Questions for Guru

Radharaman asked, "If Srila Sridhar Maharaj would be still alive what question could you ask him?" Do you have any question that you are still interested in? And what do you expect him to answer?

Well, actually I ask him questions every day. I am hearing tapes of Srila Guru Maharaj and I like to see that there are not, it's not an exercise in nostalgia. We may think, "Oh, this was so many years before, thirty, twenty five years ago, whatever it might be, but I find that the talks they're not an exercise in nostalgia, it's not from another time, but they are relevant to the present. There might be some particular aspects of siddhantha that we'd like to ask or clarify. Some peculiar things, but mainly we need to shift our focus from what is our curiosity to what's been disseminated, what's been distributed, amnaya prahattatvam harim iha paranam sarva sakti rasabhhim, what's descending. We may not always understand why, or many times we may not understand why, but there is a ryme (?) and a reason to why things are being presented in a certain way.

I found coming in connection with Srila Guru Maharaj in the beginning because I had some previous connection with Krsna Consciousness there was a tendency to attempt to verify what he was saying on the basis of what I'd understood up to that point. And to a certain degree that made sense or was allowable or tolerable, but at a certain point it became clear to me, clear to Srila Guru Maharaj, that it would be better if I focused on what he was saying, whatever I thought I knew or understood up to that point, put that on the shelf for a while and just try to give full attention and full focus to what he was saying. And I found that was a quicker way to understanding to make progress than this other way when he will say something and on the basis of what I've understood I try to see where it fits. And if we will do that, another words put out focus more exclusively on the statements of the vaisnava, then we'll be in the position to judge the merit or the value of those things we collected up to that point. And then we may find in some instances something I thought was very important was not so important. Something I didn't think was so important turn out to be very important. Something I thought was trivial turned out to be very significant, vice versa and many things.

Srila Guru Maharaj could tell by the sort of questions that I was asking that I was not appreciating gradation of Krsna Consciousness, development, couldn't distinguish between what was superior or inferior, more refined, less refined, more developed, less developed, higher, lower, internal, external, this kind of things. So, for example, ones when I asked him, cause Srila Prabhupad Swami Maharaj liked to quote the prayers of Rsabdev in the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,

nayam deho deha bhajam niloke kastan karma kama arthate vidbhujam me tapo vidyam putrika yena sattavam sudhe dasmat brahma skohyam,

I was like one lf his favourite sloka, very heavy sloka, saying, "Don't waste your life like stool eating pigs," this type of thing. But use your time for spiritual culture, don't try for those same pleasures that are available to the animals, and not just any animals, what did he use there, the bit bhujam, the stool eating pigs, to make it even more repulsive. So, just I'm giving this as one example, so, then I'd say (?) and that's one prayer, there are other prayers of Rsabdev, but that one comes to mind and so I said, "What place would this occupy in the scheme of things and higher, lower, development, etc. And guru Maharaj said, "Generic bhakti, general bhakti." And then asking this question, that question, and finally one day he said to me with the little like incredulo, "Have you gone through Brhad-bhagavatamrta?" And up to that point it was just a book that I've heard Prabhupad quote in the purport saying, "This book is written by Sanatan Goswami," it's from the Chaitanya-charitamrta, the Anthya-lila. But there is this one purport, just one line was very significant, pression (?) you can say, "Anyone who wants to understand what is devotion, devotional service to Krsna must read this book," that's all he said. "If you want to understand these things and we assume if someone interested in Krsna Consciousness what is devotion and devotional service to Krsna. We want to understand something about Krsna, right? It's a Krsna Consciousness movement, we're chanting His Name all the time. It would seem in order (?) to understand something about Krsna, you know, not going beyond the bounds, but that's what he said, and just went, "Oh, that book must be extraordinary." And we hear Sanatan Goswami is sambhandha-jnan acharya, who's going to provide the foundation from which all the Krsna Conscious understanding will take place, that is sambandha.

So, when he said that I realized the way he asked and also in consultation with him later, he was sanctioning my study of that, and I don't mean only myself, but in this instance particularly myself. And that makes a big difference the Guru's sanction to study a particular work as opposed to just whimsically, arbitrarily deciding to look at this, that or any other thing. So, he is giving some blessings, some sanction, some backing, or what does Gurudev like, some divine dispensation to make your approach.

