corrupt our progress. When we are released from the clutches of those undesirable forces, we will reach nistha. Then our progress will become steady, without so much impediment.

Nistha

Where all undesirable aspirations are eliminated and only the continuous conception of Krishna the inner substance, will remain. No other conception is entering the heart. Twenty-four hours continual experience, thinking of Krishna and His own without a lapse. This is nistha. Steadiness, eagerness to live in that world of service becomes our whole life.

Ruchi - The Sweeter Taste

Only at this stage will the taste come and not before. So with many gaps we have been thinking, sometimes thinking about Krishna, sometimes this or that and we find various mixed taste within us, but that is not the required taste. It is not to be considered the ultimate taste. When after a continuous flow of Krishna consciousness, we can eliminate all other mundane thoughts, only then we will be captured wholesale by Krishna. Ruchi will be captured out of that. The taste of the heart is the unit of measurement, not the brains calculation or knowledge. Mahaprabhu gives recognition to the inner taste that is our capital. The brain may sanction something but the heart may take me towards another direction. We are generally guided by our hearts, our taste, not by our brain. The heart is the inner-most guiding principle that directs us to our goal, so we must be more concerned with that ruchi. To increase and improve, again we need the company of those who have a real taste for this valuable treasure. Only taste, the most valuable thing within us, even the smallest quantity of taste for the supreme, that should be made your capital and then that will increase to asakti where we cannot tolerate any separation from that particular truth.

Bhava Bhakti

So many signs are given when bhava bhakti comes. This is a superior connection with reality. Then that wonderful stage of prema bhakti comes.

Prema Bhakti

This is when we enter into reality, then the positive development begins and positive participation into reality will create so many things in us, but before going into such a high unthinkable domain, we must systematicly tread the steps leading to that land of Loving affairs, also we should be very careful who and how we present such divine information to that it doesn’t disturb those not ready for it.