A devotee asked HH Bhakti Madhava Puri Swami if there is an eternal relation between Guru and disciple, and how to understand this. To answer the devotee Maharaj referred him to a chapter in “The Golden Staircase” by Srila B. R. Sridhara Maharaja below.

 

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Devotee: We are often told, regarding the guru and the disciple, that if the disciple is not successful in becoming a completely pure devotee in this life, then the guru will return by taking another birth. But does the guru personally take another birth?

 

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: The relationship must continue. Whether that particular soul who was delegated as the guru in his previous life will personally come — whether he will again be sent or not — there is no guarantee: but in any case the disciple will maintain his awareness of that higher connection. He will recognize it just as it was in former stages, although it may be in a different form. It will not be unknown to him. And he will also perceive that, “I am not unknown to my master.” But the guru’s external form may not be similar.

 

Suppose a disciple takes his next birth in a particular country or a particular sect: the guru may also appear in a particular country or a particular sect, but that the disciple will again come in exactly the same position as before, that may not be. And that the guru will also come as he did previously — in that fixed position — that may also not be. But they will be able to recognize one another. The guru will know about the disciple’s previous life, and the disciple will also think, “He knows everything about me.” With such broadness of vision we are to look at our Guru Maharaj. So guru-tattva means that it is saksad-dharitvena: not only the person, but the person plus something more. And that arrangement is made by the Lord or His svarupa-sakti. But whatever the external circumstance, there will be no disturbance regarding the path for the disciple.

 

Devotee: I don’t know if this is correct, but I have heard it said that if the disciple is not spiritually successful, then the guru may not return back to Godhead, but may remain in this brahmanda (universe)… He may not return to Krishna until the disciple can also go.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: If that is the case, then no guru can ever return to Krishna at any time, because the continuation of the disciples will go on — so he will have no final result at any time in his life! But we cannot think that it is so. Sometimes he may be deputed himself, or others also may be deputed in that case. But the inner instruction and inner feeling and paraphernalia will be such that, in any case, the disciples will have no trouble: the officer may change, but the function will go on smoothly. So the guru may return as the nama-guru, the mantra-guru, or the sannyas-guru. They are all gurus, but we must recognize something similar in them, thus we are given the statement about the ontological aspect of guru — saksad-dharitvena samasta: “I Myself appear as the guru, who is simultaneously and inconceivably one with and different from Myself.”

 

Krishna says, acaryam mam vijaniyat: “You should look there for Me. I am there. I am your Guru. With My different types of sakti, by the jivas’ recruitment, or by any other way, it is My function to take you up to a different place. In every case I am there: I am there in My madhura rasa sakti, sakhya rasa sakti, vatsalya rasa sakti, dasya rasa sakti, and in a general way also.” Sometimes one may be recruited by the Ramanuja sampradaya and then be converted to join the Krishna sampradaya, the Gaudiya sampradaya. That is also possible. We are to remember the eternal link.

 

Devotee: So if someone says that the guru himself will personally come back, that is a mundane conception — a wrong conception?

 

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Yes. The main thread is there, but it will not always appear in the same form. Although to the beginners one may say, “He will come back,” ultimately we find that a disciple may even be transferred into another section, and then another section, so that he may gradually reach his destination. According to the unfolding of his inner necessity, this “departmental change” may occur. And he will always perceive his own guru in newer and newer ways: at first sight he perceived his guru to be of one type, then again, with progress, he will see the same guru in another way, and thereafter another new characteristic will be found in his gurudeva. The disciple will feel: “I could not detect so much in my guru in the beginning — I saw him in one particular way — but now I find that he is something more, and then he is still more.” In this way there is divine unfoldment [evolution or development].

 

In this world there is [evolution], and in the higher domain also, there is [evolution]. So avesa: the guru is something like saktyavesa. There is the “chance contingency” saktyavesa — who is deputed according to a particular time, place, or circumstance — and there is also the permanent saktyavesa. But in all cases — according to the necessity of the situation and by the divine dispensation of the Lord — the disciple will be connected, and he won’t feel any distrust: it is the presence within. He will quench the thirst for the full progress of his heart, there will be divine unfoldment [progress] within his heart, and again he will begin a new thirst. And that new thirst will be quenched by whom? By his guru. It will be quenched by his guru and he won’t have any feeling of unscrupulousness or anything else. As his internal thirst is being satisfied, he will feel, “Here is my gurudeva.”