And sometimes he would summarize it give a synopsis and there by showing this gradation from karma-misra-bhakti to jnana-misra bhakti to suddha-bhakti, to jnana-sunya-bhakti, which he would sometimes says an oxymoron. Because it says, knowledge-free devotion. As Guru Maharaj says sometimes, "Krsna, He likes to surround Himself with ignorant people." Wait a minute, why would he want to do that? But what type of ignorant people? Jnana-sunya bhakti, the yoga-maya type of ignorance, where Yashoda does not know that Krsna is the Param-tattva, the Supreme Reality, neither do the Vraja-gopis, nor the cowherd boys, nor the cowherd men, the cows, calves, etc. He like to surround Himself, be in that environment. Why are they interested in Krsna? They are just charmed by Him. They find Him irresistibly charming. Not that, "Well, He is God." No He is so sweet, cute, beautiful, just irresistible. They like Him.

So, that Brhad-bhagavatamrtam is showing step-by-step from karma-misra-bhakti and different stages to jnana-misra-bhakti and going. Very beautifully. Because as Srila Guru Maharaj once summarized the Srimad Bhagavatam into two slokas, he gave specific importance to reveal who are the greatest devotees. When he was in South India, met someone who had memorized the whole Bhagavatam, it's generally taking to be eighteen thousand slokas. So, we've heard of sruta-dhar, means whatever they've heard, they hold, capture. They had many like that previously in India. So, someone could be like a Bhagavatam (?), they know all the slokas, there was someone legendary in Bengal, who was a sruta-dhar, and it's recording some British gazette, that some…British soldiers, they had a fight on the banks of the Ganga, Adrunken Browl (?), and they are trying to establish in court who is guilty and who was innocent. And it was just one man's word (?) against another, but my believe his name was Ragunath Siromany, but anyway, he happened to be at the banks of the Ganga at the time and he was a srutadhar. But he is only knowing Sanskrit and Bhagavat, he didn't know English, but he was there, but his memory was perfect, he can recall whatever he has heard, so they told, "What did you hear?" and he perfectly reproduced all the dialogue from both sides, but he doesn't know what it means, but I heard this, then I heard that, and he gave the sequence everything that was heard and in that way the judge could establish, "Guilty!" and "Innocent." They had that kind of person in India.

Guru Maharaj sometimes would meet (?) one such person was that Pandit who knew the whole Bhagavatam and Guru Maharaj said to him (?), knowing all the Bhagavatam slokas in your estimation who is the greatest devotee is? And he said, "Chatuhsan, four sons of Brahma, the four Kumaras. They are the highest devotees." And then he asked Guru Maharaj, "What do you say?" Guru Maharaj said, "They are the lowest devotees." And I can preface this by saying that, sometimes it's not just an information, but how it's presented. So, Gurudev told there is an example, where Bon Maharaj went to a village and he told something and it was something about along the lines of like, we're all in the lap of Maya, somehow it went like, "Our mothers are prostiture." And everybody was offended, everybody in the town was horrified. You know went from Maya to on the lap of the witch, and everyone's mother was insulted. The whole village, everybody was upset. Then they called in Guru Maharaj and he presented more or less the same siddhanta, but in a very appealing way, then everyone was, "Yes, we're accepting this, this is very good." But the first man he had the data, the information, but presented it in an ugly way, that offended everyone. Guru Maharaj, same siddhanta, but in another, in an appealing way, that they could all find acceptable.

