His Scope of Respect Is Unlimited

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In 2003 when Śrīla Gurudev was in Mumbai, I saw that he was reading a newspaper. There was a headline that told about the arrest of a well-known leader within the Advaita Vedānta tradition, a sādhu in the line of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya. Another headline detailed the destruction caused by a big cyclone that swept through Chennai and many people were affected by it.

At that time I was young and stupid and made a random comment that reading the newspaper is a waste of time. He looked at me like a caring mother who understands the nature of her stupid son and he made me stay put and listen to what he was telling me. Making a very distinct point, he said, "I knew this was going to happen but did not expect it to happen so early. The cyclone that had hit South India had destroyed a huge amount of property and also the lives of so many people."  

Then Guru Mahārāj expanded his statement specifically to say that whenever there is an attack on Sanātana Dharma and saintly persons, pure devotees, and spiritual personalities, then nature will not forgive them. I was amazed to hear this. 

At that time there were some signs of earthquakes in Assam also. We see followers of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya's philosophy as māyāvādīs, but Gurudev's vision is totally different. We have a tendency to only respect those in whom we have some faith. So, we should learn to respect all the sādhus. 

Gurudev said, they may not be on that topmost level of practice, but we should still respect them. He emphasized again that whenever there is some opposition and some destructive mood towards those elevated personalities, nature is not going to forgive.  

This was one of the important teachings which I could learn from Śrīla Gurudev, "Learn to respect everyone." When Gurudev says, "All are good," it means Shaivites (those who revere Lord Siva as the Supreme Being) are also good, māyāvādīs (impersonal, non-dualists) is also good—everyone is good. Guru Mahārāj never had such kind of discrimination and he was all the time open to respect and care for everyone.

—Śrīla Bhakti Kiṅkar Dāmodar Mahārāj

Spoken in English, excerpted from Vaiṣṇava-sabha on May 9, 2021

Past post on a similar theme








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