 

Wherever there is unfoldment [development], gradual unfoldment [progress] — and full attention given to that — then we can understand that, from the upper side, there is guru. Gurudeva is my guide, and as I progress, guidance of different types will be necessary for me — always new guidance. My progress will take me into different places, and there a new type of guidance — a new life — will again come. In this way, dynamic life is going on, and the main thread is there: raso vai sah — the pure rasa, pure ecstasy. And my inner heart will approve: “Yes, I want this! This is my fate! This is my fortune!” Otherwise, if any madhyama-adhikari is appointed as guru and has so many disciples — and if he is to come back again and again — then he could never enter into nitya-lila! That cannot be so. In any case, whoever is connected with a genuine guru will be satisfied, because the Lord is present there.

 

So acaryam mam vijaniyat is not in name only — it has a very specific purpose:

 

acaryam mam vijaniyan / navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyasuyeta / sarva-deva-mayo guruh

 

Krishna says: “Don’t try to limit the acarya! If you achieve a high position, will you then think that you have surpassed that acarya through whom you received your initial instruction in spiritual life? No. Don’t think that there is less in him (navamanyeta). Don’t consider him to be of lower position — I Myself am there! I was there in your primary teacher, I was there in your college-level teacher, and I am there in your postgraduate professor too. So navamanyeta: don’t only judge the external appearance. I Myself am your guide in different forms. It is I!”

 

The acarya has more spacious characteristics than that of the ordinary, general Vaishnava (sarva-deva-mayo guruh). Krishna says: “For you, I am there. I am backing so many acaryas. There are so many acaryas, and I am working through them. The acaryas are like helmsmen in so many different boats, and I am the favorable wind helping those boats to make progress (mayanukulena nabhasvateritam). So don’t limit the acarya. Try to see him on the same level as Me.”

 

 

  

In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master should be worshiped like the Supreme Personality of Godhead and this injunction is obeyed by pure devotees of the Lord. The spiritual master is the most confidential servant of the Lord. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master .

 

Gentlemen, on behalf of the members of the Bombay branch of the Gaudiya Math, let me welcome you all because you have so kindly joined us tonight in our congregational offerings of homage to the lotus feet of the world teacher, acaryadeva, who is the founder of this Gaudiya Mission and is the President-acarya of Sri Sri Visva Vaisnava Raja Sabha-I mean my eternal divine master, Om Visnupada Paramaharnsa Parivrajakacarya, Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja.

 

Sixty-two years ago, on this auspicious day, the acaryadeva made his appearance by the call of Thakura Bhaktivinoda at Sri Ksetra, Jagannatha Dhama at Puri.

 

Gentlemen, the offering of such an homage as has been arranged this evening to the acaryadeva is not a sectarian concern, for when we speak of the fundamental principle of gurudeva or acaryadeva, we speak of something that is of universal application. There does not arise any question of discrirninating my guru from yours or anyone else’s.

 

 

In the Mundaka Upanisad (1.2.12) it is said:

 

“In order to learn the transcendental science, one must approach the bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession, who is fixed in the Absolute Truth.”

 

Thus it has been enjoined herewith that in order to receive that transcendental knowledge, one must approach the guru. Therefore, if the Absolute Truth is one, about which we think there is no difference of opinion, the guru cannot be two. The acaryadeva to whom we have assembled tonight to offer our humble homage is not the guru of a sectarian institution or one out of many differing exponents of the truth. On the contrary, he is the jagad-guru, or the guru of all of us, the only difference is that some obey him wholeheartedly, while others do not obey him directly.

 

In the Bhagavatam (11.17.27) it is said:

 

acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyasuyeta
sarva-deva mayoguruh 

“One should understand the spiritual master to be as good as I am,” said the Blessed Lord. “Nobody should be jealous of the spiritual master or think of him as an ordinary man, because the spiritual master is the sum total of all demigods.” That is, the acarya has been identified with God Himself. He has nothing to do with the affairs of this mundane world. He appears before us to reveal the light of the Vedas and to bestow upon us the blessing of full-fledged freedom, after which we should hanker at every step of our life’s journey.