So, Srila Guru Maharaj then with two slokas proved him what he was saying. First sloka he chose from the mouth of Krsna. Because (?) you're saying, "Who will make this determination, who are the greatest devotees?" What greater authority is there than Krsna? Prabhupad liked to say that, "Krsna is the supreme authority." And what he says and that is footnote, sidebar that we should think again, something what I said in the beginning, if Krsna uses a particular example think about this for a moment. He is in everybody's heart. He know what everybody is thinking from all time. If He gives a particular example it must be a good one. So, in Bhagavad-gita Krsna uses a certain examples in relation to the atma-jnan, knowledge about the soul, transmigration etc., they must be very good examples, if He uses them. So, with great confidence we can promote the same. So, anyway this first sloka, Guru Maharaj quoted it from Krsna Himself,

nat tatha priyatama atma yonir nasankara naca sankarsana sri naivatma cayata bhavan

He's speaking to Uddhava, says, "No one is more dear to me than you, my dear Uddhava." Atma yoni, atma-bhu, means self-born Brahma, it's a name, indicating Brahma, it's saying, "Not Brahma, by extension the four Kumaras, not them." Na ca sankarsana, Sankarsana here, it take it to mean by extension Baladev, Sankarsan, Vasudev, Pradyumna, Aniruddha. Sankara means Siva, not Siva, so, it goes from Brahma to Siva to Sankar, Sankarsan, Sri, even Laksmi, the Goddess of fortune, She is not as dear to me. Then who else could he say, "Not even naivatma ca yatha bhava, I Myself and that is everyone hold themselves nearest and dear, I am not as dear to Me as you are."

So, there already, actually in one sloka he is, Guru Maharaj says, eliminated the four Kumaras, but from the competition you could say. And interestingly, Srila Sanaan Goswami says in his Brhad-Bhagavatamrtam-tika commentary, naivatma chaita bhavan, cause here he's laying the ground work, the seed conception of what we'll follow, really it's saying, "No one is dear to me as my devotee," which is consistent with so many other slokas. He said, because he's speaking to Uddhava naturally he says, "You are my devotee." So then, now that's been established and this is the ontological method of Srila Guru Maharaj, now he's got your attention, he's eliminated the other conception, then what? From the mouth of Uddhava, "If Krsna says that Uddhava is the most dear to Him, that puts Uddhava in a special position, that's an extraordinary certificate from Krsna to Uddhava. And what does that Uddhava say?

asa maho charanarenu jasha mahamsha vrndavane kimalatopi guna alato sadinam yaddushta jam arjapatam chahiddva bejur mukunda parabin srutibhir vimrikyam

Uddhava says, "What the Vedas are searching for, what they can only indicate is the play thing in their hands of Radharani and Vraja-gopis." They are so great, so exalted,

vande nanda brajastri nam pada renu madbiksam yassam hari katho gitam punati bhuvana chayam

When they're saying the glories of Krsna, the whole three worlds are purified. So, their pada raja, the dust from their lotus feet I want to take upon my head, bathe in the dust of their holy lotus feet, if I can become a creeper, a blade of grass, if I can get an atomic presence in that divine soil, so that the dust from their lotus feet will, that I can bathe in that, and thereby consecrate my existence. So, in two slokas, and what did we hear? There if Bhavagrahi and Saragrahi, bhara means a burden, (?) Bhaktivinod Thakur gives as someone is carrying around the burden of eighteen thousand slokas, they are heavy. And more, Vedam Upanisad, Purana, sruti, smrti, Purana, everything, carrying that around. Guru Maharaj in two slokas, saragrahi can extract from all of that the crème, the crème de la crème, in two slokas defeated and established the dignity of Vraja-gopis.

aradhya bhagavan bhajesha tanaya taddama vrndavanam ramya kaschit upasana braja badu bargena jakalpita srmad bhagavatam pramanam avalam premarta maha sri chaitanya mahaprabhur mitamidam tatra na puro

Nothing else.

Srila Gurudev said, "One word from Srila Guru Maharaj is sufficient to make us his slaves forever." So, Srila Swami Maharaj he would say, "The only question to ask is, "How can I serve you?'" Sometimes he'd say that, "I ask Guru Maharaj one question, "How can I serve you?'" When Srila Gurudev is praising Yudhamanyu Seva Vikram Prabhu many times he would say, "He only asks one question, "Is this what you want or not?" But that is their property.

Any other question?

