Yesterday, I started speaking on the first verse of Manah-siksa by Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. I’m going to read it in Sanskrit again: gurau gosthe gostalayisu sujane bhusura-gane sva-mantre sri-namni vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-sarane sada dambham hitva kuru ratim apurvam atitara-maye svantar bhratas catubhir abhiyace dhrita-padah 

 I was saying that in this verse Raghunatha dasa Gosvami implores his mind, getting hold of its feet abhiyace dhrita-padah with sweet words – catubhir. He says, “O my brother, my inner self, my companion, the one I have endless talks with, I plead with you - sada dambham hitva – cast away pride, cast away your craftiness, your cunning. Kuru ratim apurvam atitara – try hard to develop attachment. Attachment to what? Gurau gosthe gostalayisu – to the guru, to Vrindavana, to the residents of Vrindavana, to Vaisnavas – sujane, to brahmanas - bhusura-gane, to the mantras - sva-mantre, you received during the initiations, to the holy name - sri-namni. And, finally, vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-sarane – to the shelter that can be given to you by Kishore-Kishori, the eternally young couple residing in Vraja. 

 I was saying yesterday that here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami explains the discipline of the mind – how one should interact with one’s mind. In the Eighth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam Brahma utters an amazing verse. He says that one can derive fire from what? From wood. Water and food grains from what? From the land. Milk can be derived from what? From the milk bag of the cow. Similarly, one can derive God from what? From the mind. Naturally, grain and water are not derived from the land – they aren’t generated by the land. Similarly, God is no brainchild. But if one cultivates the land properly, treats it duly, one can derive water from it. He continues by saying, “Where can one derive money? From business activities. Similarly, one can derive God from the mind. But from the mind as such – God is no creation of the mind. By means of the mind as a result of a particular process. As a result of yoga – yoga bih. If this mind gets into a definite, desirable shape, it becomes our tool with the help of which one can approach God. This is a very important thing to be understood. The same is explained by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita. He says that our mind can be our greatest enemy and the same mind can become our best friend. The mind can give us God and it can eclipse God from us forever and ever. The mind can deceive us and deprive us of an opportunity to see God and interact with Him. Therefore, in these instructions Raghunatha dasa Gosvami explains how one should teach one’s mind, bring it up, coach it so it becomes a friend.

 Yesterday, I stopped before starting to describe the mind’s pranks and tricks, and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami uses the word “dambha” to describe them. Sada dambham hitva – always be alert. Always remember the mind is a liar, that is always around, a small liar, which keeps telling you, “You are right. You are the best. You are the most handsome/beautiful. You are the smartest. You are the fairest. You are the kindest. You are the most devoted.” There’s always the mind there, which is the source of pride. One should always be alert, on one’s guard. One should always remember that the source of dambha is within one. 

 What is pride, actually? Pride is nothing more than the roles we choose to play. The mind is, actually, generates such roles. Dambha is identifying oneself with the material body and even more with the martial mind, which plays roles. We all have a split personality. In the spiritual world there’s no difference between the soul, its mind, its feelings – these all make one pure soul. Here, though, there is a difference. Sometimes people start thinking in doubt whether they feel something or not, and who feels it – is it my mind or myself? During a kirtana we experience some ecstasy, some enthusiasm, inspiration. And then suddenly we think, “What is this all? Is it me or not, who’s experiencing and feeling it.” And it’s hard for people to detach themselves from the mind. For them it’s hard to understand that they are the soul. They don’t understand it.

 I once was on a train with a man. He was tipsy. In my compartment there were three drunk guys sleeping and snoring, so, there was nothing else for me to do but go out into the corridor and chant the mantra. He couldn’t sleep – neither could I. He approached me while I was chanting the mantra and asked, “What are you, Buddhists, doing here?” One word led to another, and I started to explain that, “You’re a soul! Just look: everything about you has changed – your mind, your body. In your childhood you were different but the soul remained unchanged, you remain unchanged.” He started thinking, scratching the back of his head. I went on, “Try to remember what you were like as a child.” He kept thinking for a while and then, “No, it wasn’t me. It was another soul.”

