Sarvabhauma dasa
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
“I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.”
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances, All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On the auspicious occasion of your divine appearance day, as we celebrate the occasion this year, I would like to take a few moments to count the blessings I have been receiving from you throughout the years. I am very much indebted to you and there is no way I can pay back the mercy and compassion I have received from you, nor do I have the right words to express my gratitude. But inspired by the following words of our Founder-Acarya, I am trying to make a humble attempt for my own purification to express gratitude towards your Divine Grace:
“This is the business of the disciple, how to glorify the spiritual master, parampara. I glorify my spiritual master, you glorify your spiritual master. If we simply do that, glorify, then Krsna is glorified.”(Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.23 — Vrndavana, August 4, 1974)
This material existence is a very fearful condition; there is danger at every step: padam padam yad vipadam na tesam. Even when we understand our precarious situation, we remain helpless until we receive the guidance from our worship-able Deity and our life and soul in the form of our spiritual master.
bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad
isad apetasya viparyayo ’smrtih
tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam
bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma
“Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bewildering, fearful condition is effected by the potency for illusion, called maya. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worship-able deity and as his very life and soul”.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.37)
There is no respite from this fearful situation in the heavenly realm either, as even in the heavenly realm the residents are ever fearful due to rivalry towards equals, envy towards superiors, and due to anticipation of destruction of their heavenly life. Therefore, to break out from the fear which never leaves our company in this material world, and to reach eternal happiness, one must seek the shelter of the lotus feet of the spiritual master.
tasmad gurum prapadyeta
jijnasuh sreya uttamam
sabde pare ca nisnatam
brahmany upasamasrayam
“Therefore, any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”[Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.21]
As a conditioned soul, out of an independent mindset we keep on perusing our illusory goal in this material world, which is the vivid manifestation of the state of mind due to the kind of association we have been maintaining with the three modes of material nature. We think we do not need shelter; we can make our life perfect all by ourselves. But in this process, we miss out on the most important aspect of getting access to the Lord’s divine grace, which is the only hope for us to get reinstated in our original constitutional position. The Lord is inaccessible to those who miss out on this aspect. Neither fruitive mindset nor independent, speculative study of the Vedas can guarantee us success to access the Lord and His mercy. vedesu durlabham adurlabham atma-bhaktau [Brahma Samhita 5.33]. That divine grace of the Lord is accessible through the grace of the Spiritual Master.
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasada
yasyaprasadanna gatih kuto ‘pi
dhyayam stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyamvande
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
“By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Krsna consciousness. I should, therefore, meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day, and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master.” [Sri Sri Guru-astakam 08]
Krsna’s mercy comes through the spiritual master. Guru Maharaja, as you say, Krsna has given the power of attorney for distributing bhakti to the spiritual master. krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro, tomara sakati ache (Bhajana-Lalasa by Bhaktivinoda Thakura). Therefore, the position of the spiritual master is so special that Krsna says that the acarya is non-different from Him.
acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyasuyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guruh
“One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods”. [Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.17.27]
The spiritual master is the personification of the Lord’s mercy. A disciple’s spiritual life is guided by that mercy and a disciple needs plenty of that (tranaya karunya-ghanaghanatvam– Sri Sri Guru-astakam 01) to traverse through the path in this material world to go back to Godhead. A question comes to mind as a disciple, which is: what have I done to get this mercy? What qualification do I have to receive this mercy? By looking within, I do not get the answer as the answer lies in the lotus feet of the spiritual master. I do not have any qualification.
yogyata-vicare kichu nahi pai
tomara karuna-sara
“When I examine myself for qualifications, I find none. Your mercy is everything.”
[Saranagati song by Bhaktivinoda Thakura]
You have not only showered on us your blessings with your nectarean transcendental sound vibration from your lotus mouth, but you are also the bona fide link to the disciplic succession through whom we are connected to Krsna. Therefore, without your mercy, we cannot get connected to Krsna to get His mercy.
For decades in your current manifestation, you have been purifying places and hearts of living entities as you visit place to place, city to city, country to country for the pleasure of the guru–parampara and Krsna. You have voluntarily taken up all austerity to spread the message of Krsna consciousness (krsna-presthaya bhutale). Despite us being unworthy to receive mercy of Krsna, due to your causeless compassion upon us, you have created the qualification by your mercy to bring Krsna into our lives. As we need the right association to survive in Krsna consciousness, your Divine Grace has created flourishing communities for our upkeep and survival. As you always take shower in the transcendental sound vibration received through bona fide disciplic succession, you also keep blessing us with the remnants of your divine knowledge and realizations and inspire us by being an exemplary role model of steadfast, relentless, single-pointed, resolute service towards guru–parampara and Krsna.
By the manifestation of your deep compassion, you have shown that physically you may be miles away from us, but you are close in heart with those who have taken shelter of you, as you always keep them in your thought and try to include and engage them in your devotional service to Krsna as much as possible. This process is not static since Krsna consciousness is very dynamic. Similarly, your compassion also keeps growing by extending to newer horizons and by reaching out to newer persons from different walks of life to encourage and enlighten them in Krsna consciousness.
By following your footsteps, we progress on the path back to Godhead. Even if the path is filled with various challenges, your mercy is the only hope as it has the potency to make the impossible possible. Therefore, I pray to you, my dear master, though I am insignificant, please keep blessing me so that I can act as an effective instrument in your service to the mission of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
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.”
[Caitanya-caritamrta 17.80]
Your insignificant aspiring servant,
Sarvabhauma dasa