Devotee: Usually when you told some stories from Krsna-lila or Chaitanya lila we know that same persons in Krsna-lila it's this person, and same person in Gokula (?).
Goswami Maharaj: Who is in Krsna-lila who they are in Gaura-lila.
Devotee: Yes, and we know that all these persons are eternal associated of Krsna and Radharani, but do we have some examples when some usual fallen souls come to these lilas, do we have some stories about these examples?
Goswami Maharaj: Well, as one might expect they are extraordinary stories. So, what comes to my mind immediately is Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, who Guru Maharaj said he was Brihaspati, the guru of the demigods, and he was being given the entrance into Chaitanya-lila, but we would say, "Well, but he is already Brihaspati, he is doing pretty good."

But see this puts in a peculiar position also because Srila Guru Maharaj has also told us that disciples should see the Guru as nitya-siddha, not sadhana-siddha or krpa-siddha, but who is descended, he said in order to draw the maximum amount of sraddha from the disciple, so that is how one sell see, but then there is what we call tatasha-vichar, from an impartial analysis one may see, or as Guru Maharaj told three types of Gurus we can conceive, said, "One – two feet there, extends one here and is taking from here to there, another class – one foot here, another foot recently acquiring their taking from here to there, and the third class – two feet here, but their eyes fixed on Vaikuntha, saying, "Let us go!" So, but tatastha-vichar, impartial analysis can also be dangerous, so we have to be cautious not to get too carried away. (?) was called, nagna matrika nyaya, the faulty logic of it's called 'the naked mother.' Child, he's saying, "Here is your mother before (?) was thinking, "Oh, once my mother was a naked girl." That would not be helpful to think along, that may be true, but it won't be helpful for the child's development to think that was, that's why it's called, nagna, means naked, matrika, mother, nyaya, the logic of the naked mother. It's to look into the past, the background, because it's to deny what is right before you. We may think, "No, but in the past this actually," that's irrelevant to spiritual development.

Srila Prabhupad had a book that he made, it's really interesting, called "The light of the Bhagavat." Cause once he's got an invitation to go to Japan to preach there, and it's actually very instructional, because it shows he also realizes, "I am going to place," he didn't adopt the way he did things, when he went to New York, could say, he realized, "I am going to Japan, they have a particular mentality," he prepared something to address that he thought will be appealing to them. So he took this chapter from the Bhagavatam, which sometimes goes by the name of "The autumn", it's very beautiful it's right before Govardhan Puja and there are all these descriptions of Vrndavan: of clouds in the sky, the moon and the sun – some very famous examples are there. One Guru Maharaj likes very much this, rarajapa chana, it's talking about the moon is hidden by clouds, but the clouds that are hiding the moon they are illumined by the moon, you're seeing them by dint of the moon's illumination. Yet they are covering the moon. So, what it's analogous to it's saying, the body, the mind, intellect and ego are covering the soul, but it's soul, that's illuminating the body, mind, intelligence, those very things. So, it's a very interesting example. But other ones there, there is a lot about nature, in modern context it sounds like a very 'green' chapter, it's all about the earth, rains, waters, ponds, streams, birds, clouds, sun and also there are not people in it. It's interesting. There are comparisons made between the birds and sadhus, and rivers and sadhus, but this chapter has no people, I mean obvious persons in it. So, he's selected this for Japan and thought, "It might be more suitable to their mentality, make the approach this way." Like we see in Asian painting sometimes there is that stylistic, they do it in Thai, paint clouds, sun, those kind of things, santa-representations.

Anyway, in that manuscript what later was published, he gives this one interesting example about liberated position, non-liberated position. And he says that before, well here is the analogy, when the sky is clouded you can identify the part of the sky where the cloud, say, there is one part of the sky no clouds, this part of the sky there is some clouds, so you can identify, there is a clouded portion of the sky. But when the clouds are gone you can't distinguish between that part of the sky which was once clouded and the part which was never clouded, they appear to be the same. Similarly, when the soul is covered by the clouds of ignorance you can distinguish, here is a conditioned soul, here is a liberated soul, but when the clouds of ignorance are removed, you can no longer distinguish between an eternally liberated soul and someone who was once conditioned. Now if someone is very smart they could say, but sometimes in the commentary of Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur he makes some very nuanced observations about nitya-siddha gopis and this (?), yes, Vishvanath Chakravari Thakur does that, but generally speaking this point is there.

