Love and Respect towards the Spiritual Master<\/p>\n
Nila-kamala dasa<\/p>\n
What is love? What is respect? A long list of answers will undoubtedly come forth from these questions. <\/p>\n
When Krsna met His dear friend Sudama in Dvaraka, He spoke of His reminiscence while They were at the boarding school of Their revered spiritual teacher Sandipani Muni. The Muni\u2019s wife requested the two young boys to fetch some firewood from the forest. Unfortunately during Their journey a storm grew, the wind raged and there was a torrent of rain. As the sun set the young boys saw no hope for returning to the boarding school and decided to spend the night together in the forest. As the sun rose the next morning Sandipani Muni noticed that Krsna and Sudama were absent from the school. He along with his other students set search for them in the forest. After locating his dear students, he spoke an instructive verse. <\/p>\n
etad eva hi sac-chisyaih<\/p>\n
kartavyam guru-niskrtam<\/p>\n
yad vai visuddha-bhavena<\/p>\n
sarvarthatmarpanam gurau<\/p>\n
\u2018This indeed is the duty of all true disciples: to repay the debt to their spiritual master by offering him, with pure hearts, their wealth and even their very lives.\u2019 SB 10.40.81<\/p>\n
This verse spoken by Sandipani Muni expounds the true mood and mindset of a disciple who has deep love and profound respect for their teacher. Srila Prabhupada explains wonderfully in a purport in the fourth Canto, \u2018This is the secret of success. After being initiated and receiving the orders of the spiritual master, the disciple should unhesitatingly think about the instructions or orders of the spiritual master and should not allow himself to be disturbed by anything else. This is also the verdict of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, who, while explaining a verse of Bhagavad-gita (vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana, Bg. 2.41), points out that the order of the spiritual master is the life substance of the disciple. The disciple should not consider whether he is going back home, back to Godhead; his first business should be to execute the order of his spiritual master. Thus a disciple should always meditate on the order of the spiritual master, and that is perfectional meditation. Not only should he meditate upon that order, but he should find out the means by which he can perfectly worship and execute it.\u2019 SB 4.24.15 Purport<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Srila Prabhupada has stressed throughout his purports about the necessity of a disciple to make the spiritual master\u2019s instructions one\u2019s life and soul. In 1961 on the occasion of the appearance celebrations of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada composed a thought provoking poem. This poem was read out in an assembly where many of Srila Prabhupada\u2019s godbrothers were present. \u2018But simply a festival of flowers and fruits does not constitute worship. The one who serves the message of the guru really worships him.\u2019 This line is indeed very insightful. Although external displays of adoration are laudable, the quintessence of the disciple\u2019s worship of the guru will be measured by how they can follow the message and abide by the order. <\/p>\n And Srila Prabhupada has shown this throughout his life. He showed to the world how he stood firm and devoted in following the order of his spiritual master. His Divine Grace faced obstacles that are difficult for us to even imagine but he did not budge an inch is his devotion toward his teacher. Srila Prabhupada went to America alone without any support but still he managed to make thousands follow this path of devotion. Srila Prabhupada suffered two heart attacks on the Jaladutta ship but still he danced around every major city in the world spreading the holy names. Srila Prabhupada came to America with a mere forty rupees but still he opened one hundred and eight temples in every corner of the globe. Although in Mayapur where his godbrothers put forth numerous obstacles for him, still he tolerated and ultimately came forth as the shining sun of the Gaudiya horizon. Although across the twelve years of establishing ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada faced impediments practically on a daily basis, nothing could stop him. <\/p>\n Therefore we can see from Srila Prabhupada\u2019s life that respect and love toward the guru is dedication, commitment and loyalty to his order. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is love? What is respect? A long list of answers will undoubtedly come forth from these questions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88654,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88649\/revisions\/88654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}