Sri Guru Is  Present In All Things

by Srila  Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

Question 1: Are genuine saints (sadhus) respected in this  world?

Answer: In a world full of duplicity, only  duplicitous persons are honoured. Genuine saints, who do not lead the masses  along the wrong path, are not respected in this world. In modern times, simply  getting cheated by those who mislead the masses through a pretentious form of  spiritual discourse has somehow emerged as the religion of the age  (yuga-dharma). And because the true saints wish to expose wicked and  unholy persons (asadhus), those same unholy cheaters bewilder the masses  by condemning the true saints as unholy, duplicitous and thieves themselves in a  ploy to secure their escape. The illusory potency of the Lord, maya,  never allows the jivas to be sincere (niskapata) and to that end  she has even devised various expert strategies for depriving the jivas of  the association of genuine sadhus.

Question 2: Is it possible to have darsana of the Supreme Lord without first having  darsana of sri guru?

Answer: Definitely not. Sri guru is  the fully transcendent (aprakrta) temple of Sri Bhagavan, and Bhagavan  always resides within that temple. Bhagavan Sri Krsna, who is controlled by  love, manifests Himself within sadhu-guru and remains there always. It is  written in the scriptures:

srutim apare smrtim  itare bharatam anye bhajantu bhava-bhitah aham iha nandam  vande yasyalinde param brahma

Padyavali (126)

Others may serve  the Srutis, Smrtis, the Mahabharata and other scriptures, fearing material  existence, but I shall worship Nanda Maharaja, who is so great that the Supreme  Brahman, the Absolute Truth Himself, plays in his  courtyard.

Many people present  themselves as being highly eager to have darsana of Bhagavan, but they do  not understand that darsana of Bhagavan is only possible through  darsana of guru. Without having darsana of sri guru,  having darsana of Bhagavan is not even imaginable. Even bhakti herself does not begin to manifest if the entity known as sri guru is not  present.

Sri guru is the sole medium by which we are  connected to Sri Krsna and given direct audience of His lotus feet. And the way  Sri Krsna demonstrates His infinite mercy is by sending the greatest Vaisnavas,  His dear-most servants, to this world. Indeed, sri guru is the  personification of Krnsa’s infinite mercy. Only he who teaches us about serving  the Deity and the Holy Name is sri gurudeva.

It is not sufficient to  serve sri guru only with awe and reverence from a distance. We must serve  sri guru with intimacy, that is, with deep love and faith (visrambha  guru-seva), just as Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami intimately served Sri  Svarupa Damodara Prabhu.

Question 3: What will happen to me if I forget sri guru?

Answer: The moment I deviate from sri  guru, the moment I become forgetful of he who keeps me attracted to his  lotus feet at every single moment, I will, without a doubt, diverge from the  Truth. And when I am thus separated from sri guru, countless misgivings  and deficiencies will engulf me. I shall simply spend my time bathing when I’m  hot and bundling up when I’m cold. In other words, I will become more anxious to  arrange for my own comfort than to serve sri  gurudeva.

If at the beginning of  every year, every month, every day and every moment, I do not remember my  gurudeva, who saves me from absorption in that which has no connection to  my constitutional nature or are separate from krsna-bhakti, then I will  definitely fall into greater and greater difficulty. I will try to present  myself as guru and will be swallowed up by the ill-mentality of believing  that others should worship me as such. This alone is dvitiya abhinivesa –  infatuation with the worthless purposes of our unnatural state. To come and  offer guru-puja just for one day is insufficient. It is our duty to serve  gurudeva at every moment.

Question 4: Who sees shortcomings in the Vaisnavas?

Answer: Only those who are averse to  hari-bhajana, and who are purely dependent on their material senses –  their eyes, ears, nose and so on – which are doomed to perceive only the  external aspect of things, look for faults in the Vaisnavas. In Srimad  Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krsna has declared that a devotee of the Lord is never  touched by inauspiciousness; he never perishes – na me bhaktah pranasyati (Srimad Bhagavad-gita 9.31).

How can those who are  engaged in exclusive bhajana of the Lord ever become degraded? Verily  they attain only the greatest welfare. Because my vision is imperfect, I see  faults in others. Thus I am unable to attain my own  welfare.

If I become completely  dependent on the observations and perceptions of my senses, then I will be  deprived of service to Adhoksaja – the Supreme Personality of Godhead,  who is beyond the reach of the senses – and I will be deprived of service to  sri gurudeva. It is because of my own dismal state that I allow my mind  to happily dwell on the misfortune of others. I am only so attracted to finding  faults in others because I myself am full of faults. If I am able to achieve my  own welfare, then no time will remain for seeing faults in  others.

Question 5: Is sri guru present in everything?

Answer: Yes. The acaryas who comprise  our asraya-jatiya guru-varga* are present in various forms in order to  bestow mercy upon us. All these forms are manifestations of sri gurudeva himself – he who imparts transcendental knowledge (divya-jnana). The  image of the jagad-guru is reflected in various idealistic entities. My  sri gurudeva is being reflected in every entity. The visaya-jatiya aspect of Krsna (Krsna as the object of love) is one half of the Absolute  Reality. The other half is the asraya-jatiya aspect (wherein love of God  takes shelter). The completeness of the Absolute Reality exists in the  variegatedness of the transcendental pastimes of these two aspects. The complete  perception of the visaya-jatiya aspect is Sri Krsna, and the complete  perception of the asraya-jatiya aspect is my sri gurudeva. The  transcendental reflection of the asraya-jatiya aspect in all the  conscious cosmic manifestation is the manifestation of my gurudeva alone,  in diverse forms. He who teaches us at every moment that we should engage in  serving Bhagavan for our entire life is certainly sri gurudeva. This very  same gurudeva is reflected in the heart of every living being. He is  present in every single entity in his asraya-jatiya aspect.

_____________________ *  The line of pure gurus in whose hearts Sri Bhagavan  resides

Question 6: When does someone attain a sphurti (momentary vision) of Bhagavan in his  heart?

Answer: By good fortune, someone may  perceive sri gurudeva wandering in his heart – that is to say, he may  have darsana of sri gurudeva in his heart. Only in such a pure  heart does the momentary vision (sphurti) of Bhagavan take place. There  is no other means to attain service to the Supreme Lord than serving and  pleasing sri guru, he who inspires us to engage in serving Sri Bhagavan  by all means and in every activity.

Question 7: If I do not completely surrender to the lotus feet of sri guru, am I  simply deceiving myself?

Answer: Definitely. I may consider that I  have received mantra from guru, but in real terms, if I am not  prepared to accept full shelter at the lotus feet of sri gurudeva, then  to whatever extent I act with duplicity, I will be  cheated.

Translated by  the Rays of The Harmonist team from Srila Prabhupadera  Upadesamrta Questions re-numbered for this on-line  presentation