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.
Assuming the Responsibility of Being Guru
We have taken upon ourselves the responsibility of welcoming this grave charge. Everyone in the audience has accepted an ordinary seat, I alone have been provided with a lofty sitting place. Everyone is being told in effect, "Do have a look at a big animal from the zoo gardens. What arrogance! So foolish! So wicked! Have you ever seen such a big brute! Garlands of flowers have been put around his neck! What laudations! What bombastic long-drawn, and hyperbolic adjectives! And how complacently too he is listening to the praise of his own achievements, how intently, and with his own ears! He also evidently feels delighted in mind? Is he not acting in plain violation of the teaching of Mahaprabhu? Can such a big brute, so selfish and insolent, be ever reclaimed from brutishness?"
By My Command; Be Guru!
I happen to be one of the greatest of fools. No one offers me good advice on account of my arrogance. Inasmuch as nobody condescends to instruct me I placed my case before Mahaprabhu Himself. The thought occurred to me that I would make over the charge of myself to Him and see what He would advise me to do. Then Sri Caitanyadeva said to me, "Who-so-ever you meet, instruct him regarding Krsna. By My command, be guru; deliver this land. In this you will not be obstructed by the current of the world. You will have My company again at this place."
In these verses is to be found the proper explanation of the apparent inconsistency noticed above. He whose only teaching is humility greater even than a blade of grass, said-"By My command, be guru; save this land!" In this instance Mahaprabhu Himself has given the command. His command being, "Perform the duty of the guru, even as I perform it myself. Also convey this command to whom ever you chance to meet." Caitanyadeva says, "Tell them these very words, viz. 'By My command, be guru; save this land. Deliver the people from their foolishness.'" Now whomever would happen to hear these words would naturally protest with folded palms joined. "But I am really a great sinner; how can I be guru? You are Godhead Himself, the Teacher of the world. Only You can be Guru."
To which Mahaprabhu replies, "In this you will not be obstructed by the current of the world. You will have my company again at this place." Therefore, in this case, in telling others about Krsna, there is no risk of forgetting Him.
Avoid the World
This thing called the world troubles us; color, taste, smell, touch, and sound dash themselves against us in mighty waves. For this reason it does not pay to be worldly minded. Sri Caitanya said, "For those who wish to get across the sea of worldliness, for those who are intent on serving God, and are free from desire for all other objects, the very sight of worldly people and looking at the opposite sex with the spirit of enjoyment is worse than swallowing poison."
Those who want to be employed in the service of God should never cast a covetous eye on any worldly object. By the vision of the partial, external, physical world the vision of God is shut out. No sooner does the world, or, in other words, anything perceivable by the senses, present itself, then it at once causes forgetfulness of the Lord; and all of those persons who are connected with the Absolute Truth begin to look small. One who is moving forward on the path of devotion with the object of serving Krsna should, therefore, by all means avoid worldly persons.
Kindly Refrain From Merely Imitating
It is necessary for the best to scrutinize one's ineligibility. Why should a person be anxious to pry into the defects of others when he does not seek to scrutinize his own conduct? On the other hand, even those who are less committed in service, may attain a higher level. Let us remember the instruction, "Not to speak ill of persons who listen to and remember with care the instructions of the spiritual scriptures and the saints. Even those who live by sin can know Krsna and prevail over His deluding power if they follow the conduct of the devoted servants of the Lord who covers all the worlds by His wonderful strides."
Those who are fit possess abundant power of devotion. They are strong. I should not apply myself to find out the shortcomings of the Vaisnavas, or to condemn the service of Lord Krsna or to seek to establish my own point of view by neglecting the method by which I may be enabled to serve the Lord and His devotees. No language can describe the havoc that is wrought in human life by such arrogance. We make this submission with all humility, "May you kindly refrain from merely imitating the conduct of the Vaisnavas. May you always follow in their line of thought." There is no relationship for us other than with the devotees of Krsna. Relationship with other persons can only aggravate the desire for sensual gratification.