 People find it hard to understand who, what and why. So, the mind is the source of pride. It makes one play every role possible. I am this, I am that, different signboards we put up, some titles we get. 

 I’ve recently visited one festival on my preaching mission. It’s a festival for esotericists, an ethnic festival where had come lots of odd people interested in various esoteric teachings. Half of them were gods and the other part were just enjoying. Fifty-fifty. And it didn’t stop them walking around nude. Anyway, there was a stage we went on and started answering the people’s questions. Somewhere in the middle a young woman got up and yelled in a high-pitched voice, “Get right at the truth. Tell me the truth.” There were three sanyasis: myself, the invited one, and two other sanyasis from the Gaudiya-matha who had organized that festival. The announcer sanyasi looked at me and said, “Well, we want to ask Gosvami Maharaja of ISKCON to answer this question, to tell the truth.” It was quite unexpected, so I started to think trying frantically to work out what truth I was supposed to tell right there. I looked at her – she was standing there dressed in a swimsuit, full of fighting spirit. 

 So, you want to know the truth? Sure. I can tell you the truth. The truth is that you are a servant of God thinking oneself to be God. She yelled: I am a servant? I am not. I am Lily, the first wife of Adam. My congratulations! People can’t put up with that, they can’t accept their true position. So, Krishna was merciful enough to provide them with the mind that explains to them that they are the most important, the most outstanding, that they’re a Lily or something else. 

 In the long run, we try to work it all into the spiritual realm. There’s a very important point we have to understand: even being on the spiritual path, even theoretically accepting one is a servant – and any true spiritual path teaches one one’s true position –one doesn’t always become reconciled with it within. And the mind explains to him that he is such a servant that is almost on God’s level. A very good servant.

 Jiva Gosvami gives a very interesting explanation of what knowledge is. He says that knowledge is the essence of experience. Knowledge is what one has experienced; it’s equal to perception. And when Krishna begins speaking about what knowledge is, he starts with the two following words: amanitvam adambhitvam B.-g. 13.8-12). To gain true knowledge, that is true experience, to approach God, to see God, one should, first of all, cast away, one’s passion for honor – amanitvam and adambhitvam – this pride, consisting in our ability to deceive and delude ourselves.

 There are two forms of pride that exhibit themselves on the spiritual path. At times devotees are naturally naïve. As a rule, they come with their hearts open and expect a miracle. Everybody is waiting for a miracle. Most of us expect something to happen after they chant the mantra. And if they experience some miracle, they consider it as proof of genuineness of the spiritual path. 

 I’d like to say a few more words about dambha, because sometimes miracles don’t prove that the spiritual path is true. In the south of India there lives one “incarnation of God” who works miracles on a regular basis. And it’s not just tricks, although he does those, too – but miracles. Many people can attest that he materialized something before them, gave them some experience; he came into their dreams, saved them in some situations. At the same time this guy says he is God. And not just God but purna avatara. The rest of the avatars were partial avatars, the rest had been looking forward to this purna avatar’s arrival, so that it “purnaavatarizes” here and does some strange things. Or some people in their frenzy to get stigmata on their hands, they begin bleeding. It’s not at all proof of the true spiritual experience. It’s not at all proof of their intimacy with God because the mind can be the cause of all these miracles. One can instill something into one’s mind, fly into a tantrum. The mind will work such wonders making us think, “God must have come to me.” Someone’s going to talk to us. There are lots of examples of, so to speak, spiritual experience in inverted commas. Contactees, psychics, mediums, magicians, avatars – all the world and his wife. One drives oneself into a frenzy. Sometimes we see devotees trying to rush a miracle, to make it happen sooner – so impatient we are. We’ve spent here hundreds of lives wasting our time, and then, at last, when we get spiritual, we think, “A miracle must happen now. God must appear before me.” Sometimes He does; sometimes even with a peacock feather with a blue body.

