Prelude to Question: I have an inquiry that I believe will help me to better understand the position of the acharyas in bona fide parampara and the role of the spiritual master in general:
I’m personally interested to understand more on this topic because I believe it will strengthen my faith in our particular disciplic succession and it’s uncompromised connection with the impeccable will of the Supreme Lord. As well I believe it will help me to understand the unparalleled role of the individual acharyas and the spiritual master in bringing others in line with Krishna’s desires through the parampara system. If possible, please also add any and all commentary that you desire to give for my benefit.
In Bhagavad-gita, Krishna reveals in texts 18.61 and 18.62 that He as the all-knowing Lord is directing everyone from within and that one should thus completely surrender to His manifestation as Paramatma. Yet, we also know that in disciplic succession the good disciple is always trying his best to please the bona fide spiritual master, whom I have heard is the external manifestation of Paramatma. For someone with so little realization as I, the mystery of how the desires of the spiritual master and the direction of Paramatma will always be in tandem is theoretical at best, and this truth seems to be beyond the logical connection that the spiritual master is always guided by Paramatma and directs his disciples accordingly.
Is it that Paramatma is guiding His servant, the bona fide spiritual master’s every action from within, and therefore the good disciple that is always striving to serve his master by following his instructions will also be as much as possible in line with Paramatma’s (Krishna’s) desires? However accurate, this idea seems at times to contradict guru-disciple interactions wherein the guru seems to make subjective decisions based on his testing and understanding of the disciple’s sincerity (as opposed to a wholly objective decision wherein Krishna says clearly from within, “yes” or “no” and the guru acts only on that prompt). Such interactions are described by Srila Prabhupada in the purport to BG 4.34. Therefore I’m wondering: is there more that can be understood on this topic to see how those lovingly serving the representatives of disciplic succession are properly connected to the will of Krishna?
Answer from Romapada Swami: The Spiritual master is indeed described in all revealed scriptures as the external manifestation of the Supersoul. Although Krishna is seated as the Supersoul and Guide (caitya-guru) in the heart of all living entities, He nonetheless remains neutral towards those who are turning away from Him. He witnesses, permits and directs such living entities according to their own desires; He does not actively direct them in how to approach and serve Him. (BG 13.23, 9.9) Nor is the forgetful living entity ready to receive such guidance from the Supersoul directly until they are completely purified.
The spiritual master is sent by Krishna as the external manifestation of His mercy in reviving our forgotten relationship and service attitude towards the Lord. The spiritual master guides the disciple and accepts the services of the disciple on behalf of the Supreme Lord; his guidance is therefore identical to that of the Supersoul, and in a sense more direct and valuable.
Being a surrendered servitor, the mind and senses of a pure devotee are conducted by Krishna. But the implication is not that he is being conducted as if like a programmed robot. Just as Krishna is a Person, the spiritual master is an individual person, a sentient being. While being fully surrendered and dependent on Krishna and having no interest other than to please Him, as well as being in constant touch with the Lord, He nonetheless uses the full range of his faculties in rendering his service — his feeling, willing, thinking, his intelligence, discretion and judgment as well as personal likes and dislikes are all engaged purely in loving reciprocations with Krishna. He knows Krishna’s innermost desire – viz. that Krishna wants all the conditioned souls rotting in this material world to come back to Him. Thus he voluntarily makes all effort to serve as a transparent representative of Krishna in this most confidential service of bringing the conditioned souls to the Lord’s eternal service. Because he has made his interests and desires one with those of Krishna, therefore serving his interests is identical to serving Krishna’s interest.
Krishna gives the power of attorney, so to speak, to His pure devotee. This is described in Madhurya Kadambini: bhakti is independent and Krishna is equal to all – so what is it that causes bhakti to sprout in the heart of some particular individuals? The answer is that Krishna has freely given the power to His devotee, particularly the madhyama-adhikari devotee, to bestow the seed of bhakti to the conditioned souls ‘as he or she likes’. Indeed Lord Caitanya declared in glorification of the compassionate nature of Vasudeva Datta, “I am the property of Vasudeva Datta, he can sell Me in the marketplace for any price he desires” (Cc. Adi 10.41 purport)
Similarly Lord Narayana informs Durvasa Muni, when Durvasa took shelter of Him after offending Ambarisha Maharaja, that although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He has no independence in fact; He is “bhakta-paradhina”, that is, completely under the control of and dependent on the will of His devotee. (SB 9.4.63) The Supreme Lord is, of course, fully independent. But out of His own sweet will and His affection for His pure devotee, the Lord gives Himself to His pure devotee. Thus Krishna’s mercy follows behind the mercy of His loving devotee. Therefore, Bhaktivinod Thakur also prays to the Vaishnava devotee, “O Vaishnava Thakura, Krishna is yours; you have the power to give Him to me.”
Because of the intimate loving relation between the Lord and His pure devotee, those who try to serve and please the pure devotee spiritual master are automatically most pleasing to Krishna. *It is Krishna’s system* – that by following His devotee, one can easily approach and access His loving service, and not directly. One who tries to serve the spiritual master is therefore immediately fulfilling this direction and desire of the Lord.