Never Disregard the Guru
"Do not practice the craft of being guru for the purpose of injuring others through malice. Do not adopt the trade of a guru in order to get immersed in the slough of this world. But if you can, indeed, be My guileless servant; you will be endowed with my power-then you need not fear." I have no fear, my gurudeva has heard this from his gurudeva. And it is for this reason that my gurudeva has accepted even such a great sinner as myself and has told me, "By My command, be guru; save this land.: It is only those who have never heard these words of Gaurasundara who say, "How odd! To listen to one's own praise!"
While the guru is instructing his disciple in the eleventh skanda of the Bhagavatam what a great sin, in their opinion, he is perpetuating! What is the acharya to do when he has to explain the sloka: acharyam mam vijaniyam, "Never disregard the acharya. Never entertain that the acharya is your equal in any sense."
Guru Good as God
These are the words of Sri Krsna Himself by which the jiva is to be benefitted. Is the guru to desert his seat-the seat of the acharya-from which these words are to be explained? That office his gurudeva has conferred on him. If he does not act up to its requirements he is doomed to perdition by reason of his offense against the holy name in the shape of disrespect towards the guru. He has to do it in spite of the fact that such procedure is apparently open to the charge of egoism. When the guru imparts the mantra to the disciple should he not tell him by this guru-gayatri-mantra to worship his guru? Should he say instead, "Give the guru a few strokes of the shoe or horse whip?" The guru is never to be decried. The guru is the abode of all the gods. Should gurudeva abstain from communicating these words to his disciple while reading the Bhagavatam to him? "To him alone who possesses guileless spiritual devotion, similar to the transcendental devotion that is due to Krsna Himself, to the gurudeva, the holy mysteries are manifested." Is the gurudeva not to tell these things to his disciples?
"Gurupuja, the worship of the guru, has precedence over all others. The guru is to be served just as Krsna is served. The guru is to be worshipped in a particular way." Is the guru to desert his seat without telling all these things to the disciple? In the emancipated state no defect is possible, this simple truth ordinary foolish people entirely fail to grasp.
God As Servant
In a sense guru is like the hand attached to the body of God, Who is all-existence, all-intelligence, and all-bliss (sat-chit-ananda-vigraha). With His hand God rubs His own feet. The hand of God is His own limb. In this case God is serving Himself. God, Himself appears as the guru in order to teach how to serve Himself. Our gurudeva is also one with the body of God. There is God to be served, there is also God Who serves; God as object and God as support. Mukunda is God to be served, He is the object, God. The most beloved of Mukunda, Sri Gurudeva, is serving God the support. There is no one so dearly loved by God as our gurudeva. He alone is the best beloved of the Lord.
Instruct the Mind
Our gurudeva has said, "Oh my mind, whether it be religion that has been prescribed, or irreligion that has been forbidden by the Vedas, you need perform neither. Placed as you are in this world, propagate the unstinted service of Sri Radha-Krsna in Vraja and recollect unceasingly the darling son of Sri Saci, Sri Gaurasundara, knowing Him to be non-different from the son of Nanda, Krsna, and the guru, know Him to be the best beloved of Krsna. In the gossta, in Navadwipa-Vaikuntha-Swetadwipa-Vrndavana, never stint in your regards for the denizens of Navadwipa and Vraja inasmuch as they are the servitors of Gaura Krsna. Do not condemn the Vaisnavas nor the Brahmins."
For example, if having sat down to a meal, assuming gentle manners, we choose to take insufficient food, thereby the belly will not be filled; if we cheat the smith in the matter of steel; if not being able to understand how to do a sum in mathematics we feel ashamed and do not confess our ignorance to our teacher-in any case no success will be gained. Likewise if we desire the service of God but have no regard for His dearmost then we will never be satisfied.
Hypocritical sectarians, pseudo-Vaisnava sects, those sects that cherish internally the longing for earthly fame, and others naturally think, "What a shame it is for one to listen to the eulogies of disciples occupying the seat of the guru." But every Vaisnava regards everyone of the Vaisnavas as the objects of his veneration. I am doing the duty of the guru, but if I preach that no one should shout, "Jaya!" to me, it would be nothing short of duplicity. Our gurudeva has not taught such insincerity. Mahaprabhu has not taught such insincerity. The word of Krsna has come down to gurudeva. I have to obey it in all insincerity. I will not disrespect the guru at the insistence of any foolish or malicious sectarians. Especially as Sri Gurudeva has directed me saying, "By my command, be guru; save this land."
