—Satsvarupa

In the first verse of his Prayers Glorifying the Spiritual Master, Sri Viswanath Chakravarty prays that the spiritual master is like a rain-pour of mercy. The rain is merciful because it alone can extinguish the blazing forest fire. That forest fire is compared to the burning heart of the man in material existence. He is trying to enjoy, but his heart is burning with anxieties: the pleasure of the senses is incomplete and temporary, the course of the mind is uncontrollable and sometimes beset with misery; and to take refuge in philosophic speculations or art and novels is finally too dry and tedious to be completely satisfying by itself. The atmosphere in which we live-the very conditions of existence on any planet in the universe-makes it impossible to relax, be peaceful or attain happiness. Because, although no one desires it, old age devours youth, diseases stop one and all from the pleasures of continual good health and everyone's duration is at last cut off by the ax of death. Rebirth, old age, disease and death break out suddenly like fires, and no one is needed to start them. Just as in the city no one wants so many fires or accidents, and yet the ambulance or fire engine is always wandering in the street. Everywhere there are miseries!

Yet we learn from Bhagavad-gita that each and every living entity is factually aloof from all these miseries. The real person, the actual self who is eternal spirit-soul, is not subject to old age or death or any other disadvantage of the material world. Lord Krishna, the Personality of Godhead, declares that the real person is His part and parcel and is, as God Himself is, always blissful, eternal and full of knowledge. Our only mistake is to fall into illusion and forget our original position as eternal servitor of the Supreme. The retaining of the position of eternal blissful knowledge remains only theoretical for those souls who continue to wander, birth after birth, through the millions of species of life, as described by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. It is only by the mercy of a bonafide spiritual master who is coming in disciplic succession from Krishna that one can receive the realized knowledge by which he can cut the knot of ignorance which binds him to continue in his repeated sufferings. By the realized knowledge of the spiritual master, one can himself become self-realized (Gita, 4/34) and at once end his illusory struggle to be happy without God-consciousness. It is only by the mercy of the spiritual master that we can gain the goal of God-consciousness.

We therefore offer our respectful obeisances to our spiritual master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, who as our only real and permanent father, has kindly kindled in us the desire to serve eternally in the position of a transcendental worker in the Hare Krishna movement of Lord Chaitanya. The spiritual master descends like a stout rope down into the dark and filthy well where we are loitering; by Krishna's Grace we can catch hold of that rope and be easily lifted into the invigorating and bright atmosphere of Krishna Consciousness.

But this present age is so rank with the cheating propensity that, even in so-called spiritual affairs, nine times out of ten the "guru" or "yogi" or "rishi" who proposes to revive our original consciousness turns out to be a fraud claiming himself to be God; a fraud who can only collect a fee, who cannot engage us in any full-time transcendental pursuit. We are certain to have escaped the plight of surrendering to a false guru by the mercy of the unbreakable chain of disciplic succession of spiritual masters called the Gaudiya Sampradaya, of which A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is the present, leading acharya-in direct line from Lord Chaitanya, the Original Teacher of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagwatam. What our spiritual master teaches us is purely spiritual, one hundred percent confirmed by the purport of the shastras, which is, that Krishna is to be sought out and served in love. The result of this process is seen in the students of Krishna Consciousness, whose lives are externally and internally distinct from all pretender-groups in that they are engaged with mind, body and words in the practical direct loving service of the Personality of Godhead, and wholeheartedly detached from material desires.

We offer our prostrated obeisances to the spiritual master who through his many books is always filling our thoughts with the nectar of the Pastimes of Krishna, the Lifter of the Govardhan Hill and the Beloved of the gopis. As far as I am concerned, I do not know Sri Krishna, but I know Prabhupad, and he knows Krishna. I offer my humble obeisances because he has engaged us in transcendental Samkirtan Party and given us transcendental dress, because he feeds us on prasadam or spiritual food and gives us spiritual family life. We cannot expect great numbers from the masses-who take a "guru" out of sense gratification or seeking health remedies, mystic powers or business success-to be attracted to the selfless acme of devotion to Krishna. We cannot ourselves ever love him enough or repay him or serve him in measure to the gift he made to us: fixing us onto the goal of service to Krishna. We can, however, make continual prayer to Krishna that our service to Sri Guru expand in enthusiasm and respect and that our home remain at his lotus feet.

-Satsvarupa
(ISKCON-Boston)