Separation

Here's another excerpt from the book

"Sri Guru and His Grace," 

by
Srila Bhakti Rakshak Shridhara deva 
Goswami Maharaja

 

 compiled, edited and published by 

His Holiness Bhakti Sudhir Goswami 

and B. V.  Mahayogi, Editor-in-Chief at Guardian of Devotion Press, 1984.

Separation from Śrī Guru

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda advised his senior disciples that if the need arose to consult higher spiritual authority after his disappearance, his senior godbrother, Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, should be consulted. 

Shridhar Maharaja and Prabhupada together on the Vyasasana

On more than one occasion he said, “I consider Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāja to be my Śikṣā-guru, instructing Spiritual Master, so what to speak of the benefit that others can have from his association.”

 Just after his disappearance, his senior disciples approached Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj and asked his advice on how to guide the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. The following is an excerpt from their conversations.

Devotee: After the departure of our beloved Spiritual Master, we have come here to offer our respects to you as well as to hear your highly esteemed advice on certain matters, if you’d be kind enough.

Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda dev Goswami

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The disappearance of the Spiritual Master is mentioned in the śāstra with an example. The disciple is like a lotus. The Spiritual Master is like the water around the lotus, just as in a pond or a lake. 

Your late Gurudev’s position is like water, and Kṛṣṇa is like the sun. As long as the lotus is floating on the water, the sun will nourish the lotus. But if the water vanishes, that very sun will burn the lotus. 

Without water, the Kṛṣṇa sun will burn the lotus. Without the help of the Guru, the disciple is nowhere.

Without Guru, all is void

Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī has said, “In the absence of my Gurudev, Govardhan Hill, the representation of Kṛṣṇa Himself, seems to me just like a big python coming to devour me. And Rādhā Kuṇḍa, the holiest place of divinity of the Gauḍīya sampradāya, seems like a tiger’s mouth coming to devour me. 

Radha-kunda

They are giving me so much excitement in the absence of my Gurudev, my dearest and highest spiritual guardian. My Gurudev, who has the most intense affection for me, is not here? How can it be? Everything is void. All has vanished with his departure.” 

Govinda Maharaja with Prabhupada

Such a deep sense of separation will come in the heart of a sincere disciple.

Once, one of your devotees said in his lecture that "separation is the highest realization." 

I was very happy to hear from his lips that separation (vipralambha) is the highest attainment. Without separation, nothing else can come to us. The anticipation of meeting Kṛṣṇa will appear to us as vipralambha, so vipralambha is the most auspicious thing pertaining to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And we can have Kṛṣṇa’s connection also in that separation. So, the safest and most fearless position is vipralambha. If we can stand firm and retain the memory of Gurudev in his separation, then we will have passed the highest test.

If we can stand firm and retain the memory of Gurudev in his separation, then we will have passed the highest test.

Devotee: In our Spiritual Master’s lifetime he was seen as the absolute authority above all, including our Governing Body Commission. How should we understand the position of the new Spiritual Masters and their relationships with their godbrothers and disciples?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The position of the Āchārya with his disciples must be absolute; with his disciples, he will have absolute authority. Still, he must be careful not to become mad with authority. Authority is a part of pratiṣṭhā, name and fame. There is also another tendency. When a guru comes in connection with vātsalya-rasa, the mood of guardianship over his disciples, his friendly relation with the godbrothers decreases, some special discrimination arises, and stealthily he is drawn to his disciples, indifferently neglecting his connection with his godbrothers. This tendency is sure to come, and it is difficult to keep up the balance. 

So, the brothers are neglected, and the sons get more attention. In this way the guru becomes partial. 

When he comes in close connection with his disciples, he has freedom; he is given an opportunity of absolute mastership. In that position it is very difficult to keep up his purity because of that temptation; there is the possibility of going down from the plane of Āchārya.

Guru is all-in-all

Autocracy and democracy do not go well together. Our system is autocratic. Guru is all-in-all. Our submission to Guru is unconditional. If a disciple sees that his Guru’s powers are being restricted by other Vaiṣṇavas, it will create a great disturbance in his mind, a disturbance to his absolute faith in his Guru. This is where the Kṛṣṇa conception of Godhead comes to our relief. He whom we think to be supreme-most—Kṛṣṇa—Yaśodā is whipping Him. 

He is carrying Nanda’s shoes on his head, and He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this way we can adjust everything. Both the absolute faith and the relative position of the non-absolute—these two things should be harmonised.

The guru should be recognized by impartial judgment. Everyone thinks that his own mother is the most affectionate. 

But when a comparison is drawn between two mothers to see who is more affectionate, an impartial criterion will be applied. 

This is called taṭastha-vichāra: an impartial comparison of relative and absolute considerations. When the two are weighed, the absolute calculation will always have the greater value.

The position of Āchārya is very intricate. It is very difficult to bring an Āchārya under rule. You see, that is our practical experience. You please hear and note this. 

The position of Āchārya is a relative thing, and the position of the disciple is also relative, just like the relationship between mother and child, father and son, wife and husband. 

Although to his godbrothers a Guru will be seen in a relative position to his disciple, the Guru is absolute. So to adjust between the relative and absolute is a difficult thing; it is an eternal problem. 

Even in Kṛṣṇa-līlā there is enmity between madhura-rasa and vātsalya-rasa, but when the absolute consideration comes, both rasas must be included within the fold.

Guru: more than God

To a disciple, his Guru’s position is Supreme, even more than God. This is said in the scriptures. The Guru is more near and dear to us than God Himself. God has many things to deal with, but Guru is concerned only with my welfare. The Guru’s position is more helpful to the disciple than God. If within your society, you want a natural growth of the disciple’s regard for the Guru and the Absolute Truth, such room must be allowed in your constitution, if the constitution is to live at all.

Constitution

Law is not everything. The law of your society should be accommodating to nurture divine sentiment, otherwise it is no law. Law should promote faith. Śāstra’s jurisdiction is limited. 

It is meant only to promote love, and when love comes, it will be free; smooth, harmonious working is possible only in the area of love. Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī says that vaidhī-bhakti, devotion under the guidance of śāstra, or laws and rules, is helpful only to a certain extent. 

It will help the inner awakening of love and affection and then retire. Law will retire, giving room to the spontaneous flow of love. Law is necessary, especially in the lower stages, but it should make room for free movement in the relationship. 

Freedom is the highest thing. Free service is rāga-marga, and that is service proper, not service that is regulated and coerced and pressed by law. That is not service. 

Our aim is Vṛndāvana. 

"Our aim is Vṛndāvana..."

So, we want free service. Without freedom, service is not valuable. Forced labour is no labour; a labour of love is required. And that is the thing for which all are out. Let us essentially think that we are all out not only for the constitution, but the thing for which the constitution has been made; we are out for that high object of life: divine love. 

"mātala harijana kirtana raṇge, pujala rāgapatha-gaurava-bhaṇge"

The constitution should promote that aim. With this feeling we should go on. Newcomers are coming with their faith, and their faith should be encouraged and also adjusted so that the faith of one person may not disturb another.