 I remember chanting the mantra for the first time with one devotee. He continuously had a big blue finger appear before him. Patanjali describes it as one of the obstacles on the spiritual path. He calls it the last obstacle – brantidarsana. Literally, it means false visions. Hallucinations coming as a result of one’s attempt to force spiritual experience, which one mentally isn’t ready for yet - when one drives oneself to frenzy or ecstasy – exaltation. That’s what, actually, is done by one category of sahajiyas. They sometimes cry, spin, roll on the floor, in the dust. And most surprising is that they sometimes seem to have this love of God. But then they go out and… have a smoke. 

 Srila Prabhupada warned again and again: don’t force it, don’t make this mistake, don’t rush things – it’s supposed to come naturally. This is the way as described by acaryas – and it’s not an easy one. This is one of the mistakes one can make – one type of pride, because one, after all, is prompted by one’s desire to gain this experience of pride. He thinks, “I deserve more than that. I need my spiritual experience right here and right now. God should come to me or I should experience some kind of miracle; or I’ll bring myself to some state to make everyone understand I’m the smartest, the most remarkable.” This fault, actually, resides in the mind. 

 But there’s even a more profound fault, a more serious mistake one can make on the spiritual path when one begins doing some spiritual practice, some devotional service and then achieves some success; when one learns something, when he learns to touch people’s hearts with the words of the sastra, with the words one has heard from the spiritual master, from Srila Prabhupada; when he learns how to make people cry; and as this process of spiritual purification goes on he, all of a sudden, imagines oneself to be something important, elevate oneself in one’s own eyes, become more and more puffed up; when one ascribes to oneself the merits and achievements he received from one’s spiritual master, which he got, after all, by God’s mercy, one forgets it. One should always remember that one owes God everything he has; one owes one’s spiritual master everything one has. On no account should one attempt to claim the credit by saying, “Yes, that’s me. I had it all happen.” This is when one gets down to the sahajiya level. This is how this self-importance manifests itself through illusion or false visions. But there’s another, more profound, manifestation of pride, which is vanity and conceit. Bhaktivinoda Thakura gave the most amazing definition of humility because humility is the opposite of vanity and pride. Sometimes we think we are humble. But sometimes we’re humble for the sake of showing off how humble we are. The mind sometimes says, “Be humble because this is the way of receiving honor from devotees. So, one becomes humble.”

 Bhaktivinoda Thakuran gives a definition of humility one can use to check whether one is humble or not. He says that true humility is when I don’t expect anything from anyone, where I don’t think that someone owes me something. That’s it. Who of you has this “no one owes me anything” mood? No one is supposed to glorify me – I have no merit. No one is supposed to take notice of my merit. No one is supposed to notice how good I am, how well I am preaching. No one. So, next time when you are going to take offence because someone hasn’t done something you expected him to, remember this instruction of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. Sada dambham hitva. Keep renouncing your pride because it manifests itself in our resentment, in our mood that someone owes us something, that we are exceptional. 

 I’d like to tell a wonderful story of our sampradaya illustrating this point. Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to teach this to us. He came to say, “Everyone can see God. Everyone has this way open before him regardless of what family he was born into, regardless of where he comes from, regardless of the sins he’s committed, regardless of the age; even if one is at death’s door; even if seven days separate one from one’s death, you can still see God.”

 The important thing is to develop true humility because it is the basis of the genuine spiritual experience. The rest that occurs on the basis of pride is false spiritual experience. That’s what Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself taught. 

 Anyway, I wanted to tell a story about one man from our sampradaya. One of pancasakhas… Pancasakhas are the five associates of Lord Caitanya in Orissa who are still worshipped, still praised, who contributed a lot to Orissa culture. But Gaudiya vaisnavas don’t recognize them, they consider them to be cheaters and swindlers, although they were together with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri and had His personal association. The Orissians are pretty resentful at the Bengal Vaisnavas. They say, “They are just envious of us, the Orissians. We had these five intimate associates and these Bengalis don’t recognize them.” As a matter of fact, we recognize the genuine devotees of Caitanya Mahaprabhu from Orissa. There were lots of them: Prataparudra, Kasi Misra, Sikhi Mahiti and his sister. These are truly remarkable people. 