I have Implicit Trust
If I disobey the law which has come down to me through the chain of preceptorial succession, the offense due to omission to carry out the command of the guru will sever me from the lotus feet of Sri Gurudeva. If, in order to carry out the command of the guru, I have to be arrogant, brutish, to suffer eternal perdition, I am prepared to welcome such eternal damnation and even sign a pact to that effect. I will not listen to the words of other malicious persons in lieu of the command of the gurudeva. I will dissipate, with indomitable courage and conviction, the currents of thought of all the rest of the world, relying on the strength derived from the lotus feet of Sri Gurudeva. I confess to this arrogance. By sprinkling a particle of the pollen of the lotus feet of my preceptor, crores of people like you will be saved. There is no such learning in this world, no such sound reasoning in all the fourteen worlds, no man-gods, that can weigh more than a solitary particle of the dust of the lotus feet of my gurudeva. Gurudeva in whom I have implicit trust can never spite me. I am by no means prepared to listen to the words of any one who wants to hurt me or to accept such a malicious person as my preceptor.
Ocean of Mercy
In the presence of Sri Caitanyadeva, Sri Swarupa Damodara said, "Oh ocean of mercy, Sri Caitanya, on the manifestation of your mercy the dust in the shape of mental disquietude is easily wafted from the heart and the heart quickly becomes cleaned of any impurities. Then is manifested, in the clean heart, the highest bliss born of devotion to Sri Krsna. The conflicting interpretations of the sastras (scriptures) give rise in the mind to opposing speculations which only cause perpetual strife. Only by obtaining your mercy is the favored heart intoxicated with the elixer of the devotion to God whereupon the wranglings of the sastra cease to disturb. Your mercy promotes perennial devotion, in other words, directs all jiva souls from hankering after objects other than Krsna, conducting them to the very pinnacles of beautitude. O Ocean of kindness, Sri Caitanya, may that non-evil producing mercy of yours be poured down upon me."
When Sri Swarupa Damodara speaks these words to Sri Caitanyadeva, the Lord does not avoid listening to them. Yet in order to teach humility to foolish people, He exhibits at times another line of conduct, observing, "such words should not be addressed to me," but not for the purpose of teaching duplicity. Ignorant people naturally entertain doubts. I have learned from my gurudeva that, "I am certainly as contemptible as the maggot in stool." But when our gurudeva, by command of his guru, by command of Mahaprabhu, conducts himself in the aforesaid manner, may no one cast offense at his feet.
Devotee of the Devotee
It is only when we have occasion to listen to the praises of the Supreme Object, and they react in our hearts, that we may learn about our utter worthlessness. The Vaisnavas' profound humility and obedience teach us that it is never possible to approach God and His devotees except by such humble submission. If we learn to be arrogant, we will surely be deprived of the service to God and His devotees for good. "There are persons who do not worship His devotees while worshipping God. Verily they are arrogant persons and not worshippers of God at all." In the matter of worship, God and His devotees are to be equated. If the same devotion with which we worship God is not aroused in our hearts to the feet of His devotees, we are rendered perfectly worthless, and we have lived in vain.
All of them are instructing me about the highest service of God. May we be ever ready to sweep away from our hearts, by the rough application of hundreds of thousands of pointed broomsticks, the wicked design of desiring to be honored above other persons by the devotees of the Lord. Krsna will be merciful to us and we shall be blessed with the gift of devotion to His Divine Lotus Feet the very day that we are delivered from the evil desire of seeking advantages and honors from others. A person is relieved from all ineligibilities by being imparted fitness for the service of God. Immoral men and women, sudras, and the rest may look condemnable and contemptible in the eyes of the world for their evil deeds. But even such persons are enabled to attain the eternal good by noting the model disposition of the devotees of God, who honor all persons without requiring to be honored, and by following their conduct and teaching. Let us end with the text already quoted, "There are those who worship God but do not worship His devotees. Verily such persons are arrogant sinners. They are not worshippers of God at all."