St. Louis

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhū-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sūnyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

Our dearest Srila Prabhupada,

The spiritual master is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord because he is the most confidential servitor of the Lord. According to the deliberate opinion of all revealed scriptures, the spiritual master delivers his devotees. "One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way." The bona fide spiritual master always engages in unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By this test he is known to be a direct manifestation of the Lord and a genuine representative of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

When the deluded spirit soul enters the material world to make his feeble attempt to reject Krsna, the compassionate Supreme Lord in the form of Balarama or Nityananda expands Himself through various forms down to the Supersoul within the heart. This Baladeva-Nitai is known as the original spiritual master; as the guru within the heart, caitya-guru, He attempts to guide the living entity back to the spiritual world. But when the soul becomes eternally addicted to material sense enjoyment, the impartial Supersoul fulfills his unlimited material desires according to his karma, and the soul can no longer directly hear the Supersoul asking him to go back to home. For these nitya-baddha souls, however, Balarama again manifests Himself in the external form of the bona fide guru. The acarya, or pure devotee, has a different position from the Supersoul in that he can interfere with the conditioned soul who is misusing his marginal independence to reject Krsna. The spiritual master is not sworn to impartiality like the Supersoul.

Only out of His immense compassion does the Personality of Godhead reveal Himself as the spiritual master. He is the Supreme Personality of Servitor Godhead. It is worthwhile to take shelter of such a steady devotee, who is called asraya-vigraha, or the manifestation or form of the Lord of whom one must take shelter. This is also confirmed by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura: by the mercy of the spiritual master, one receives the benediction of Krsna.

Srila Prabhupada, you explain in the Srimad-Bhagavatam that it is Narada Muni only who can deliver the path of bhakti-yoga: nara means the Supreme Lord and da means one who can deliver. But you are the bona fide acarya in the succession from Narada: therefore now it is you only who can deliver Krsna to the fallen soul.

Everyone in this horrible place is afflicted with the jaundice of avidya, ignorance, and they cannot find the sweet taste of real spiritual happiness. But you have brought the sweet, transcendental sugar candy from Goloka in the form of Krsna's name, form, qualities, pastimes and devotional service, and as the supreme doctor, you are trying to spoon-feed this medicine to all the fallen souls in order to cure their diseased condition. That sweet taste is found in its pure form in the great sound incarnations of God like Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and Srimad Bhagavad-gita. So under the order of your spiritual master, you are dedicating your life to translating these books and explaining them to the entire universe.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam you explain that these transcendental sounds vibrating on your tongue are directly the saffron dust particles coming from the Lord's lotus feet. You also explain that the dust of the lotus feet of the spiritual master is his instructions, and that these instructions should be the life and soul of the disciple. So every day we are singing: guru-mukha-padma-vakya, cittete koriya aikya ar na koriho mane asa-our only wish is to have our consciousness purified by the words emanating from your lotus mouth. Therefore we must surrender to all of your instructions to make this wish completely true. Now we are foolishly taking instruction from our minds, whose message is the sum total of all the bogus gurus that we've followed since time immemorial (mano-rathenasati dhavato bahiḥ, SB 5.18.12). But you explain our real duty in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: "One must accept a spiritual master who comes in the disciplic succession, and under his direction, one must then engage his three propensities, namely his body, mind and words. The body should be engaged in physical activity under the order of the master, the mind should think of Krsna incessantly, and one's words should be engaged in preaching the glories of the Lord. If one is thus engaged in the loving service of the Lord, one's life is successful." In this way you are always canvassing on Krsna's behalf-man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru [Bg 18.65].

Lord Caitanya preached prema pumartho mahan-the goal of human life is to develop pure love for God. And in Detroit you said, "Guru-Krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija: And to approach guru means just to beg Krsna from Him." But we do not know what to ask from you. You are the desire tree which can give your disciple whatever he wants. But we are so fallen that we are asking for broken glass instead of the real gem that you possess: pure, unalloyed devotional service. Associating with you through your instructions, vani, gives us the vision by which we can leave the dark forest of material enjoyment and obtain the Lord's shelter. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, you explain that a devotee who follows the instructions of the Lord approaches Him (mam eti), and as a spiritual person, such a devotee returns to the Personality of Godhead and plays and dances with Him. So actually surrendering to all of your instructions makes us eligible for more and more mercy from Krsna- yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadaḥ.

The disciple must be eager to follow the spiritual master's orders. "To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me." [Bg 10.10] This is very practical. A teacher instructs the student if the student is capable of taking more and more instructions. Otherwise, in spite of being instructed by the teacher, the student cannot make strides in his understanding. This indicates that Krsna is prepared to give bhakti-yoga to everyone, but one must be capable of receiving it. That is the secret. So every day we are singing: sri-guru-carane rati-attachment to your lotus feet is the perfection of life. We must become steadfast in our determination to follow every instruction you have given us.

You always try to enliven us about Krsna, which increases our desire to serve you, because serving you is the only way to reach that Supreme Lord. You explain this in the Srimad-Bhagavatam: "If one seriously accepts the lotus feet of the Lord, he is purified by the grace of the Lord and by the grace of the Lord's servant. One who is brought under the lotus feet of the Lord by the endeavor of the Lord's servant, the spiritual master, is certainly immediately purified, however lowborn he may be. He becomes eligible to return home, back to Godhead. This is the sign of associating with great devotees. A devotee takes instruction from a liberated soul and is thus overwhelmed with ecstasy from transcendental pleasure."

Srila Prabhupada, you explain in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu that association with a pure devotee can have two effects. If it is properly executed, even a mleccha can be elevated to the platform of paramahamsa. But if offenses are committed against a pure devotee, then one's attachment to Krsna can be reduced to practically nothing. So we are begging that you sanction our feeble attempt to follow your instructions. Please don't let us fall away from your service because of our offenses. If you examine us, you will find no good qualities. Your mercy is all that we are made of. If you are not merciful unto us, we can only cry hopelessly.

Your fallen servants,

Makhanalala dasa adhikari / Durlabha Darsana dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Ken Prana dasa brahmacari / Guruvagmi dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Hare Jagad-dhata dasa brahmacari / Sarva Devamaya dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Rick / Caturatma dasa brahmacari / Jiva-pati dasa brahmacari / Bhakta Ken / Bhima dasa brahmacari / Akrūranatha dasa brahmacari / Tilaka-devi dasi

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