 I’d like to tell a story about some Jagannatha dasa who was born into a brahmana family, in one of the ten Brahmin villages, which take a direct part in the most important activities of the Jagannatha temple. The temple council consists of ten villages. He was born in one of these villages. He was very young and amazingly handsome. He never got married. He remained a brahmacari and then at some point he accepted sanyasa. He sang beautifully. When he was singing people just got mad and he was a wonderful poet at that. He translated the whole Srimad-Bhagavatam into Oriya. People went crazy just at seeing him and he possessed mystic powers. Jagannatha Himself came to him in his dream. And we say that he is a cheater. How come? Why? 

 His story is as follows. He is the founder of the Atibadi or Atibori sect. The principal math of this sect is still located in Puri. This is the palace of Maharaja Prataparudra’s wife who gave this palace to Jagannatha dasa. This Jagannatha met Caitanya Mahaprabhu when the latter arrived in Orissa. Some say that he met Him in Kittaka when Caitanya Mahaprabhu had crossed Orissa on the border between Bengal and Orissa. And he joined Him. Others say that he was among the people who were there when Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered Jagannatha temple. So, he became His follower and Caitanya Mahaprabhu told him, “Go to Haridasa Thakura and chant the mantra with him in the mood of being lower than the grass and more tolerant than a tree.” But Jagannatha dasa thought he knew better what to do. So, once he approached Caitanya Mahaprabhu and said, “I know You are the Supreme Soul in everyone’s heart. I know that You know all. Nevertheless, I want to share my experience with You and hear Your confirmation of that.” So, he started, “I once became absorbed in meditation. I was sitting and thinking about Radha and Krishna. I saw Them in my meditation. I saw Radha and Krishna. Radha was sitting next to Krishna and Krishna was sitting next to Radha. They were in this milana mood, the mood of meeting. They were enjoying each other. Radha said something and Krishna laughed. He gave a laugh and You were this laugh. I saw that the laugh took shape of Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri. And Radha laughed in reply and I was this laugh. Is it true or not? Can you confirm this? Is it so?” At that moment, according to Jagannatha dasa’s biographer, Caitanya Mahaprabhu took off His clothes, put them on him and said, “Yes, that’s really so. You are a great atibori. This means you are so great, too great.” But the Gaudiyas say, “Hey, guys, this is not serious. He just mocked him. He just said that “my dear, you are too great. Yes, sure, you are Radha’s laugh – that’s what you are.” Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught a lesson when Prakasananda Sarasvati called Him God when trying to touch His feet. Caitanya Mahaprabhu ran away in horror crying, “How can you call me God? One should never call oneself God!” Although He was an incarnation of Krishna Himself. 

 Later, an amazing thing happened to Jagannatha dasa showing that even miracles aren’t proofs, even miracles can be manifestation of dambha, pride. 

 Jagannatha translated Srimad-Bhagavatam into Oriya. This Srimad-Bhagavatam is still known by heart in Orissa because he made an amazingly beautiful and accurate translation of Srimad-Bhagavatam putting in some of his own things and added another five chapters of his own. All the same, this is the classics of Orissian literature. And when he completed it, he started to sing Srimad-Bhagavatam and organize Bhagavata-pathas. Thousands of people got together to hear him. They listened to him singing about Krishna and Radha. Tears came into their eyes, their hair stood on end; they rolled on the floor in ecstasy. And most of the audience was composed of guess who? Women. When they saw how handsome he was, when they saw him crying, how much he loved Krishna; when they saw him playing, singing the amazingly beautiful verses, they freaked out thinking, “I love Krishna. This is love.” Actually, it’s this same sensuality, the same lust taking this shape because everything comes from dambha. Finally, this Jagannatha started to visit houses telling Srimad-Bhagavatam in the women’s quarters. The women got together to listen to him but their husbands were not very happy about that for different reasons. So, they got angry, “What’s the matter? Why is he giving some special classed to matajis?” They complained about that to Maharaja Prataparudra. Without a moment’s hesitation he seized this Jagannatha dasa and threw him into prison asking, “What are you doing?” I’m teaching Srimad-Bhagavatam classes. Okey, you are teaching Srimad-Bhagavatam, but why are you doing that in the women’s quarters? 

