Hari Śauri dāsa vanacārī

Hari Sauri dasa vanacari
om ajhana-timirandhasya jhanahjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namaḥ
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhū-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sūnyavadi-pasatya-desa-tarine
On this most revered and auspicious day, we offer our humblest obeisances at the lotus feet of our beloved spiritual master, eternal father, friend, guide and ever well-wisher, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. The lotus feet of our spiritual master offer all benediction and complete shelter to all who sincerely approach and serve them, and they are a source of all benedictions within this world. Those great souls who are fortunate enough to have taken the petal-like soft soles of Srila Prabhupada upon their heads are certainly the most intelligent among men, and the supreme goal of life, Sri Krsna, is easily obtainable for such mahatmas.
The spiritual master is that person who can deliver the fallen souls from the repeated cycle of birth and death. Within the material sphere of activities, no one can be considered fortunate or well off. The result of taking any kind of material body is frustration and misery due to the janma, mrtyu, jara, vyadhi [Bg 13.9]. No one can hope to escape these four factors of material existence, as long as he remains in the illusion of identifying his self to be his body. He may be learned, he may be rich, he may be strong, famous or socially well situated, but actually none of these are his natural state of being. No sooner are they obtained than again they disappear, like a will-o'-the-wisp, and therefore any "happiness" one may experience here is simply ephemeral and a shadow of reality. Being bound up by the result of his activities, every living being is forced to act in a certain way according to the modes of material nature he has contacted, and due to his association with such modes he goes up and down throughout the universe. Being always bewildered and illusioned, the foolish living being struggles uselessly to establish himself by means of family, friends, society, love, etc. Although he should be experienced enough to see that such endeavor is always ultimately defeated, still, due to his being in the darkest ignorance, he blindly continues on and never finds the happiness he so eagerly desires. Just as an ignorant animal, seeking water in the desert, runs further into the desert upon seeing a mirage and ultimately meets his death, so the materially illusioned person becomes more and more enmeshed in bodily activities. The more he tries to enjoy his body and its extensions by way of wife, children, home, community, nation, race, etc., the more entangled he becomes, like a fly which struggles to free itself from the spider's web but simply succeeds in attracting his captor and thus guarantees his death. For such persons, escape from the clutches of material energy is not possible except by one means. Only if one who is already liberated comes and unties the hard knot of anhahkara, false identification, can such bound-up living beings get free from the suffering conditions. If by good fortune one gets the fortune of a liberated soul, then immediately his good fortune begins.
Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.15-16) nicely describes this:
yad-anydhasina yuktaḥ karma-granthi-nibandhanam
chindanti kovidas tasya ko na kuryat katha-ratim
susrūsoḥ sraddadhanasya vasudeva-katha-ruciḥ
syan mahat-sevaya vipraḥ punya-tirtha-nisvanat
"With sword in hand, intelligent men cut through the labyrinthine knots of reactionary work [karma] by remembering the Lord. Therefore who will not pay attention to His messages?
"O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service one gains an affinity for hearing the messages of Vasudeva."
One who sincerely desires to be freed from the sufferings of material existence is intelligent. That person who understands that the material world is duḥkhalayam asasvatam, a place of repeated misery, who concludes that happiness is not possible in relationship to his body and who therefore seeks to find some alternative to that condition, becomes eligible to hear from the pure devotee the messages concerning the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, and His paraphernalia, pastimes, entourage, etc. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not like the ordinary living being, as is misconceived by envious men. Being purely spiritual in His existence and possessing the six opulences of strength, wealth, beauty, fame, wisdom and renunciation, in full, to an unlimited degree, the Lord is never subjected to the influence of the three modes of material nature-goodness, passion and ignorance-which comprise His external, separated energy. Neither can He be considered equal to the living beings who, although spiritual, like Hari, are subjected to higher authority. This is explained in Bhagavad-gita, Seventh Chapter, verses 4, 5 and 6.
bhūmir apo 'nalo vayuḥ
kham mano buddhir eva ca
ahahkara itiyam me
bhinna prakrtir astadha
apareyam itas tv anyam
prakrtim viddhi me param
jiva-bhūtam maha-baho
yayedam dharyate jagat
etad yonini bhūtani
sarvanity upadharaya
aham krtsnasya jagataḥ
prabhavaḥ pralayas tatha
"Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego-altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies. Besides this inferior nature, O might-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution."
