Friends may be foes...

  Dear Truth-seekers, as we try to make spiritual progress we face many obstacles. Stumbling blocks may come from the environment, or our own mind and ego. Sometimes we find that our old friends no longer support our spiritual path. Here's another excerpt from Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Dev Goswāmī's Śrī Guru and His Grace. 

For those of you who don't know who Śrīdhara Maharāja was, he was the Founding Ācārya of the Śrī Caitanya Saraswata Maṭha. He was known as being a wise and disinterested philosopher among great devotees. People came from all over the world to seek his advice on spiritual matters. When we recorded the interviews that later became "Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa," he maintained a very humble aśrama on the banks of the Ganges. He was a truly renounced sannyāsī. He was kind and humble. He spent long hours meditating on the meaning of the gayatri mantra,  discussing the Bhagavatam philosophy with all who came, chanting the holy name on his japa. He asked me about my health, whether I needed a mosquito net and had enough to eat. He was generous with his godbrothers who visited him frequently, as well as with the disciples of his godbrother A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. He tolerated our ridiculous questions and did his best to give us some guidance. I never saw him ask anyone for money. We were particularly concerned with the guru conception, because in the late 70s and early 80s after the disappearance of Bhaktivedanta Swami, we saw a lot of abuses in the budding Krishna consciousness movement: people were branded as heretics and banned from temples, gurus were grubbing for money, Swamis were involved in scandals. Some disciples of Prabhupada even went so far as to declare themselves his succesor "acharyas," or prophets in the Gaudiya line.  Many of these so-called prophets have come and gone. 

Of course, times have changed, but some truth-seekers might still find these words relevant. 

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.

Friends may be foes, foes may be friends...

I must go where my spiritual conscience takes me. By God’s will, friends may be converted into foes. Foes may be converted into friends, but I must stick to my ideal. If I am of a progressive nature, then there must be elimination, and there must be new beginnings. It can’t be avoided in the course of our realization.

When we are in school, all do not pass; some fail, and then we have to meet new classmates. Again we advance, and again we have new classmates, and old classmates may fall behind. It is quite natural. That does not mean that we are envious of them. We are sympathetic. We shall try our best to help them. But still it may happen. We cannot help it, but this is the nature of spiritual life. So, the absolute and relative principles are always clashing. They will seem to fight with one another, but the absolute should be accepted, and the relative should be sacrificed.

Enemy of the People

Still, the relative is necessary. A boy must put his whole faith in his primary school teacher, otherwise his progress will be hindered. He should not think that what his teacher teaches him is all false, or of a lower type. When he grows up, he will accept another teacher for higher education, but that does not mean that the primary teacher is neglected or insulted. For our own interest, whatever we find which is akin to what was given to us by our Guru Mahārāj, whatever we find that will enlighten us further, and whatever will help us to understand more clearly what we heard from our Guru Mahārāj, must be accepted.

Otherwise, what have I taken in the prison house of my mind through my scholarship? God is not a finite thing. He is infinite. And as much as in the cell of my brain I have imprisoned Him, shall I stick only to that? What is this? Is my realisation a living thing, or is it dead? Is there any growth? What I have received from my Spiritual Master—can it grow? Or is it finished? Have I reached the infinite standard where I can progress no further?

If someone says that he has reached that standard, and that there is nothing further to be realised, then we offer our obeisances to him from far away. We are not worshippers of that. If one thinks that he is finished, that he has attained perfection—we hate it! Even an Āchārya should consider that he is a student, and not a finished professor who has everything. One should always think of himself as a bona fide student. We have come to realise the infinite, not a finite thing. So, this fight between finite and infinite knowledge will continue always.

Should we think, “What I have understood is absolute”? No! We have not finished with knowledge. Still, we must know. Brahmā himself says, “I am fully deceived by Your power, Master. I am nowhere.” Anyone who has come in connection with the infinite cannot but say this: “I am nothing.” That should be the salient point. The propounder of the greatest scripture in Gauḍīya–Vaiṣṇavism, Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Dās Kavirāj Goswāmī says: “Purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha: I am lower than a worm in stool.” This is his statement, and he is saying so sincerely. Should we be ashamed to express our negative character, our negative development, which is the real wealth for a disciple? So, because such a negative character is shown by him, we fall at his feet. And if someone says, “I have finished all knowledge. God, Chaitanya, is my disciple”, he should be shot down as the greatest enemy ever found in the world!