Raghava Caitanya dasa

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate romapada-svamin iti namine

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

 namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande sri gurum dina-taranam

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, the deliverer of the fallen souls. His mercy turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains.”

At the lotus feet of dear Gurudeva,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to you on this auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja and all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I would like to start my offerings with the verse on how to serve the Spiritual Master from Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.7.30-31

guru-susrusaya bhaktya
sarva-labdharpanena ca
sangena sadhu-bhaktanam
isvararadhanena ca

sraddhaya tat-kathayam ca
kirtanair guna-karmanam
tat-padamburuha-dhyanat
tal-lingeksarhanadibhih

“One must accept the bona fide spiritual master and render service unto him with great devotion and faith. Whatever one has in one’s possession should be offered to the spiritual master, and in the association of saintly persons and devotees one should worship the Lord, hear the glories of the Lord with faith, glorify the transcendental qualities and activities of the Lord, always meditate on the Lord’s lotus feet, and worship the Deity of the Lord strictly according to the injunctions of the sastra and guru.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.7.30-31]

To practice bhakti-yoga, one must first accept a bona fide spiritual master. Srila Rupa Gosvami, in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.74-75), advises:

guru-padasrayas tasmat krsna-diksadi-siksanam
visrambhena guroh seva sadhu-vartmanuvartanam
sad-dharma-prccha bhogadi-tyagah krsnasya hetave

One’s first duty is to accept a bona fide spiritual master. The student or disciple should be very inquisitive; he should be eager to know the complete truth about eternal religion (sanatana-dharma). The words guru-susrusaya mean that one should personally serve the spiritual master by giving him bodily comforts, helping him in bathing, dressing, sleeping, eating and so on. This is called guru-susrusanam. A disciple should serve the spiritual master as a menial servant, and whatever he has in his possession should be dedicated to the spiritual master. Pranair arthair dhiya vaca. Everyone has his life, his wealth, his intelligence and his words, and all of them should be offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of the spiritual master. Everything should be offered to the spiritual master as a matter of duty, but the offering should be made to the spiritual master with heart and soul, not artificially to gain material prestige. This offering is called arpana. Moreover, one should live among devotees, saintly persons, to learn the etiquette and proper behavior of devotional service.

With Your and Krsna’s mercy, hopefully in one of the lives I would serve You in the true sense of this verse to get to the stage of practicing bhakti-yoga. Currently trying to follow the instructions on spreading Krsna consciousness to Westerners and doing a squirrel’s job.

Your menial servant,
Raghava Caitanya dasa