Therefore, simply by hearing about the Supreme Lord and His glorious activities, the fallen illusioned soul revives his memory of his relationship with the Lord and cuts off his false identification with the temporary manifestations of material nature. As his remembrance increases, he becomes fixed in service to the Lord and gradually tastes the sweetness of a permanent, blissful, deepening relationship, which is never broken or lost under any circumstances, due to its transcendental nature. Thus, ultimately he attains the highest goal of a pure loving relationship in the absolute world, where birth, death, old age and disease are only noticeable by their absence. The Lord therefore appears within this world in the form of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavad-gita, and other transcendental literatures which are nondifferent from Himself, just to give the fallen souls the opportunity to associate with Him and become respiritualized, be reviving their consciousness of Him. Thus such literatures are highly prized and renowned throughout human society because they present the real goal of one's existence, which the human form specifically enables one to attain. Anyone who is learned in expounding them for the benefit of others becomes equally famous. Therefore it is not surprising that there are hundreds of thousands of translations of the Vedas, Gita, etc., because due to the cheating propensity which originally puts the infinitesimal living being here in the material world, many unscrupulous rascals try to utilize the Lord and His property to attempt to glorify themselves as being supreme. Because Bhagavad-gita is very respected and glorified, such fools and rascals think, "Let me present my interpretation of this philosophy, and in this way I shall become a big man with fame and following." In this way, although the Gita is meant for his liberation, due to his inimical attitude to the Lord and his desire to Lord it over, the asura, mūḍha, tries to use it for furthering his material situation, and all benefit he could have gained is lost. Rather than being elevated by his association with the Lord, he becomes more and more degraded, and those who are unfortunate enough to hear the messages of the Supreme Transcendence from the lips of such demons also miss the chance to go back home, back to Godhead. One should never hear such transcendental subject matter from such inimical nondevotees. Therefore Sri Sūta Gosvami clarifies how proper hearing and remembrance of the Lord comes about.
He explains that it is only by hearing from someone who is a devotee of the Lord that one can properly understand His transcendental nature and thus enter into His service. A devotee of the Lord never tries to usurp the Lord's position by declaring himself to be God, neither does he try to take advantage of the Lord's fame for his own advantage. Rather, being a most confidential servitor of the Lord, a pure devotee simply presents the truth of the Lord's existence and the living beings' subordinate relationship with Him. Being empowered by the Lord to act as his external manifestation, the pure devotee knows perfectly how to act according to every time, place and circumstance, just for the benefit of the conditioned souls. The Lord Himself is perfectly competent to free the conditioned souls and is so kind that He expands Himself in His localized feature of Paramatma within the heart of the living being.
isvaraḥ sarva-bhūtanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhūtani yantrarūḍhani mayaya
"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy." (Bhagavad-gita 18.61)
Traveling with him throughout the material world, He waits for the opportunity to instruct him when he begins to make serious inquiry. He constantly tries to instruct the jivatma, but due to his fallen, illusioned condition, the living entity misinterprets the Lord's instructions. Therefore the Lord manifests Himself externally as the guru and comes in a form which is more easily appreciable by the conditioned souls. He empowers His close associates to represent Him, and such mahatmas, being able to manifest the full potency of the Lord, are therefore to be worshiped as God, because they are as good as the Lord Himself and are perfectly competent to deliver anyone and everyone from the clutches of maya. simply by their speaking, the full glory of the Lord is manifest, and the intelligent living beings can take advantage of the instructions of such liberated souls for their own welfare. By simply engaging in the service of the pure devotees and hearing with all submission and attention, the candidate becomes enlightened and freed from the modes of ignorance and passion. As he hears about the Lord, his heart becomes purified and washed of all material contamination. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu glorifies this hearing and chanting in the following way: "Glory to the Sri Krsna sahkirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sahkirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious." (Siksastaka 1)
He says, "All glories to the sahkirtana movement," and exclaims that each name of the Lord is as powerful as the Lord Himself, adhikari by constant contact with the Lord in this way the heart becomes completely cleansed. However, the fallen soul has no taste for hearing and chanting the holy names, and therefore the pure devotee acts to show how that taste is developed by his own perfect example. Such acaryas enable us to advance in spiritual life by giving the opportunity to us to associate with them. It is generally said that man is known by his association. "Birds of a feather flock together." This is explained in the Gita (13.22), karanam guna-sahgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: "Due to his association with material nature, he meets with good and evil in the different species."
