Haṁsadūta and Himavati

The Spiritual Master is fit for being benedicted by the ocean of mercy, because of his full surrender unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Absolute Truth-Krishna. Krishna is a person and He is that ocean of mercy. The bona fide Spiritual Master is the factual recipient of that ocean of mercy because "He is not envious, but a kindly friend to all creatures, and does not think himself a proprietor, and is free from false ego…" (Bhagavad-gita, 12/13) Krishna says, "That kind of person, he is very dear to me." Now one may be very dear to some person in this material world, but that kind of endearment is not meant here. To be dear to Krishna is extraordinary because He is the Supermost Person in the entire creation, He is the Chief Eternal amongst all the eternals. In the Brahma Samhita He is described in the very first verse, "Krishna who is known as Govinda [Cowherdsboy] is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful Spiritual body. He is the Origin of all and He is the prime Cause of all causes." So the form of the Supreme Person is not like the form we are in the understanding of. This material body is temporary as compared with the spiritual form which is eternal; this material body is full of ignorance and the spiritual form of Krishna is full of knowledge; this material form is always miserable with the problems of birth, old age, disease and death as compared with the form of Krishna which is always blissful. This is Krishna-Sat-chit-ananda Vigraha. His body is fashioned of eternity, knowledge and bliss; just like our form is made of the gross and subtle elements earth, water, fire, air, etc., his form is made of Sat-chit-ananda. To know Krishna or to be very dear to Krishna is very extraordinary, because you cannot associate with that Supreme Spiritual Person unless you are also of that Sat-chit-ananda nature. As much as you cannot enter into the sunglobe unless you have got the fiery body suited for that atmosphere, or water-you cannot live in the water because your body is not suited for that nature. Now how one can be reestablished in that spiritual nature is the whole program for the human society.

Krishna is the Cause of all causes and He must necessarily be the Knower of everything. This is confirmed in The Bhagavad-gita: "I am the Compiler of Vedanta and I am the Knower of Vedanta." Vedanta means knowledge. So whatever knowledge there may be, it is originating from Krishna.

In the beginning of the creation, Krishna imparted the knowledge concerning the constitution of the living entities directly to Brahmaji from within his heart, and thus the disciplic succession in the matter of real knowledge was started with Brahma. Real knowledge means to know about Spirit, which is what I am-"Aham brahmasmi," I am spirit-and false knowledge or Maya means to know things on the basis of the material senses which are imperfect and cannot extend to the reality of the spiritual world of which I am a part eternally. Maya means that I think I am this body and illusion is to know everything on the basis of this false identification.

So Spiritual Master means that He has heard the narration of the transcendental message as it was originally spoken to Brahma by Krishna. Krishna and anything Krishna speaks is completely identical with Him in every way. The transcendental knowledge which is coming down to us in that line is Sat-chit-ananda; it is not different from Krishna, and therefore anyone who has the good fortune to come in contact with such line and give it submissive aural reception, on such a person it will act. The electric current may be travelling through that wire over many thousands of miles, but still, if you touch it, you will get the shock. So the Spiritual Master is the transparent medium for Whom no one is equal to or greater than. Such Spiritual Master is completely spiritual, and no one should think that there is any trace of material inebriety about such Pure Devotee of the Lord. A live wire is completely electrified, and no one should make the mistake of touching it, lest he be burnt to ashes due to its being connected to the power house; as the live wire is full of potency, similarly the Spiritual Master, being in contact with the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead Lord Krishna, through the chain of the disciplic succession, becomes completely identical with Krishna, Sat-chit-ananda. He is Krishna Consciousness personified. He is nondifferent from Krishna. The Spiritual Master is eternal, and He has eternal knowledge and He is eternally blissful. He lives in the spiritual world with Krishna at every moment, although He appears to be in the mundane world acting amongst mundane entities.

The Spiritual Master appears in this world just to do the work of his eternal Lord Sri Krishna and He has no other business. That work is described in the last chapter of The Bhagavad-gita. Krishna tells Arjuna, "For anyone who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me," and the next verse says, "There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear."

So the secret being explained by the pure devotees of Krishna is that the living entities are the eternal fragmental parts and parcels of Krishna and their eternal activity is to render transcendental loving service to Him. Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is giving us the suggestion that we "Always think of Me. Become My devotee. Worship Me. And offer your homage unto Me. The result is that you will come to Me without fail; I promise you this because you are My very dear friend." It is not difficult to understand. All of us are persons and similarly Krishna or God is also a person, and since He is the Original Person, Cause of all causes, Maintainer, Creator, and Annihilator of everything, it naturally follows that He should be worshiped and thought of at every moment. Throughout eternity, that is the secret of the Spiritual Master. He has come to take us back to the Supreme Abode known as the Krishna Loka to associate there with our eternal Lord in mood of loving devotion. Imagine if the President sent his messenger to fetch you: "My dear sir, the President has sent me, and he is requesting that you come to the White House." Would you be eager and immediately go? So this is not a matter of presidency, but the Dictator of all that be-this planet, the moon planet, sun planet and all the innumerable planets floating within this universe. The person to whom everything belongs is requesting you by the presence of His most dear friend the Spiritual Master to come home, back to Godhead.

Now there is no reason to speculate or hesitate-we have simply to clutch his lotus feet and hang on with determination, chanting the Holy Name of Krishna at every moment, crying to Krishna to please, please keep us always under the cooling downpour of mercy coming from the Lotus Feet of His Divine Grace, our Lord and Master, Paramhansa Paribrajackacharya Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj.

So on this auspicious day of the appearance of My spiritual Father Prabhupada, to whom I am eternally indebted, and who has so kindly given me shelter from the blazing fire of self-created miseries, I beg to offer my most humble obeisances (with his kind permission) to all of His most devoted servants, his spiritual children, my godbrothers and godsisters. They have been so kind and tolerant with me since the day of my spiritual birth by my Divine Master Prabhupada. I hope that they will always continue to help me so that some day I may be able to serve His Divine Grace with genuine loving devotion. And lastly, I beg Krishna to help me so that I may come out of the dark and dank dwelling place of this material body, and guide me so that I may be able to prostrate myself in full surrender at Your Lotus Feet, dear Prabhupada. Without the help of your eternal Lord to whom you have so kindly introduced all of us (Lord Krishna, Lord Chaitanya, Lord Jagannath), without their help I will never give up this insane attachment for the fleshy lump of ignorance which we take to be ourselves, and are anxious to enjoy.

I beg to offer my most humble obeisances at Your Divine Lotus Feet and shall hope to be eternally disturbed for coveting some small morsel of remembrance of Your Divine Grace upon me, which I think shall be enough to keep me while I go on travelling throughout the universe suffering for my countless misdeeds at Your Lotus Feet, and the Feet of my godbrothers and godsisters.

Your servants,
-Hamsadūta and Himavati
(ISKCON-San Francisco)