Taking real shelter of the vaisnavas

Posted by dinesh

Taking real shelter of the vaisnavas

10 Jun 2008 by Nama-rupa dd

H.H. Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13/03/2007,Nectar of Instruction, text 4

So it’s not that a devotee is alone with Krishna, but rather the devotee becomes very close and intimate with the vaisnavas, much more so than generally is the case in the material relationships that exists in this world, where everyone has his privacy, where everyone has his fence, where everyone has his privacy circles, his limits, his borders and ‘Sorry, I don’t know you, so you cannot talk to me’ kind of mood. Book distributors – they ignore that; they step right through these privacy lines. The people are shocked, “This can’t be happening! This is not possible!” It shocks them. Among the vaisnavas we see that relationships are meant to be of a different nature; they are meant to be close and intimate, but may not be so in our present spiritual Movement because we are not prema bhaktas. But if we could be, if we would be devotees on the level of prema, then really such open, positive, non-envious exchange could be there.

Now in our present state we are associating in the material world and we are all at different levels of advancement. Srila Prabhupada sometimes said that our movement ISKCON is like a hospital and actually all are patients – some are in a better condition than the others and they are helping the others, but somehow or other it is a hospital full of patients where patients help patients, because devotees at different levels of advancement may help. Of course nitya-siddha devotees are of a different nature, or sadhana-siddha. Those who are siddha-bhakta devotees, who are fully at the platform of perfection, alright, they may not be considered as patients but otherwise patients are helping patients and therefore we can not expect our relationships to be completely fully developed. So we should not be disappointed when the relationships amongst vaisnavas are not one of real complete love and trust. When we see in our Movement not yet that full love and trust is realized, then we should not think it is just because we have socially failed. Rather it is that simply the spiritual world has not fully manifested amongst us.

Srila Prabhupada says “guyam…” - experienced devotees explain and an inexperienced devotee learns from him. Guyam means what is hidden, that will be shared once intimate, hidden feelings and experiences are being shared, because a vaisnava has to rise above the platform of duplicity. Duplicity is something required in the material world but from the spiritual plane duplicity is a real problem. It is actually one of the activities that can really block our spiritual advancement and it’s important that a vaisnava is not only truthful in what he says and that he doesn’t speak any lies, but that he’s just truthful about what he is experiencing, because then one can actually take shelter of the vaisnavas. If we are on the platform of pretending, always playing a part for everyone, then we are very alone because we never share our real self with anybody else. So we have to come to the point where we just share wherever we are, whatever we are going through with other vaisnavas, because then we get the shelter of the vaisnavas.

So this (guyam…) is very important because without taking shelter of the vaisnavas, it is not possible.
Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja Maharaja has said, “My path is very difficult, my feet are slipping again and again, therefore with the stick of the mercy of the vaisnavas for my support I can carry on this path.” So, interesting that he is saying, ‘My feet are slipping again and again’, and who can say that he has a perfect track record? This is very rare – never a slip? Never a moment of weakness? Never? That’s very rare! Some may slip again and again. Then ok, there are maybe no gross slips that one is not slipping with the four regulative principles but then we slip in so many other ways: we make so many mistakes on the path, more subtle mistakes, there again we come under the influence of the lower nature. So all these things are taking us away from the path of pure devotion, pure devotional service. So by taking shelter of the vaisnavas, we automatically get our true position in the association of the vaisnavas. If we are trying to act that we are quite advanced and we are not, then we are not getting the proper mercy that we require; we are just cutting ourselves off. So this taking shelter is an essential element.

Yours

Dinesh

Bhakti Yogi @ http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.com