One who wishes to become a doctor has to associate with one who is already qualified as a doctor, and similarly, one who wishes to become liberated from the clutches of maya must associate with the devotees of the Lord. Caitanya Mahaprabhu confirms this:
mahat-krpa vina kona karme 'bhakti' naya
krsna-bhakti dūre rahu, samsara nahe ksaya
"Unless one is favored by a pure devotee of the Lord, he cannot attain the platform of devotional service. To say nothing of krsna-bhakti, one cannot even be relieved from the bondage of material existence." (Cc. Madhya-lila 22.51)
So liberation means to be engaged in the Lord's loving service. If one wishes to leave the material universe, he must have somewhere to go, somewhere to take shelter. This shelter cannot be offered by anyone except a devotee because no one else has sufficient knowledge of the Lord's spiritual existence, other than the pure devotees. The karmis, jnanis and yogis have only partial knowledge of the Lord's expansions and energies, but the devotees know the Lord in full. They are situated on the highest platform of spiritual life and are perfectly competent to enlighten everyone of the mysteries of spiritual life. Such pure devotees are very rarely found within this world. It is only by the greatest good fortune that the fallen souls get the chance to associate with a pure devotee.
brahmanḍa bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
"According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the universe. Some are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krsna. By the mercy of both Krsna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of devotional service." (Cc. Madhya-lila 19.151)
Especially in Kali-yuga, the present age of dissent, when everyone is born less than sūdra, the lowest class of men are described by Saunaka Rsi as mandaḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhagya hy upadrutaḥ [SB 1.1.10]: lazy, misguided, unlucky and always disturbed. It is especially, then, the most wonderful benediction that by some inconceivable good fortune we have met up with such a munificent, wonderfully glorious personality as our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. It is only due to his mercy that we have now the opportunity to try to render some little service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna and have the opportunity to go back home, back to Godhead. Had he not come here, then we would have continued to struggle in the darkness of ignorance for crores of lifetimes without any hope of respite, and our fate would be unknown. Who amongst us can estimate or appreciate the significance of this most auspicious day, when our Lord and master, His Divine Grace, made his appearance in this dark place. Certainly it is not possible for us to properly grasp the importance of this day, but in writing this humble and insignificant offering we hope to remind ourselves of the glorious nature of our Guru Maharaja and our own complete dependence upon him, and we earnestly pray to Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha and Krsna that we may ever be engaged in the worship and service of the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. Of course, it is not now possible to be able to massage his head, hands, body and lotus feet with oil and look to his personal needs, nor bathe in the nectar of his personal association; but despite this, our attachment grows stronger because remembrance of his vani, words, and execution of his instructions gives us his personal association in a different way, and his presence is always felt.
On this Vyasa-pūja day, therefore, let us remember the lotus feet of our spiritual master with full attention and absorption and be always gratefully engaged in helping each other to spread his wonderful mission. In this way we can make our small attempt to give him pleasure, as he has so kindly given us.
108 glories to the great preceptor and topmost swanlike devotee of the Lord, His Divine Grace Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaja Srila Prabhupada.
From your most unqualified, undeserving, worthless, insincere, rascal menial servant,
Hari Sauri dasa vanacari
GBC-Australia, New Zealand, South Seas
 

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