So, once when I was thinking along these lines and making certain observations Guru Maharaj stopped me from thinking about it too much and he said, "We are seeking the grace of these souls, so he said, "We want to be in a position to receive their grace." So if we get carried away by too much impartial analysis about this position or that position, then there is a risk of committing offense, then we've offended the great souls, and then the grace we hope for is withdrawn, we should be very careful about that. But still like we've mentioned Sanatan Goswami Prabhu before and his most famous book being Brhad-Bhagavatamrtam, and really that's a story of a liberated soul, he's telling his story and another person who is deputed by Radharani to liberate, gets liberated along the way as well. And we understand by hearing this, what the possibilities are, that we can say.

There are instances, Bhakrivinod Thakur is saying, someone could fall from svarup-siddhi, but no vastu-siddhi, that means, svarup-siddhi means qualified, but not posted, vastu-siddhi is posted. Guru Maharaj gave an example, say someone is qualified to become a high court judge, but they haven't sat on the bench and ruled yet. So there are esoteric references in different places. Sanatan Goswami's commentaries others,

janma karma chameda byamevanvyo veti tattva taha tyaktvam punar janma nayati mam eti svarjana

Sometime in relation to this sloka, Bhagavad Gita, giving up this body they enter into Krsna's pastimes, how? The Pastimes are going one hundred and twenty five years from this universe to the next universe, next universe, next universe. Or prapancha-lila. So, he says, the gopi janma garba, in the womb of the gopi they take birth and in the prapancha-lila within this world, that's their first exposure to Krsna-lila. And then assuming everything goes well, then they are posted. So, sometimes Guru Maharaj called it like a ‘dress rehearsal'. So, we've heard different things here and there, without getting too specific, dealing more in potential, possibility.

But when this subject would come up about, cause sometimes people say about, "Oh, what about this lifetime. Is it possible?" No, Srila Prabhupad Swami Maharaj, he encouraged this a lot in his followers, but in retrospect we can see is very affectionate fatherly, grand-fatherly type of encouragement, "If you just do this, this and that, then without a doubt you'll go back to Godhead at the end of this life." To give some encouragement to take Krsna Consciousness seriously, and knowing that possibility is there. But Srila Guru Maharaj would remind us that the likelihood of going from the lowest position to the highest position is not great. Whereas we see someone like that saying, "Really we should understand, they are highly evolved in what is being given in the Scripture or told in the divine books somewhere is the story of their last lifetime. Or in the case of Bhaktivinod Thakur Srila Guru Maharaj is saying, "When you consider the magnitude of his contribution, then we understand he is not a practitioner, this is not something he acquired in this lifetime, he descended from the upper world here to distribute something.

But the prospect, the possibility should be enough to pick our imagination and encourage us, give us some enthusiasm. But if we have any appreciation for Krsna Consiousness whether it's one life or hundred lives, a thousand lives, (?) Mahaprabhu's devotee, Mukunda was once forbidden Mahaprabhu's association for some perceived offense and he was heartbroken and the devotees (?) on his behalf asked Mahaprabhu, "When will Mukunda be allowed again to return?" He said, "In a million years." And they went back and Mukunda said, "When will I be allowed?" "Prabhu, He told in a million years," and he's, "Hare Krsna!" Then Mahaprabhu said, "Mukunda come, your million years is up!" Contraction and extension of time and space. Anything is possible by the divine will of Krsna, Guru, Gauranga, Mahaprabhu. We're just happy to have any slightest, remotest connection by the grace of our Guru-varga with that plane, serve,

pujala ragapat gaurava bhange

We don't want something cheap. Like Guru Maharaj, I heard him the other day speaking, asking him, he said, "Oh, do you think Krsna is that picture I have in my mind? I have some picture in my mind of what is Krsna, that's Krsna?" He thought this was absurd, ludicrous, fullish. When Krsna tells Arjun after showing Virat-rupa, eykamsena stito jagat, whatever would you conceive was the Infinite is an atomic particle of finite to me, you think, so that Krsna, He is a picture in your mind? No.

