It is the fundamental truth of spiritual life that unless one becomes the apple of the spiritual master’s eye, attracting his blessings through dedicated service, no one ever becomes qualified to render eternal service to the Divine Couple, Sri Sri Radha and Gopinath. This will be clear to anyone who concertedly reads the Vaishnava scriptures. The Supreme Lord Krishna is all-attractive, but he himself is attracted by the love of Srimati Radharani. He himself said as much to Narada:

satyam satyaà punah satyaà
satyam eva punah punah
vina radha-prasadena
mat-prasado na vidyate

“I repeat this truth to you again and again. Without the blessings of Radharani, no one will attain my blessings. (Narada-purana)

This shows that Krishna, the omnipotent Lord, possessor of all opulence and true object of everyone’s devotion, is subjugated by the reservoir of that devotion, Srimati Radharani, the complete manifestation of his internal potency. In exactly the same way, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada, the ideal example of a perfected renunciate who founded the Gaudiya Math and the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya-Saraswata Vaishnava sampradaya, was completely bound by affection for His Divine Grace Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj, his disciple and my spiritual master, the founder of the Gopinath Gaudiya Math. Anyone who has become a member of Srila Prabhupada’s family by taking initiation from one of his disciples and now aspires to please him in some way should bear in mind that they must first endear themselves to those who took shelter of him. To do this, we must pluck the flower of devotion that grows in our hearts; then abandoning all worldly desires, we must offer it to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna in a spirit of submission to the spiritual master.

One pleases the spiritual master by serving Krishna and one pleases Krishna by serving the spiritual master. There is no more auspicious act in this world than serving the spiritual master. It is said that worshiping the devotee of the Lord is even greater than worshiping Krishna. Until we have deep faith in this scriptural injunction, we will never find the kind of spiritual strength needed to progress. We will never know with certainty that the guru is our protector and maintainer, our only shelter. It is clear that we have not yet attained a proper vision of the spiritual master if we still think we can achieve our spiritual goals without going through him.

Before one can become a servant of Krishna, one first has to become a servant of the spiritual master. Before one can truly become a servant of the spiritual master, one has to understand intellectually what devotion to the guru means. The essence of such devotion  consists in carrying out the spiritual master’s order with the single objective of pleasing him, without judging one’s own competence or ability to succeed in so doing. This is the ideal that our own spiritual master constantly showed us throughout his exemplary life of devotion.

When my Guru Maharaj was just a brahmachari in the Chaitanya Math at Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada founded the daily newspaper, Dainika Nadiya Prakasa. Guru Maharaj was made the chief editor of the paper, a function he held for the first three years of its existence. In those days, everything was done by hand without all the labor-saving devices we have today. The only machine available to perform every little task was the human body. Yet, despite all the responsibilities associated with publishing a daily newspaper in these conditions, Guru Maharaj still continued to chant a lakh of Holy Names every day in keeping with the orders of his spiritual master—as well as engaging in various other kinds of service around the math. This was no easy thing to do, yet with Srila Prabhupada’s blessings, Guru Maharaj put aside any thoughts of his own inadequacy and successfully applied himself in body, mind and speech to please his spiritual master.

These are lessons that we all need to learn. How can we call ourselves true disciples of our spiritual master if we fail to immerse ourselves completely in his example? We will only be worthy of the epithet “disciple” when we bind this principle to our heart with the ropes of love.

Srila Guru Maharaj often told stories about things that happened in the math during Srila Prabhupada’s lifetime. He used these experiences of Srila Prabhupada’s dealings to teach us about spiritual life. Guru Maharaj used to say, “Hypocrisy is the greatest enemy to spiritual life. Unless we are completely sincere in our commitment to serving the spiritual master, we will never be qualified for spiritual life. If we want to serve the spiritual master, we must become simple and straightforward. Unless we approach him in this honest manner, he will not truly accept any of our service. Whatever we do on the pretext of service to the spiritual master, if it is done in the conviction of one’s own superiority and accompanied by a disregard for other Vaishnavas, or done with the intention of deceiving the world in order to gain worldly wealth, fame and stature, then the simple, inoffensive Vaishnavas will perhaps externally accept it because they do not wish to give pain to any other living being, nor do they wish to waste their valuable time, which would be better spent in bhajan. Nevertheless, the Lord himself, who is seated in these Vaishnavas’ hearts and the hearts of all creatures as the observer and witness, knows how much of this he accepts.