 He had very powerful female followers. So, at that point, making excuses to Maharaja Prataparudra, Jagannatha dasa said, “When I am speaking about Krishna, I’m not a man, I am a woman, a gopi, otherwise how could I put people into the state of spiritual ecstasy? So at such moments I turn into a gopi.” Maharaja Prataparudra replied, “It’s perfectly all right! But you should go to prison all the same. Although you are a gopi.” He hadn’t believed him. So, then Jagannatha began to pray to Lord Jagannatha in prison like this, “Save me. Rid me of my disgrace. Do so I could prove my innocence, that I really do it in a female body.” According to his biographer who glorifies him, Jagannatha came to him in his dream and gave him a boon by saying, “If you wish it, from now on, by choice you’ll be able to change your form. Your material form can be both male and female. Do you want it?”Just like some people do it nowadays. They have surgeries, get hormone injections to change their sex. And Jagannattha said, “Without resorting to surgeries or hormones you can change your sex.” The next morning Jagannatha dasa woke up and saw he had turned into a woman. He started banging on the door crying, “Bring me a sari, quick! Bring Maharaja Prataparudra here! I’ll prove him wrong. Here I am.” Maharaja Prataparudra saw that miracle and said, “Go in piece.” The more so, that his female followers had gone to a demonstration and on a hunger strike. 

 We should always monitor that. And here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says sada dambham hitvam. Sada - whichever level you’ve reached. Moreover, the higher level you’ve reached, the more likely you are to become proud. So, as soon as you become proud, you are finished. You are bound to fail. This is the instruction he’s giving to us. He’s further saying that we should just cast away our pride. What’s the point of the following instruction? He says - sada dambham hitvam – cast away your pride. What is pride? Pride generates attachments; pride is our way to exist in this world; pride is the roles we are playing. It’s easy to say, “Cast away your pride.” Can we cast away our pride? Actually, we won’t be able to exist – because how can we exist without any kind of pride? We can’t. How is it that I am no one? Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that, in the long run, one should get rid of all these outer wrappings and designations.” But I can’t exist without them, because living here is being proud. But Raghunatha dasa Gosvami makes a very important point here that one should cast away one’s pride and keep checking one’s heart for it simultaneously. At the same time he says – ratim apurvam atitaram kuru - develop attachment to the guru. Gurau gosthe gosthalayisu sujane bhusura-gane – try hard to develop attachment to the guru, the Vaisnavas, the inhabitants of Vrindavana, to the Vraja Dhama itself and the brahmanas. What does develop attachment actually mean? It means that, having renounced my materials roles, I have to accept my spiritual role. Having broken off one’s material ties, one should develop spiritual ties. One can’t do without ties. One requires attachments. One needs certain self-designations. And here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says, “Renounce your material self-designations and develop a spiritual self-designation through the attachment to these things. Take roots in the spiritual world.” This is his first instruction. 

 Through a strong attachment to apurvam – an extraordinary attachment to spiritual things – develop your personality in the spiritual world because one is not impersonal there. What is a personality? Who are we, actually? How do we know about our personality? What is our personality? How do we designate our personality? If I ask you who you are, what will you say? Your last or first name? What’s next? Your occupation, sex, age, nationality? Then you will say, “I am the husband of such and such. I am the father of these children. I was born in such and such country. I have this or that educational background.” In other words, one’s personality is one’s ties. This is where one was born. It’s one’s homeland. 

