Spiritual Master and Disciple

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

Here in Mayapur, Satyadhana tells a story that he was going next door and one of Prabhupada's Godbrothers: Damadora Maharaja told him that:
"Prabhupada is your Diksha Guru and I'm your Siksha Guru'
..and then he came back later to Prabhupada and said that something really far out happenened: Damador maharaja told me this - and Prabhupada said: "You go back there and tell that I am your both Diksha and Siksha guru'
So generally the Siksha Guru becomes the Diksha Guru also implies that after the initiation take place the siksha also continues and then there is an on going siksha relationship as well, and that is what we see for all practical purposes mostly taking place in our movement, but is not always the case.
A lot of objection has been made or a lot of criticism has been there about the initiations that were maybe just formal diksha and that no training of the disciple and so on…but I think it's fine as long as the disciple is trained up by someone else - that is fine – it does not minimise the role of the Diksha Guru at all – because one devotee came and started to really lament and say:
"I have no relationship with my Guru, it's a very sad story, he never communicates with me and there is no exchange.' ...


The appropriate perspective on this situation is:
'That's fine, accept the mercy that you have received. He has the purity by his commitment to the Paramapara and has connected you to the Paramapara and has got you all the blessings from the Paramapara by the diksha - that is a tremendous blessing that you have got, and now the instruction you may have to get from somehere else.'
So it is a false kind of reasoning that:
'My Guru never writes to me, he doesn't answer my mail' and all these kind of things - it misses the point of understanding that the Guru has done a great thing; firstly by his purity by being connected to the Paramapara and secondly he is giving the blessings by diksha, and siksha may come by the community of the vaishnavas and that is actually fine – there is nothing wrong with that…it is part of the culture we have to have this - Of course there is an injunction that whatever a person learns from a Siksha Guru , it should get confirmed by the Diksha Guru just to avoid contradictions that may arise between the two authorities – but it is obvious in many cases that there will be a relationship with the siksha guru.
Now all these things are very intricate and very complex and I have sometime heard that devotees made a case that:
"We are the ones that are guiding these devotees on a daily basis and the spiritual master only comes from time to time and only sees his disciples some times and therefore the real siksha relationship, the real substance is more with us who are guiding the devotee on a more regular basis"
but that is also not always the case , it can't just be measured by quantity; it maybe that there are some who are guiding on a daily basis but it also maybe that the Diksha Guru, who probably became a Diksha Guru because of his maturity and experience, in those few moments that the meeting is taking place, giving instructions on a deeper level.
I am also remembering Brihat Bhagavatamrita, Gopa Kumar and his Spiritual master had an interesting relationship because his Spiritual Master appears from time to time in his life, and gives short instructions, doesn't explain them, sometime he is even ecstatic and can not express thing properly and Gopa Kumar is stuck with these instructions that he can not even understand properly.
Then he tries to follow them to the best of his ability – but it works because Krishna reciprocates with his sincerity in trying to follow the instructions of the spiritual master faithfully and he gives him the intelligence to somehow or other figure it out in due course of time.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

 

 

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We have so much love to give, and the more that we give, the more we receive.

 

May the joy be with you,

 

 

 

 

I want Krsna!

In the beginning our Krishna Consciousness is like a little island. It becomes like a tiny little island within our consciousness. The material influences are very strong within our consciousness. I compared them to a big ship. A little island - an ocean… and a big ship filled with material desires! Waving at us - very close. So this will go on at first.

Then as we are getting more advanced – the island grows in size, and then gradually it says that as the night of the naivety goes on, the ship with material desires goes at a more distance.

Then at nistha - when we are fixed in our determination that we want Krsna - when we have strong faith. That s where happiness is, but we still have our attachments to material things, but we know that it's not really going to do it for us. Then when we are going through, then we see that the ship is far away...



Then it says, when ruci arrives – at that time gradually, because the material influence is less, our taste in Krishna Consciousness begins to stretch over the surface of our entire consciousness. So in ruci there maybe some influence of passion but ones whole consciousness is filled with taste in Krishna Consciousness. So this ruci is a very nice stage.

It is said that in āsakti, this ruci which is over the surface of the entire water – it goes deeper and under the surface. So it begins to penetrate deeper and deeper in our āsakti and in our consciousness… but the material influence is still there but in āsakti the material influence is on the horizon – the ship is now on the horizon and gradually it begins to disappear – over the horizon.

In bhāva, the ship has become a shadow. So that' s very interesting, because the shadow means: It's not there and it is there at the same time. The real thing – the real material desire is no longer there, but the shadow means that one still knows – when one may not have that desire, but one knows it. If I want to – I could, since the option of that door is still there. That's the shadow of the material desire. It's still the material desire one suffers for, but still one is not affected by the heart: One is not struggling with the material desires. But the back door – one still sees; ' Oh I could go in the sense gratification direction. I could be the sense enjoyer if I wanted to, but I don't – I want Krsna!'. That is still there – but only a shadow on the horizon. So it's in the background – its far in consciousness.

In prema, the whole ocean becomes like ecstatic love. That's basically what we are looking at. I like this metaphor a lot. Somehow or other…. I had a thing with water, and I kind of liked this metaphor of the ocean, whereas the mind or the consciousness comparing to an ocean. It's been done many times in the scripture, for example:

apuryamanam acala-pratistham
samudram apah pravisanti yadvat
tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve
sa santim apnoti na kama-kami

Which is the metaphor of all the rivers of desires going into the ocean. It is said that the ocean is so full, that all these rivers cannot disturb the ocean. The water level stays the same and it doesn't affect the ocean due to its fullness - so these rivers have no real affect.


(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Melbourne, October 2010)

 

 

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We need to have a philosophical outlook

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

When we in the morning brush our teeth and we look in the mirror and then you say "Good morning handsome!"…you are looking at that familiar well known face: "I know this face"
No, you don't know this face, it's a new face that we are looking at, it is a face that we have never seen before in what we see in the mirror in the morning, but the changes from yesterday are so subtle that it is hard to notice – sometimes we notice:
'I never had this wart before, I never had hair growing out of my ears, my nose'
'a new bag has appeared' and so on...


Changes are there…-just like two pictures, find the seventeen differences between the two pictures – this kind of experience.
(One of the the Greek philosophers) said:
"You can not step in the same river twice."
So this is our understanding and Dhruva had this understanding that everything in this world is a temporary always changing manifestation, including one's body and therefore has no real meaning or of any significance.
There is an interesting letter of Bhaktisiddhanata that I like. It is describing that:
'Hiranyakasipu, where ever he looked he couldn't see the Supreme Lord and Prahlada was just the oppsite, wherever he looked he would see the Supreme Lord …….and we are in between!'
He places us in between of Hiranyakasipu and Prahlada which basically indicates that we have an attachment to Krishna and an attachment to the material world. Both! Therefore this exercise to look at the illusory nature of all the material manifestations, illusory in the sense that it is temporary, that is important and that we practice this exercise as part of our sadhana – that is part of our application of the philosophy.
We need to have a philosophical outlook which includes this Brahaman vision when we see this material energy.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2010)

 

 

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