Acarya-nistha dasa

My dear beloved Spiritual Master,

Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

This year has been another opportunity to deepen and solidify my faith in the shelter of your lotus feet.

As it is mentioned in the Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta:

“The order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life. Anyone who disobeys the order of the spiritual master immediately becomes useless.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 12.10]

Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains,

jive saksat nahi tate guru caittya-rupe
siksa-guru haya krsna-mahanta-svarupe

“Since one cannot visually experience the presence of the Supersoul, He appears before us as a liberated devotee. Such a spiritual master is none other than Krsna Himself.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.58]

“…A pure devotee constantly engaged in the loving service of the Lord is identical with the Lord, who is always seated in his heart.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 1. 61]

Veiling the Lord’s internal energy, the service of the maya- sakti is to obscure Krsna from the conditioned souls who exhibit an oppositional and independently-minded enjoying spirit. Unfortunately, despite having come to the Krsna consciousness movement and practicing the rules and regulations of bhakti, many of us still often find ourselves sunk in this position.

“The material energy is always provoking doubts…[Even] the personality of religion…was put into doubts by the deluding energy. This doubtfulness was due to the contamination of both Kali and the material energy. The whole atmosphere of the age of Kali is magnified by the deluding energy, and the proportion of measurement is inexplicable.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.23 Purport]

This maya can only be overcome by the direct mercy of the Lord,

mahatmanas tu mam partha
daivim prakrtim asritah

“O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature.” [Bhagavad-gita 9.13]

daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” [Bhagavad-gita 7.14]

The divine nature which allows the conditioned soul to escape the material world is the Lord’s internal potency, which manifests to the sincere soul as the spiritual master and his transcendental instructions.

“Although I know that my spiritual master is a servitor of Sri Caitanya, I know Him also as a plenary manifestation of the Lord.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.44]

“He is the Supreme Personality of Servitor Godhead. It is worthwhile to take shelter of such a steady devotee, who is called asraya-vigraha, or the manifestation or form of the Lord of whom one must take shelter.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.46]

“O my Lord! Transcendental poets and experts in spiritual science could not fully express their indebtedness to You, even if they were endowed with the prolonged lifetime of Brahma, for You appear in two features—externally as the acarya and internally as the Supersoul—to deliver the embodied living being by directing him how to come to You.” [Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.48]

However, in the beginning, due to prolonged material contamination, the conditioned soul is unable to perceive the instructions of the Supersoul, and thus is guided by His external feature: the Spiritual Master.

“In the beginning of Krsna consciousness, dictation is received through the transparent medium of the spiritual master. When one is sufficiently trained and acts in submissive faith and love for Krsna under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master, the dovetailing process becomes more firm and accurate… At this stage, Krsna, or the Supersoul, dictates from within, while from without the devotee is helped by the spiritual master, who is the bona fide representative of Krsna.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.45 Purport]

Thus the sincere soul can overcome the dictation of Maya by strictly accepting and following the guidance of the spiritual master. Indeed, this is the only way achieve Krsna consciousness.

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasada
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi

yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmana

Srila Prabhupada explains: “When one becomes serious to follow the mission of the spiritual master, his resolution is tantamount to seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As explained before, this means meeting the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the instruction of the spiritual master. This is technically called vani-seva. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura states in his Bhagavad-gita commentary on the verse vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana (Bhagavad-gita 2.41) that one should serve the words of the spiritual master. The disciple must stick to whatever the spiritual master orders. Simply by following on that line, one sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.28.51 Purport]

Maharaja, I feel have had many opportunities for such service this year; and I feel that I have taken advantage of some, and regrettably missed others. I strive to assimilate more deeply your spirit of deep surrender and commitment to the mission of your spiritual master, for a particle of such faith would bring complete success in spiritual life.

“One can achieve the nucleus of the devotional service of the Lord by the mercy of the spiritual master and the Personality of Godhead. The spiritual master is the manifested representative of the Lord to help one achieve ultimate success…One can achieve the ultimate success of going back to Godhead if he is favored by the Lord’s sending His true representative. As soon as a true representative of the Lord is met by a devotee of the Lord, the devotee is assured a guarantee for going back to Godhead just after leaving the present body. This, however, depends on the sincerity of the devotee himself.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam
1.19.36 Purport]

Thus, by the Lord’s mercy, my path of wandering throughout the material universe based on my karma, has crossed with your path of divine service to your spiritual master. Accordingly, success is already guaranteed. It is I who must now be careful to accept that which you would like to give, and be receptive to how you see fit to give it. We must all now carefully water and protect the bhakti-creeper you have so graciously given us, under your strict and careful guidance.

“Your Lordship is my only means of getting out of this darkest region of ignorance because You are my transcendental eye, which, by Your mercy only, I have attained after many, many births.” [SrimadBhagavatam 3.25.8]

All glories to you Gurudeva, on this most auspicious day, for being the means by which we may approach the Lord, granted we humbly serve and accept your loving guidance in our otherwise hopeless lives. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Your embarrassed and low menial servant,
Acarya-nistha dasa