“The motto of the great souls is –

prani-matra mano-vakye udvega na dibe

“One should not give pain to the least of God’s creatures, whether by one’s thoughts or one’s words.”

“We have to be able to actualize this idea in our behavior. If we cannot, then all our efforts are wasted. In the end, instead of achieving eternal service to the Lord’s lotus feet, we will suffer eternally in hell.  Rather than using the pretext of serving the spiritual master to abase other devotees of the Lord, even while observing  the social niceties towards them as a kind of smokescreen of polite behavior, it would be better to remain outside the devotional life altogether and live as an ordinary worldly person, eating meat and fish and so on. Dealing with the Vaishnavas hypocritically is like eating their flesh. That is many times worse than eating the meat of any other lower creature. Eating the flesh of other creatures is a sin, but ‘to eat the flesh of a devotee’ means committing Vaishnava aparadha. Ordinary sins can be eradicated easily by chanting the holy names of the Lord, but the effects of Vaishnava aparadh continue to dog one for birth after birth, dragging us all down to hell. For as long as we fail to seek the forgiveness of such an offended devotee and receive his blessings, there will never be any deliverance from hellish sufferings, ever.”

In this way our Guru Maharaj often spoke of the dangers of Vaishnava aparadh. Indeed, he wrote the invaluable book Heart of Krishna to put us forever on guard against committing such offenses.

Guru Maharaj used to say, “Srila Prabhupada was an extraordinary person. He is Radharani’s intimate maidservant, Nayanamani Manjari. If anyone wants to serve him, they must first become sincere and honest. To make use of a great soul as a means to further one’s own ends cannot truly be called service. The great soul will not be personally affected by such motivated service, but the one who misuses his functions in that way will have to accept the consequences. He will inevitably miss the point of spiritual life. Many people in today’s Vaishnava world are acting this way, merely seeking profit, adoration and prestige. They may think that this is the ultimate goal of life, but they are rendering service to Kali and not to Krishna. They are de facto materialists—

visaya thakite krsna prema nahi haya
visayira düre krsna janio niscaya

“As long as one is involved in worldly affairs, he can never attain love for Krishna. Know for certain that Krishna stays far, far from the worldly.”

We have to pull up the anchor that keeps the boat of our spiritual life riveted to the shore of materialism. Until we do that we cannot engage in the spiritual master’s service, and we will always be far, far away from Krishna.

Jiva Goswami states in the Bhakti-sandarbha (237) -- tasmad anyad-bhagavaj-bhajanam api napeksate “One can attain all perfection simply by engaging in loving service to the spiritual master; it does not depend on any other devotional activity.” Jiva then quotes the Agama,

yatha siddha-rasa-sparsat
tamraà bhavati kaïcanam
sannidhanad guror eva
sisyo visnu-mayo bhavet

“Just as copper becomes gold through the touch of alchemically treated mercury, so does a disciple take on the qualities of Vishnu through loving service to the guru alone.” (HBV 17.243)

Serving the spiritual master with love means to always take his side and defend him. How can one expect to win the gratitude of the spiritual master if one treats him with indifference, if one is so liberal that he does not defend the spiritual master’s interests? Srila Jiva Goswami himself set the example for defending his spiritual master, Rupa Goswami. Sri Rupa Goswami had just finished the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu and was sitting by the banks of the Yamuna meditating on Radha and Krishna’s pastimes while his disciple Jiva fanned him with a palm leaf. In the meantime, Vallabha Acharya came by on his way to bathing in the holy river. Having read the manuscript of the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Vallabha raised some objections to the wording of one of its verses. Since Vallabha was his senior, Rupa Goswami did not debate the point with him, but simply accepted everything he said. After their discussion, Vallabha continued on to the riverside. Sri Jiva told his guru that he was going to fetch drinking water from the river and followed Vallabha. As soon as he got the chance, Jiva respectfully explained to Vallabha how he had been mistaken in his understanding of Rupa’s verse. Vallabha was an unassuming Vaishnava and so he readily accepted his error and went to apologize to Rupa.

