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It is our nature to worship. From prehistoric times to the present, human society has been engaged in some form of veneration.
Topic: Guru-tattva
More Humble then a Blade of Grass
The following is an excerpt from a lecture given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura at his last manifest Vyasa puja celebration February 6th, 1936. Vyasa puja is the day traditionally set aside to honor the spiritual master.
Śrī Guru Ārati
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jaya jaya gurudeva! ācārya praṇāma!
śrī bhaktigaurava swāmī narasiṅgha nāma
The Necessity of the Guru God-brother Relationship
Most of us generally learn the basics of spiritual activities and conceptions from the older disciples of the Guru. Therein exists a hierarchy based on experience and realization. At some point direct association and possibly personal training comes from the Guru himself, but this actually turns out to be quite rare. To consider one's older god-brothers and god-sisters as śīkṣa-gurus in the living time of the Ācārya is the natural course one follows in spiritual life.
Initiation and Beyond
Initiation is a noble prospect that you are put in connection with. But so much will have to come from our side, the disciple, in order to progress.
The Legacy
Śrīla Prabhupāda has written that, “Satisfaction of the self realized spiritual master is the secret of success in spiritual life.” In essence, this refers to service that is known to be what the spiritual master desires, wherever and whenever it is performed.
Initiation into Spritual Life
The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence.
The Divine Intervention of Sri Nityananda Prabhu
If someone says I accept the divinity of Mahāprabhu but not the divinity of Nityānanda Prabhu, then he is a philosopher of this half-hen philosophy. The whole thing is spoiled. So from Nityānanda Prabhu, our fortune begins.
Mahāprabhu as Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda is not a title applicable only to Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda or even to only Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda.
Omniscience?
Is a pure devotee, the guru or an acarya, omniscient?
Guru-padasraya
“Who am I serving? Under who's asraya am I reading and hearing hari-katha?” Reading sastra without asraya of our guru is knowledge-seeking
Instructing the Guru
How are we to understand that a disciple appears to be instructing her guru?