guru bona fide--by mercy of Krishna

One who is serious about spiritual life is given by Kṛṣṇa the intelligence to come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, and then by the grace of the spiritual master one becomes advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In the Caitanya-caritamrta by Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, Lord Caitanya states that it is a fortunate person who comes in contact with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krsna. One who is serious about spiritual life is given by Krsna the intelligence to come in contact with a bona fide spiritual master, and then by the grace of the spiritual master one becomes advanced in Krsna consciousness. In this way the whole jurisdiction of Krsna consciousness is directly under the spiritual energy-Krsna and the spiritual master. This has nothing to do with the material world. When we speak of Krsna we refer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His many expansions. He is expanded by His plenary parts and parcels, His differentiated parts and parcels and His different energies. Krsna, in other words, means everything and includes everything. Generally, however, we should understand Krsna to mean Krsna and His personal expansions. Krsna expands Himself as Baladeva, Sahkarsana, Vasudeva, Aniruddha, Pradyumna, Rama, Nrsimha and Varaha, as well as many other incarnations and innumerable Visnu expansions. These are described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam to be as numerous as the uncountable waves. So Krsna includes all such expansions, as well as His pure devotees. In the Brahma-samhita it is stated that Krsna's expansions are all complete in eternity, blissfulness and cognizance. (More...)

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