Through this behavior, Jiva Goswami taught us that we should always defend the spiritual master, though we should do so without being impolite, following the proper Vaishnava etiquette. Even if out of humility our spiritual master refuses to defend his own reputation or acts submissively to someone who is his inferior, it is the duty of the disciple to defend the spiritual master’s honor. The spiritual master is truth; the spiritual master’s beloved Krishna is also the truth. This truth is our only shelter. If we do not defend our only shelter, the ultimate goal of our human life, we will never reach the service of Radha and Krishna in the spiritual world of Goloka.

Every step our Guru Maharaj took in his life showed the same kind of dedication to his spiritual master that Jiva showed Rupa Goswami. As a result, the entire Vaishnava sampradaya, and even non-Vaishnavas, showed him their appreciation.

Guru Maharaj’s brahmachari name was Pranavananda, but Srila Prabhupada affectionately called him “Pronob” for short. Guru Maharaj told us that whenever Srila Prabhupada had an idea for an article for one of the Gaudiya Math’s publications, he would call on him. Srila Prabhupada would then dictate the article to him. When the disciples were taking prasad, Srila Prabhupada would come to watch. He would make sure that every devotee was being fed to his satisfaction. He would joke with Guru Maharaj, saying, “Pronob is from Jessore district. The people of that region like to eat lots of gur, so be sure to give him an extra serving.”

When any letter came to Puri Maharaj from his home, then Srila Prabhupada would say, “Pronob’s respected mother[1] has written him a letter because she misses him so much and is so sad. It makes me sad to think of how she misses him and it must make Pronob sad as well.” Srila Prabhupada was both being sympathetic and teasing him, but by speaking to him in this way he showed his affection for him, an affection that grew out of seeing his disciple’s sincere commitment to service.

As we said at the beginning of this article, Sri Krishna is the all attractive Supreme Lord, but He is attracted by Radharani’s service. Srila Prabhupada’s divine personality was such that he was able to attract so many intelligent and respectable people and engage them in the service of Lord Chaitanya. Amongst them, Srila Prabhupada was particularly satisfied with our Guru Maharaj’s service and so he became the cynosure of his eyes. We too must strive to attract the spiritual master’s affections, because if we do not, then our service to him will be enshrouded by the haze of hypocrisy, rendering all our so-called practice of self-control into nothing more than false devotion. If we become the  apple of his eye, then we become the apple of Prabhupada’s eye also.

When we become the apple of Srila Prabhupada’s eye, then we become capable of being worthy servants of the entire Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya-Saraswata Sampradaya. And when we become worthy servants of the Sampradaya, we will achieve the service of Srila Rupa Goswami. This is the only road to become the maidservant of Srimati Radharani and entering the eternal service of the Divine Couple in Vrindavan.

Srila Prabhupada, the great acharya, left this mortal plane on January 1, 1937, at 5:30 in the morning. Like the sun setting, it was a disaster for the Vaishnava world, which was immediately plunged into darkness. A number of moons eventually rose, but the light they gave off was too weak for them to recognize each other and so they were unable to keep Srila Prabhupada’s last instruction, which was, “All of you please work together to preach the message of Rüpa and Raghunatha with great enthusiasm.” The result was that many different institutions were created in Srila Prabhupada’s name, but all of them still had the purpose of preaching Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message. In the course of time, however, the disciples of Srila Prabhupada also departed, one after the other. The lamp of pure devotion thus grew dimmer and dimmer, and when our own spiritual master, Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya Sri Sri Bhakti Pramode Puri Maharaj, departed from this world on November 22, 1999, the situation worsened further.

The current situation is unfortunatley such that much of what goes in the name of preaching the message of pure devotion is nothing more than cheating. Many of the disciples of those great spiritual masters who earned their reputation by spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world now want to prove that they are the unique recipients of their spiritual masters’ mercy. The result is that they go all over the world persuading innocent foreign or expatriate Indian devotees to help them with their own newly-created establishments, after convincing them through the clever use of scriptural arguments that the siksha guru is more important than even the diksha guru and that thus no disciple is obliged to support the institutions, maths and deities established by their own initiating spiritual master!