Once some man in Navadwip was deluding people (?) he was showing Krsna in some tree at night, just like in Charitamrta some people in Vrndavan they thought, "Every night we're seeing Krsna dancing on Kaliya," and Mahaprabhu's servant went like, "Really?" And he went to see and Mahaprabhu's (?), "You're fool," first of all he's with Mahaprabhu, radha-govinda-milita, He is  Radha-Govinda combined. So, in Bengal they have a saying for this, gaura denya dash kale. Means in order (?) where you put feed for horse, it's like a big tub and they put a horse food in there, so, it's in gaura dene gashkao, means the horse lips over that to go searching for food. So, he is with Mahaprabhu and he is going to see and then later it's revealed that in the night there was some boatman and he has a lantern and then he is fishing and they see a fishing pole and a light it looks like Krsna is dancing on Kaliya to them. So, some man was like that in Navadwip and also dressing like sakhi, thinking that's the way. Putting a man, dressing like a lady. Guru Maharaj saw such a person is that, said, "Did someonw challenged him?" First he was like having all the movements like a lady and voice like a lady, then someone challenged him like this is nonsense, ridiculous, then suddenly his voice became  very angry, he was ready to fight. Not very lady-like. Anyway, Guru Maharaj corrected that one person, he broke (?) he was cheating the people, so, Guru Maharaj was (?) the opinion if someone was showing Krsna, he said, "Even if they are seeing Krsna, it's not the Krsna that's we are interested in." Kandarpa koti kamaniya visesa sobha, ten million Cupids personified as one. Madan-mohan vigraha, (?) Sanatan Goswami Madan-Mohan, why first Madan-Mohan, because Madan, Cupid, this mundane sex attraction is what's making the world spin, but Madan-Mohan He's making the Cupid head spin. So beautiful. So, we have to proceed. Guru Maharaj said, "Humbly, modestly, natural growth and development, avoid artificial ripening."

Like they do that in India, what is that stuff called,'carbonite' or 'kryptonite', but it's called ‘carbide'. And it's actually if you get those, if you don't know what you're doing, it's horrible, (?) a little white spot, I mean, they are just, they're artificially ripen mangos with this stuff. That's like prakrta sahajiya. Can't wait, not ready to pay actual price. Hare Krsna. But it is possible, what was that famous sloka,

samasrtaye pada palabha pavam mahattvatam punya so marare bhavam buddhir vatsa param vipadam matesam.

That and also, think when the devotees cross over the ocean of netions (?), they leave (?) behind the boat of their lotus feet that calf that they took every time someone crosses over that's a path, another path that can be followed, pursued, that can be taken successfully. When Guru Maharaj was asked someone, "Have you seen Krsna?" and he said, I know all these bogus people they say they've seen Krsna, we dismiss them out of (?), but I know you're not one of these bogus people, so I am asking you, and that will really help me in my spiritual life. And Guru Maharaj said, Saraswati Thakur was asked the similar question, two chairs withdraw and in the corner one man said, "You know, have you seen Krsna?" And Saraswati Thakur answered, "You should learn the process to see Krsna first." And I remember reading that in China town in San-Francisco before I joined, I was reading Prabhupad's Isopanisad, having the argument with a Marxist friend of mine and we go back and forth, Krsna Conscious vs. you know. And this point came up, and I was reading Prabhupad's (?) and he said, "Many times people challenge, "Can you show me Krsna?" But do they have the eyes to see Krsna? I like jumped out of my chair, going, "Yes, that is the answer!" So, Saraswati Thakur, Prabhupad they are similar, and Srila Guru Maharaj put it in this way, "I don't have the audacity to say, that I've seen Krsna, but I will say this that on the way to Krsna there are signs. Indicated sadhu sastra guru vaisnav and I'm seeing those signs." I thought that was a very sweet answer. Like we know we go somewhere, or in a car, this many miles to your…you keep seeing the signs, saying go this was and the amount of miles they keep reducing, or kilometers, whatever. So, he said, there are signs that you should see and I'm seeing those signs. That's a modest answer. Hare Krsna.