 I’ve recently heard one lecture, and the lecturer was saying that we are like germs, even smaller than germs, on the God’s feet. If we have some germ on our nail, what is the nail to him? And he continued, “The nail is the germ’s homeland.” We also have our homeland, we were also born here. And when we’re saying we’re this and this, when we’re trying to designate ourselves, we do it through our material ties. I am related to this woman – she’s my wife. I am related to these little Nityanandas and Balaramas running around me or someone else. That’s me.

 So, here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says, “Renounce your material ties but develop the spiritual ones straight away. Immediately destroy this strong, extraordinary attachment.” And he starts by saying that the first attachment on should develop is the one to the guru and makes it a point that one should take every effort to achieve it. And the point of this instruction is that one can develop such an attachment.

 In the Gospel there are very good words that impressed me once. I don’t remember the context but Jesus Christ was reproaching one of his disciples or followers. So, he said that he was neither hot nor cold but warm. Neither hay nor grass, neither fish nor fowl. There’s neither spiritual nor material fire in you. There’s something warm. Yes, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, that’s good. I visit the temple to have some prasadam. That will do. 

 Here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says that one shouldn’t remain “warm”. If you want to achieve something in spiritual life, you should have a strong attachment. Where your spiritual attachment begins there begins the formation of your spiritual personality. He’s, essentially, explaining how one can change one’s material mind for the spiritual one; how one can change one’s material personality for the spiritual one. But first one should develop this extraordinarily strong attachment to a guru. Jiva Gosvami explains what a strong attachment to a guru is. He says that spiritual life is meant for one to surrender to Krishna, God. And one can treat one’s guru in different ways. One should have a guru. But a guru can play supporting roles in our life and he can also play the lead role. And he says that in this case one gets a special perfection, which is our attachment to a guru. He begins by explaining why one needs an attachment to a guru. Why does one need a guru? To give us a spiritual name for us to say that “I used to be Scoundrel dasa Brahmachari and now I am Paramahamsa dasa Brahmachari.” Jiva Gosvami explains by quoting verses from Chapter Seven of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which say that one needs a guru in the first place. What’s the result of serving one’s guru? The result is that one can rid of all the faults. Serving one’s guru results in one’s faults leaving one’s heart. Just by being with one’s guru, communicating with him, remembering him one can see one’s insignificance. Because one can see how great one’s guru is; because what should one do before one gets rid of one’s faults? One should see them. But can I see my faults if I am all by myself, if I am just standing in front of a mirror? Am I able to see my faults when standing in front of a mirror? What do I see? My virtues, of course. But we should stand before a spotless mirror, which is the heart of our spiritual master. And when we look into it, we’ll see everything – pride, envy. How can we see our envy? When we are with the one who doesn’t have it. When we’re socializing with those who are envious, we may think we have none of that because they are like us. But when seeing the one who doesn’t have envy, we’ll clearly see our envy. 

 Therefore, Narada Muni tells Maharaja Yudhisthira that it’s very hard to get rid of one’s faults. Narattoma dasa Thakura cries, “The only thing I fear is that these faults will go on living in my mind.” Therefore, Jiva Gosvami says that one needs a guru. Service to the guru can deliver one from one’s faults. But that’s not all. Jiva Gosvami says that there’s some exclusive perfection that one can obtain by serving one’s guru. What is this exclusive perfection? He says that this special perfection one can only get from guru and no one else but guru. According to Narada Muni, there are different ways of getting rid of faults, but this exclusive perfection is this special mood, in which he himself serves Krishna, which I cannot obtain from anyone else but from the guru’s heart, by his mercy. And it’s only due to my serving him will I be able to penetrate his heart. What should happen in one’s mind when one starts serving? 

 We chant this mantra sri-caitanya-mano-’bhishtam sthapitam yena bhu-tale svayam rupah kada mahyam dadati sva-padantikam (Prema-bhakti-candrika, verse 2, Narottama dasa Thakura). By serving someone. If I serve, I should respect his mind, I should penetrate his heart. And what happens due to this attachment, when this attachment becomes genuine, not just cjilly, not just formal, not just giving a daksina to a guru? What happens when I’m trying to understand his heart, when I’m trying to understand his mood? I can develop the same mood he’s serving in. 

