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EDITORIAL  Amar Guru-Jagat Guru BY BRAHMA DAS EDITORIAL, May 12 (VNN) — A reply to the editorial "Stop Pretending and Admit You Don't Know". Devotees don't seem to want to face the fact that Krishna consciousness and choice of Guru is based primarily on intuition and faith not intelligence and philosophy. Who knew any Vedanta when they chose Prabhupada as their Guru? Souls who have bhakti sukriti or in other words persons who are predisposed to bhakti will appreciate Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Others will reject Gaudiya logic and philosophy and go the way dictated by their own feelings or inner necessity. The great preacher Madhvacharya said that one cannot realize or prove the existence of God with logic or philosophy and Jiva Goswami says that logic is inconclusive and experience is the ultimate proof. The Gaudiya conception of Guru tattva is that Krishna is ultimately the Guru who descends through individuals (gurus) in a variety of ways. About this Jiva Goswami says in his commentary on Gopal Tapani Upanisad that Krishna is ultimately the Guru and Krishna is also the purified intelligence with which to recognize Him as Guru. So it is correct to say that choice of Guru is simply a matter of faith and I can add that faith is largely a matter of eligibility. Krishna as Guru descends through the perfect and the imperfect and souls will be drawn to a particular representative (guru) based on sincerity and eligibility (faith). In this everyone will most often feel his own choice of Guru is best and considering faith= eligibility/sincerity ones choice is very likely to be the best choice for any person at the time. Srila Sridhar Maharaja said that the best Guru is the one who is helping us the most and that Divine faith in all its forms must be respected. He also tells us that it is not anyone's business to disturb peoples faith in Guru and that those who attack the faith of others with loud chants of "amar guru jagat guru" (my guru is the greatest guru) have the lowest conception of guru because they fail to recognize the descent of Divinity through a plurality of sources. This is what we find today dominating the philosophical landscape of contemporary Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Bhaktivinode says that amar-guru jagat-guru advocates are actually on the egotistical platform because they want to put forth their choice of Guru as the best and only logical choice. In this way they put themselves forward as the best and only logical devotees. In other words all this argument over guru is mostly egotistical sectarianism. Dedicated devotees are advised not to be overwhelmed by all this sectarianism. It exists on the lower levels of all religions and we are all affected by it in our efforts to advance in Krishna consciousness. Rupa Goswami tells us real advancement is measured by how purely we chant and are able to overcome material attachments and sense enjoyment and not on how good are arguments are in favor of any particular Guru. Srila Sridhar Maharaja's book Sri Guru and His Grace discusses the relative and absolute aspects of Guru. This book is available on line at: http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/guardians_fs.html And here is something from Swami Tripurari: "Our position is that all devotees must cultivate humility and chant the holy name, giving up sense indulgence proportionate to our realization, visaya chadiya se rase majiya muke bolo hari hari. If everyone can agree on this and actually do it, there will be no problems. This is what we teach. Everything else is superficial." - Swami B.V. Tripurari brahmadasa@yahoo Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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