See the Guru with Your Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
speaking to the Colombian devotees,
2 October 2014

There are many devotees today, very nice. I am very happy to see you. Krishna is arranging and gathering you all, and I am very happy you are getting energy to preach Krishna consciousness to the fallen souls, it is very important. You are giving so much life to the devotees.

Actually, the Lord gave you some property, like chaksu, karna, nasika, jihva, tvak (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin)—the Lord gave us everything, and we must use that property for the service to the Lord, which means preaching. You are doing that, and therefore you can see the result—so many people have come to hear some Krishna-katha. You are also getting purified—there is some dirt, and you are getting purified in this way. You are also getting the association of Sripad Tyagi Maharaj. He is following my instruction, that is why he came there, to give something to you; and by getting his association, you are benefitted.

I am also with you all. You are serving my Guru, you are following Gurudev's instruction, so you can think that I am always with you. I am always your friend, your well-wisher, everything, and I am always thinking of you. Krishna is very busy with so many things, and the Guru has a duty to always think for the good of his devotees: what will be good for his disciples, devotees, well-wishers. If a disciple can fully surrender to his Guru, then the Guru can always think about the prosperity, success, and benefit of the disciple.

You must observe, see your Guru through your divya chaksu, through the eyes of your heart, then you can realise what the Guru's position is, what the Guru can give us. You can observe your Guru with your internal eyes—you cannot recognise him properly with your brain, with your teachings or education. Only through your heart, through your love and affection can you realise your Guru.

Like Sri Gopinath Acharya. He can observe, realise who Mahaprabhu is. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya cannot recognise, or realise, who Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is because he has no mercy; and because Gopinath Acharya has mercy of Mahaprabhu, he can realise that through his heart. You too can realise, observe your Guru through your heart—not through your education or intelligence.

When through their energy, through their enthusiasm, somebody is trying heart and soul for the Lord, for Krishna, Krishna will always think for them. Actually, if you think for the devotees, if you serve the devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, you will get mercy from Nityananda Prabhu. The scriptures, the sastra told that. And you are doing that, so you will easily be successful in your spiritual life.

You must, however, be always careful about Vaishnav aparadh. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord Himself says that we are making offences, and only the Vaishnavs, the mercy from the Vaishnavs can remove all our offences, but if you make offence to great Vaishnavs, no one can remove that offence. Only Vaishnavs can remove our offences, so we must be careful and we must always avoid Vaishnav aparadh.

Are there any questions from you?

Devotee: How can we have attachment to the Guru?

Through practising Krishna consciousness. Through following Gurudev's instruction. Gurudev can see everything. Follow Gurudev's instruction, with sincerity, humility, and dedication. If you have humility, sincerity, and dedication, then automatically you can become attached to your Guru.

Lokanath Goswami promised that he would not take any disciples, but Narottam Das Thakur wanted to take initiation from him so much that he did the lowest service—he cleaned the place where his Guru passed stool—and anyhow Lokanath Goswami was bound to give him initiation. In this way, if you have this strongest desire, sudridha sraddha [unflinching faith], to serve your Guru, you will get attachment to your Guru easily.

My Gurudev told me, "If you serve Vaishnavs, if serve the devotees of the Lord, then Krishna will come to serve you." That is why Mirabai is not in our Guru-parampara. She is always crazy for Krishna, but she does not serve the devotees of Krishna, she always avoids serving the devotees of Krishna. For this reason, we do not follow her conception, and she is not in our Guru-parampara.

We must understand that Krishna is infinite, and it is impossible for us, the finite, to serve in the infinite. You can see in Sri Guru and His Grace, the book by Param Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, that although Dhritarastra was blind, he could see Krishna's visva-rupa [universal form]. Krishna gave him His mercy, and with his blind eyes Dhritarastra could see Krishna. He prayed to Krishna to remove his blindness, but Krishna told him it was not necessary to remove his blindness, he could see the form of Lord Krishna.

Everybody can give a mantra, but you have to find out where that mantra is coming from, who the guru is and where the root, the Guru-parampara, is. It is necessary, otherwise anybody can give a mantra, but you do not know whether that mantra will not work or not. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj gave an example of homeopathic medicine. There are two kinds of globules: with and without medicine. They are different: if you take the globule without medicine, it will not work; and if you take the one with medicine, it will work. Both globules looks the same, and the mantras look the same—but only the mantra that is coming from the original guru will work. Otherwise, we are simple-hearted people, and anybody can cheat us easily if we go to not proper guru and not proper Guru-parampara.

We must also understand the example of Eklavya. Eklavya was a disciple of Dronacharya, and when his Guru asked for Guru-daksina, Guru-pranami, Eklavya cut his finger. It was not devotion—he wanted to learn more and become greater than his Guru. Dronacharya did not give him so much power, but Eklavya went against his Guru and fell down. That is the example of Eklavya.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "If you want to be bigger than a Vaishnav, if you want to be a great Vaishnav, that is not devotion." You must always remember and keep in your heart that we get honour, we get respect, name and fame, but how do we get it? Actually, we get it for our Guru. It belongs to our Guru. We got all this—name, fame, etc.—for our Guru, and if we do not use it for the service to the Guru, that is a big problem. If we use it for our own purpose, it is the main offence, and because of that we can easily fall down.

Why was Arjuna the best disciple of Dronacharya? Because he did what his Guru told him. When Dronacharya was testing all his disciple (Yudhisthir, Bhima and all others were there), everybody saw other things, but Arjun followed him properly. What his Guru told him, he carefully listened to that through his mind and heart, and he followed properly his instruction, direction. This is necessary: you have to follow carefully what the Guru tells you. Arjun did that, and Dronacharya said that he was his best disciple.

So, you can realise, observe your Guru through your heart—through your heart and soul.

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave one example. A man is born in a dark place, and if you call him to see the sun, he will bring a kerosene lamp to see the sun. You can tell the man it is not necessary to take it to see the sun, but he will not believe. He thinks, "I am not foolish. If you want to see anything, it is necessary to take a kerosene lamp." At first he cannot understand that if you want to see the sun, your light is not necessary, you can see the sun through its own light, but when he saw the sun, then he understood that. It is the same with the Guru also: you can see the Guru through the Guru's own mercy. If you have mercy from the Guru, you can observe your Guru.

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