Guru-World: Apply Judgement

By His Divine Grace
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
31 May 2013

You can see that in this world, there are many kinds of guru. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and even many scriptures, sastra, also say: Who is a Guru? A Guru is the one who can rescue others from death. In this world, you will get many gurus—jnani-guru, karmi-guru, yogi-guru, and so on. One time, somebody asked Gurudev, "Gurudev, please put your hand on my head," and Gurudev said, "It is jnana-misra bhakti [knowledge mixed with knowledge-seeking]. He is supposed to serve his Guru, but instead he is using me to serve him." Another thing is that I must listen to my Guru, it is not that the Guru must listen to me.

If the Guru loves you, and not your money, he will give you some advice. Like, if you have blood sugar, a real doctor will prescribe you not to eat potato, not to eat rice, and not to eat sweets. You can say, "Doctor, I have money. You can prescribe much medicine, that is not a problem, I can take medicine, but I cannot give up rice, sweets, or potato..." If the doctor loves you, he will reply, "I cannot do that. You must give these things up otherwise do not come to me because if I only take your money, the treatment will not work." A real Guru is also like that. The Guru will not give bad advice. If you have some bad habit, or you have some bad idea and you cannot leave it, the Guru will not say, "OK, you can remove it slowly, gradually." If the Guru loves your money, he will say, "All right, chant the Holy Name, and you can follow your bad habit little by little, it is not a problem." A real Guru will not say it. A real, perfect Guru will say, "You must leave your bad habit. You must not go that way, you must go this way otherwise you will not prosper in your spiritual life." A real Guru will not flatter his disciple.

A bad doctor thinks, "If I tell the patient not to take all this food, then he will not come to me and I will not get money." A bogus, pretending Guru will think, "If I tell them not to do that, not to do this, this, and that, they will leave me—they will take other Guru, and there will be fewer disciples..." But Srila Sridhar Maharaj said, "I do not want quantity, I want quality." There can be many disciples, but it is necessary to have some quality, not quantity—for our spiritual life it is necessary to have those who will take real Harinam.

So, in this world there are many things said. They say that everything is equal, everything is the same—if you worship Kali, if you worship Brahma, if you worship Lord Siva, if you worship Krishna, if you worship this, if you worship that, everything is the same. But it is not! Those who are thieves are in jail, and the good men are out—if you apply some judgement you can understand what is real. It is necessary to understand this clearly to make the right choice.

There are sastras (scriptures) that say that jnana-marga is the best and that jnanis (wise people) are the best; there are sastras that say that karmis (workers motivated by the results and gain) are the best—there are different sastras dealing with different levels. But Srimad Bhagavatam (1.1.2) says,

পৃথিবীতে যত কথা ধর্ম্মনামে-চলে ।
ভাগবত কহে সব পরিপূর্ণ ছলে ॥

prthivite yaha kichu dharma name chale
bhagavata kahe taha paripurna chhale

"Bhagavatam says that what is happening in this world in the name of religion, is full of cheating."

"There are so many religions in this world, but it is all cheating." It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (18.66),

সর্ব্বধর্ম্মান্ পরিত্যজ্য মামেকং শরণং ব্রজ ।
অহং ত্বাং সর্ব্বপাপেভ্যো মোক্ষয়িষ্যামি মা শুচঃ ॥

sarva-dharman parityajya, mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo, moksayisyami ma suchah

"Give up all kinds of religion and surrender to Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not despair."

The Lord Himself says, "Surrender everything to Me. You think that some offence will come if you do that, but it is not so—I will take all offence."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!

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