 So, Jiva Gosvami says, “It’s the greatest gift one can get. And it only comes due to personal communication with and service to a guru. It doesn’t come easily.” Without the mood we can’t get to the spiritual world. If we consider all the things Raghunatha dasa Gosvami touches upon here, we’ll see that they all posses a certain mood, helping us cast away our enjoyer mood, the mood of the one who is ruling and enjoying here, develop the true mood of a servant. And this channel is first of all supposed to occur between me and my spiritual master. My spiritual master can do everything, he can give us all the blessings. 

 Like there’s a story of Bihari, Jagannatha dasa Babaji’s disciple. Jagannatha dasa Babaji died when he was 147 years old. He was so old that he needed someone to lift his droopy eyelids. Bihariji had been carrying his guru in a basket for 30 or 40 years. He served him if faith and truth. He was a simple man. Once Jagannatha dasa Babaji gave him Caitanya-Caritamrita nad said, “Read Caitanya-Caritamrita because I can’t see. I need verses from Caitanya-Caritamrita.” Bihari who came from Vrindavana replied, “Guru Maharaja, I’d be happy to but I don’t know these Bengali letters. I don’t know Bengali properly either. I can’t read Bengali.” “If I told you to read, you should read.” – he said. Well, okay, if the guru says I should read, so I should. He opened Caitanya-Caritamrita, saw these Bengali letters and suddenly found himself reading them. And he started to read. Because yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado … (Sri Sri Gurvastakam). Everything can come by the guru’s mercy. Once Jagannatha dasa Babaji told him, “Play the mridanga.” Bihari replied, “I can’t play the mridanga. I can’t even play the karatalas, what to speak of mridanga. I can’t play this “one-two-three” beat. But his guru insisted, “Play the mridanga.” Okay, if you say, everything is possible by your mercy. He started to play the mridanga, beating the beats that even professional mridanga players couldn’t. When Jagannatha dasa Babaji was departing, he said, “Bihari, you have been serving me faithfully and unfailingly. You have done so many things for me whereas I have done none. I feel guilty. Do you want something?” Bihari replied, “What can you give to me. I know, you are a mendicant, you are penniless. You may die in peace and quiet without worrying about me. I’ll make it somehow. I am a big guy, I’m still strong.” Jagannatha dasa Babaji said, “If you want me to, I’ll ask Caitanya Mahaprabhu and he will provide you with five carts of riches – five carts laden with gold, right away. What do you want, Bihari?” I don’t want anything. I want you. There’s nothing else I want, just having you by my side. Pleased, Jagannatha dasa Babaji smiled and said, “Thanks God. I was about to give these 5 carts to you but I wanted to hear it from you first. I’m giving you my blessing that you’ll never experience any problems. You are going to have whatever you need. Your each and every desire will be fulfilled, you are going to live to be a hundred and I’ll always be by your side. All the time, any instant of your life you will hear my voice within your heart.”

 Actually, according to Rupa Gosvami, after one has been initiated - visrambhena guroh seva (Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.2.74-75) – one should begin serving one’s guru and his service should be filled with the spirit of visrambha. Visrambha, verbally, means trust. Visrambha is the mood in which Krishna communicates with His cowherd friends. Visrambha means unconditional trust, intimacy one serves in; when I’m trying to perceive my spiritual master’s mood, what’s within his mind; when I’m trying to feel the way he feels without trying to imitate, to parrot; when I’m trying to fathom his mind, his consciousness. Jiva Gosvami says that a guru should become our God, and people find it hard to understand. But he explains what it means. He continues, “For karmis the guru is God.” Why is the guru God for karmis? Because the guru can fulfill any wish of theirs. He mentions this verse from the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.17.27) - ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān navamanyeta karhicit. Acarya is non-different from Myself, therefore, one should – anasuya – by no means be envious of him. Sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ - The spiritual; master is the representative of all the demigods. It means that the guru can fulfill all our material desires. If you want to obtain knowledge, the guru can give it to you. But the most valuable thing the guru can give you is bhakti. He can bring us nearer to God.