O Srila Prabhupada! O Srila Guru Maharaj! Please deliver us from this kind of worldly greed. Please engage all pure-hearted devotees, wherever they live and whatever their origins, in preserving and maintaining the institutions and deities established by their own initiating spiritual masters. By so doing, make them worthy disciples of their initiating gurus. Otherwise, under the influence of these deceptive siksha gurus, all these innocent devotees will start to think that the diksha guru is unimportant and will cease giving him the honor that he deserves. If this happens, the flame of pure devotion will flicker and die, thrusting the world back into complete darkness. The entire disciplic succession will be destroyed just like the Yadu dynasty, which died out after Sri Krishna’s departure.

Srila Prabhupada, you said, “The scriptures teach us that anyone who wants to know God must first take shelter of a qualified spiritual teacher. The Lord is the most worshipable of all, yet the object of his love and worship is the devotee who loves Him. The best of such devotees, the beloved of the Lord, is my spiritual master.” This is the respect that is to be given to the initiating spiritual master. However, we find that people’s intelligence is being disrupted by unscrupulous preachers who are furthering their own cause in the name of preaching pure devotional service. O Srila Prabhupada! O Guru Maharaj! You know this, so I beg you to reveal it to the community of devotees and save them from such deception. Please teach us all the true doctrine of the spiritual master.

According to the Srutis, only one who sees the spiritual master and God and non-different from each other can taste the fruits of the Vedic desire tree.

yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah

Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, who is his manifestation and not different from him, are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed. (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23)

In the Srimad Bhagavatam also, Krishna tells Sudama Vipra—

jïana-data guru-rüpe ami bhagavan
upadesa kari ami guru-rüpa dhari
guru upadese loka jaya bhava tari
guruke saksat hena isvara kari mane
sei se amara priya sarva-tattva jane

I, the Supreme Lord, appear as the guru. who gives transcendental knowledge. In this form I instruct the conditioned souls. By following the instructions of the spiritual master, you will cross the ocean of material existence. The person who sees that the spiritual master is God Himself is most dear to Me and he understands everything. (Prema-tarangini)

The Kalki-purana says, “God Himself is pleased when the spiritual master is pleased.” (gurau prasanne prasidati bhagavan harih svayam). The spiritual master is God himself, but at the same time he is his dearmost devotee. The difference between Krishna and the spiritual master is that the former is God manifested as the enjoyer, while the latter is God as servant. Krishna is the object of love, while the spiritual master is the reservoir of love for Krishna. Krishna is the Supreme Energetic, while the spiritual master is the embodiment of His energy. The spiritual master is most dear to Krishna and the best of the Vaishnavas.

Our Guru Maharaj often repeated the instructions he had heard from Srila Prabhupada about the respect due to the initiating spiritual master. “The spiritual master is neither the original visaya-vigraha, nor the original asraya-vigraha. For the disciple in madhura-rasa, Sri Guru is the the manifestation of Radharani, when in the mood of parenthood, he is the manifestation of Nanda and Yashoda, when in the mood of friendship, he is the manifestation of Subala and Sridama and Krishna’s other friends, when in the mood of servitorship, he is the manifestation of Krishna’s servants, Raktaka and Patraka.”

We are all servants of God, but the initiating spiritual master is God-as-servant. We are controlled, but the spiritual master is the controller. The spiritual master is God, but even so he teaches us how to serve God. He is not an ordinary mortal, he is immortal and eternal. Like Narottam Das says: “The spiritual master is eternal, his servant is eternal and his service is eternal.” He is our hope, for through him death ceases to exist. Through taking shelter of him we can become fearless, free from anxiety and happy. If we sincerely pray to him with all our hearts for his blessings, then the compassionate spiritual master will mercifully give us the greatest auspiciousness.

My initiating spiritual master, Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Maharaj, is the giver of divine knowledge is non-different from Balaram, he is the manifestation of  Srimati Radharani. To the very end of his days, he showed both through his own behavior and through his teachings what it means to be committed to Guru. O Gurudeva! I pray that you will always give this insignificant servant the power to understand even a small part of such commitment. You were the apple of Srila Prabhupada’s eye. Please make me worthy to become the apple of yours. Your causeless mercy is the only hope I have to cross over the material ocean.