Following Him Justifies Our Existence

By

granthera ārambhe kari ‘maṅgalācaraṇa’
guru, vaiṣṇava, bhagavān, — tinera smaraṇa
When you remember Gurudev, Vaishnavas and the Lord all the obstacles in the path of devotional practice will be removed and your spiritual desire will be fulfilled. When Guru Vaishnav Bhagavan are pleased with you, your spiritual desires will be fulfilled. First, we have to understand who is guru, what is guru tattva—ontological aspect of guru. Gurudev is Lord’s own person, his associate. Acharya mam vijaniyan—Lord says know Gurudev as Me, I am in the form of Gurudev. So do not see Gurudev from outside (externally) as bones and flesh. One is external appearance—we are seeing with these eyes, and the other is internal, seeing him from the atma. That is the real darshan. You see Gurudev from outside and actually see Gurudev from inside. You follow Gurudev by ears, you hear his Harikatha, his instructions from ears and it enters into the heart and you hold those instructions in your heart. When you follow those instructions, that is how you can completely surrender to Gurudev. That is when you hear Harikatha, that is real darshan— real vision of Gurudev. Many of us we have come here giving up so many worldly associations, things, material things. We came here hearing Gurudev, we came here for Gurudev. We are not hearing outsiders talk and their thinking, but we hear Gurudev's thoughts and are here for Gurudev.

Gurudev says it nicely. The hand is connected to the body. If it is not, it cannot do any work, not even doctors can make it work. Because it is connected to the body, hand is getting nourishment, energy, everything from it. When it is cut from the body there is no use of it. Just like that, we are from the Lord, we are connected to God. If we worship God, we serve God, sing his kirtans, his glories, if we do everything for the Lord then our existence is fruitful, our existence has some meaning. Otherwise, it has no meaning. When we serve Gurudev, when we please Gurudev by our service, when we do what Gurudev says, then our existence will be justified, then our existence is useful. Otherwise like a cut hand is of no use we are also of no use if we are not serving Gurudev.

When Gurudev says us to walk this way and we walk the other way, then how Gurudev will be pleased? Then how Guru Vaishanv Bhagavan will be pleased? When Gurudev says walk this way, we should walk this way. There, if you have to die, then also it is ok. Say there is a big valley there and you have to get into that, still if you go and die it is good for you because your Gurudev is ordering that and you are following that, then you get the benefit. When we completely follow Gurudev and his instructions, we get our eternal benefit.

—Anantaram Das


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"She Has Gone to Goloka-dhāma "

By
Image
Guru Mahārāja is not an ordinary person; he is sent by the Supreme Lord to rescue all of us. In the office, if we are working in one place, we may be deputed to another place to do some work. Similarly, Gurudeva has been deputed from Goloka-dhāma to help us. Guru Mahārāja has come here to fulfill the desire of Hari-Guru-Vaishnavas. In 1997, I received harināma in Gokula-Mahāvana along with my  dharmapatnī , my wife. Guru Mahārāja asked my wife, "If something bad has happened to you, how do you take this? As if Gurudeva is at fault, or as if other persons are at fault?” My wife replied, “Whatever happens, I think it is good for me, by your arrangement.” In 2013, my wife was detected with breast cancer, and later left this world. Some devotees came to the maṭha and gave the news to Gurudeva. Gurudeva replied, "She has gone to Goloka-dhāma." In the hospital, I remember when my wife was in the ICU, and the doctor came and told me, "Your wife is in the fina
Read more

He Accepts Every Circumstance With Utmost Humility

By
Image
I heard something very deep and nice from a devotee that I met in Switzerland. He told me about how he had been staying at a temple there while Guru Mahārāja was visiting.  He said that the maṭha-in-charge expressed his desire that Gurudeva speak about Bhāgavatam. But then an order came that he was not allowed to speak there. In the room where the Bhāgavatam reading was, there was a young boy,. He was maybe only three months in the maṭha and recently came out of a completely material life, eating meat, smoking, etc. Anyway, he was the only one who had permission to speak about Bhāgavatam. And what did Guru Mahārāja do? He entered the room, bowed down to this boy and he sat in front of this boy and listened to his Bhāgavatam reading. This is his humbleness. This is always the way; they teach by example, not by punishing or whatever. When this maṭha-in-charge saw this whole situation, he decided in one moment to leave this institution forever. Although he left that organization, he did
Read more

Capture It in Your Heart

By
Image
In 2005, I decided to visit Jagannāth Puri for Ratha-yātrā. It was my first visit to any maṭha after harināma . The first thing I did was to equip myself with a film SLR camera anticipating interesting moments and visuals. Every year from then on, the camera always accompanied me, so much so that most of the time, I used to take snapshots more than actually participating. In 2010 or maybe 2011, I was staying in Mumbai. A few devotees wanted to purchase a camera for the maṭha-sevā , and, supposing I knew a bit about cameras, I accompanied them along for the purchase. Some research was done, and we picked up a Canon SLR and a couple of lenses. Soon after that, we went off to Jagannāth Puri. We were excited about the visit. It was during Ratha-yātrā, and Śrī Gurudeva was there for some days. A special darśan was organized for the Mumbai devotees. We walked in and offered praṇāms . As usual, I was holding the camera and shooting from many angles. At some point, I went closer to join the
Read more