 One of the teachers in our Madhava-sampradaya is the famous Raghavendra Puri. He was a great mystic – he is said to be the third incarnation of Prahlada Maharaja. In Krishna’s days Prahlada Maharaja came as Bahlika to be killed by Bhima. And before being killed by Bhima he asked him for a boon. He approached him and said, “Kill me, Bhima. I am fighting on the opposite side and I want you to kill me.” Bhima says, “How can I kill you if you are a Lord’s devotee? It’s an aparadha.”

 It’s not going to be felt as an aparadha because I am asking you for it. Kill me. I can’t. Kill me, I deserve it. Okay, then you should attack me first, I’ll kill you then.

 Then king Bahlika attacked Bhima and was killed by him. In his next life he was born as Raghavendra Puri, according to legend in Madhava-sampradaya. He was a great mystic. A poor brahmana boy came to him once. This boy had heard a lot about his spiritual power. Sometimes people come to the guru to have their material desires fulfilled. He was needy, poor and illiterate. He tended cows and began to serve Raghavendra Puri. He served him faithfully. Raghavendra Puri was very pleased with him, so he said, “Take this rice” and stretched out his arm with some dry rice in his hand. He read some mantras over this rice and said, “Put this rice in a knot and, when you’re in trouble, pour it on your head and remember me. And all of your desires will be fulfilled.” The boy grasped the rice, put it in a knot and waited for it to come in handy. 

 One day he was herding his cows. The day being hot, he was sitting under a tree. Next to him under another tree there was sitting a big handsome man. He started looking closely at him and discovered it was the Muslim ruler of that state – the nabob himself. While he was looking at him a messenger arrived, dismounted and handed in a letter to the nabob. The latter opened it, but he was illiterate because a Muslim should not necessarily be literate – they are raganuga-bhaktas. The messenger was also illiterate. So, he called the boy and told him to read. This was a brahmana boy – he had a sikha. The nabob saw the sikha and thought to himself, “He’s going to do it.” But the boy was illiterate. He started thinking, “What shall I do?” Suddenly, he remembered that he had the rice in the knot on his dhoti. He grasped it, poured it on his head and cried, “Raghavendra! Raghavendra! Raghavendra! Raghavendra!” Opening the letter he realized he could read. So, he read it – and the letter contained a piece of good news that his wife had given birth to a son, that he’d finally got an heir. In his joy he took off his pearl necklace, put it on the boy with the words, “You’ve brought me good news.” But the boy had his wits about him – the years he had spent serving his guru weren’t wasted on him – and said, “If you like me that much, hire me.” And he did, and, finally, the boy was appointed prime minister. He was Raghavendra Puri’s patron and paid honor to his guru. This is a historical fact. 

 The point is that if we have material desires, our guru can fulfill them. If we want impersonal liberation, guru can give it. But the main thing a guru can do if we have an attachment, is to bring us closer to Krishna. In another prayer Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says, “Everything I have was given to me by my guru. The guru brought me to Mathura, the guru gave me my svarupa, Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami. The guru gave me the Govardhana Hill. The guru gave me the Radha-kunda.” We should understand that Krishna acts through our guru. Krishna’s mercy only comes through our guru. And we should develop this loyalty to the spiritual master, trust to and love for him in our hearts. That’s what one should work on consciously. 

 So here Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says, “That’s the first thing one should get to find one’s spiritual personality in the spiritual world.” It’s not about being formally initiated. It’s not about getting chanting beads and a new name. It’s about developing love for one’s spiritual master who gives instructions and initiates us into the mantra. This is a very important thing for our devotion to develop: love for our spiritual master must be genuine, not false, it shouldn’t be a personality cult. It must be based on our spiritual attachment to him.

 Thank you very much! Srila Prabhupada ki! Jai!