 

The transcendental knowledge of the Vedas was first uttered by God to Brahma, the creator of this particular universe. From Brahma the knowledge descended to Narada, from Narada to Vyasadeva, from Vyasadeva to Madhva, and in this process of disciplic succession the transcendental knowledge was transmitted by one disciple to another till it reached Lord Gauranga, Sri Krsna Caitanya, who posed as the disciple and successor of Sri Isvara Puri. The present acaryadeva is the tenth disciplic representative from Sri Rupa Goswami, the original representative of Lord Caitanya who preached this transcendental tradition in its fullness. The knowledge that we receive from our gurudeva is not different from that imparted by God Himself and the succession of the acaryas in the preceptorial line of Brahma. We adore this auspicious day as Sri Vyasa-puja-tithi because the acarya is the living representative of Vyasadeva, the divine compiler of the Vedas, Puranas, Bhagavad gita, Mahabharata and Srimad-Bhagavatam .

 

We cannot know anything of the transcendental region by our limited, perverted method of okservation and experiment. But all of us can lend our eager ears for the aural reception of the transcendental sound transmitted from that region to this, through the unadulterated medium of sri gurudeva or Sri Vyasadeva. Therefore, gentlemen, we should surrender ourselves today at the feet of the representative of Sn Vyasadeva for the elimination of all our differences bred by our unsubmissive attitude. It is accordingly said in the Bhagavad-gita (4.34):

 

tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva darsinah 

“Just approach the wise and bona fide spiritual master. Surrender unto him first and try to understand him by inquiries and service. Such a wise spiritual master will enlighten you with transcendental knowledge, for he has already known the Aksolute Truth.”

 

To receive transcendental knowledge, we must completely surrender ourselves to the real acarya in a spirit of ardent inquiry and service. Actual performance of service to the Absolute under the guidance of the acarya is the only vehicle by which we can assimilate transcendental knowledge. Today’s meeting for offering our humble services and homage to the feet of the acaryadeva will enable us to be favored with the capacity of assimilating the transcendental knowledge so kindly transmitted by him to all persons without distinction.

 

Gentlemen, although it is imperfectly that we have been enabled, by his grace, to understand the sublime messages of our acaryadeva, we must admit that we have realized definitely that the divine message from his holy lips is the congenial thing for suffering humanity. All of us should hear him patiently. If we listen to the transcendental sound without unnecessary opposition, he will surely have mercy upon us. The acarya’s message is to take us back to our original home, back to God. Let me repeat, therefore, that we should hear him patiently, follow him in the measure of our conviction and bow down at his lotus feet for releasing us from our present causeless unwillingness for serving the Absolute and all souls.

 

Sitting at the feet of the acaryadeva, let us try to understand from this transcendental source of knowledge what we are, what is this universe, what is God, and what is our relationship with Him. The message of Lord Caitanya is the message for the living entities and the message of the living world. Lord Caitanva did not bother himself for the upliftment of this dead world, which is suitably named Martyaloka, the world where everything is destined to die. He appeared before us four hundred and fifty years ago to tell us something of the transcendental universe, where everything is permanent and everything is for the service of the Absolute. But recently Lord Caitanya has keen misrepresented by some unscrupulous persons, and the highest philosophy of the Lord has been misinterpreted to be the cult of the lowest type of society. We are glad to announce tonight that our acaryadeva, with his usual kindness, saved us from this horrible type of degradation, and therefore we bow down at his lotus feet with all humility.

 

We are happy that we have been relieved of this horrible type of malady by the mercy of His Divine Grace. He is our eye-opener, our eternal father, our eternal preceptor and our eternal guide. Let us therefore bow down at his lotus feet on this auspicious day.

 

Gentlemen, although we are like ignorant children in the knowledge of Transcendence, still, my gurudeva has kindled a small fire within us to dissipate the invincible darkness of empirical knowledge. We are now so much on the safe side that no amount of philosophical argument by the empiric schools of thought can deviate us an inch from the position of our eternal dependence on the lotus feet of His Divine Grace.

 

Gentlemen, had he not appeared before us to deliver us from the thralldom of this gross, worldly delusion, surely we should have remained for lives and ages in the darkness of helpless captivity. Had he not appeared before us, we would not have been able to understand the eternal truth of the sublime teaching of Lord Caitanya.

 

Personally, I have no hope for any direct service of the coming crores of births in the sojourn of my life, but I am confident that some day or other I shall be delivered from this mire of delusion in which I am at present so deeply sunk. Therefore let me with all my earnestness pray at the lotus feet of my divine master to allow me to suffer the lot for which I am destined due to my past misdoings, but to let me have this power of recollection: that I am nothing but a tiny servant of the Almighty Absolute Godhead, realized through the unflinching mercy of my divine master. Let me therefore bow down at his lotus feet with all the humility at my command.

 

-This lecture was originally published in The Harmonist in 1936, on the advent day of His Divine Grace Om Visnupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.