The pure devotee in turn is not whimsical or biased in extending Krishna’s descending mercy. He transparently carries Krishna’s spirit of equanimity and compassion towards all living entities and does not make material evaluation or distinction, and yet he carefully examines and appropriately extends the Lord’s mercy in proportion to the receptivity of each person.
A crude example can be given of the proprietor of some organization who entrusts great responsibilities and freedom upon his beloved son or a trusted representative. The representative can then employ and train others, and by executing the will of the representative one can be confident of fully pleasing the proprietor. In fact, Srila Prabhupada describes the role of the spiritual master quite in these terms – as the one who is canvassing and recruiting conditioned souls into Krishna’s service.
As with any other mundane analogy to a transcendental phenomenon, this just gives a rough idea, the dealings between Krishna and His transparent representative being transcendental. Unlike the mundane counterpart in the analogy, a surrendered devotee’s every thought and action is actually guided by Krishna, moment by moment.
You may find much insight in studying the following excerpt from an interview with Srila Prabhupada (quoted at the end) right on this topic. At one point in the discussion, Prabhupada straightforwardly asserts that the spiritual master is in direct communion with Krishna and that Krishna dictates his every decision. Note how one of the incredulous disciple tries to philosophically explain this, saying that it means that Krishna is the source of all intelligence and therefore the spiritual master’s intelligence is coming from Krishna. But Prabhupada corrects him: “No, Krishna will tell directly. A devotee always consults Krishna and Krishna tells him, ‘Do like this.’ Not figuratively”! As the conversation continues it is clarified, of course, that this is the case only with the elevated pure devotee – not everyone can claim such direct communion with the Lord, and they should therefore consult the spiritual master for understanding Krishna’s will.
The key issue in your inquiry seems to lie in how to understand the subjective evaluations, decisions and interactions that the spiritual master seems to make in response to circumstances, inputs from others or the disposition of the disciple. Although subjective, such actions are still on the absolute plane, and not a product of the influence of modes of nature or other external factors as is the case in the dealings and decisions of an ordinary person ruled by personal attachments and aversions.
When information is given to the spiritual master, Krishna guides from within as to what is to be accepted, what is not, etc.
Those who evaluate the actions or instructions of the spiritual master in a mundane or relative way, or think of him as being influenced by others or by circumstances, or think of him as making material calculations, is in effect committing a serious offense. This is the third of the ten offenses against the Holy Name, viz. guror-avajna (considering the spiritual master or his instruction to be ordinary, and minimizing them). Such a mentality is seriously detrimental to the disciple’s spiritual life.
One may not have full realization of this spiritual principle, and it is not uncommon that one often begins with only a theoretical appreciation at best. But the faithful disciple accepts it based on spiritual authority. By accepting with firm conviction and acting with that understanding, factual realization is gained incrementally.
Indeed these transcendental principles cannot be understood by any amount of logical intellectual exercises. But by patient hearing and rendering of devotional service, one gains increasing appreciation for the depth of loving reciprocation between the Lord and His compassionate representative. This appreciation of the intimate relationship of the spiritual master with Krishna is the basis of understanding this principle, as confirmed in the Gurvastaka prayers:
sakshad-dharitvena samasta-shastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
“The spiritual master is accepted and honored as good as the Personality of Godhead, *because he is very dear to the Lord.*”
Therefore by pleasing the spiritual master, the transparent representative of Krishna, the disciple is fully pleasing Krishna.
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Following is an excerpt from an Interview with Newsday Newspaper —
July 14, 1976, New York:
Interviewer: A question: you are now the leader and the spiritual master. Who will take your place?
Prabhupada: That Krishna will dictate who will take my place.
Interviewer: Krishna will tell you that?
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Interviewer: How do you choose, you are responsible for the organization. Are you the one who chooses who runs each center, who is responsible in each temple. you choose the leaders, or Krishna does and tells you, how does that work?
Prabhupada: No, I have been chosen by my spiritual master.
Interviewer: Yes. And you in turn choose others?
Prabhupada: Oh yes. That is our succession.
Interviewer: On what basis?
Prabhupada: Basis, on the order of Krishna. Originally the order is from Krishna.
Interviewer: How does that come?
Prabhupada: Comes by disciplic succession. Just like Krishna said this knowledge to Arjuna and Arjuna said to others and it is open. Everyone can take it, there is no secrecy. We have to accept only, that’s all.
Interviewer: I missed that, I’m sorry.
Prabhupada: The order is already there, it is open, open secret. There is no secrecy. Anyone can take it.
Interviewer: All right. But in terms of specific, say, choosing, specific things, specific details.
Prabhupada: Yes, in all details, how to become Krishna conscious, there is all details in this book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
Hari-Sauri: So he’s asking what’s a man’s qualification to be chosen.
Ramesvara: In other words Prabhupada will decide who should be leader if he’s qualified and there’s a process for making him qualified and there’s a process for testing to see if he is qualified. So in that way it all comes from Krishna.
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Interviewer: On what basis, though, can you tell me some of the things that…
Prabhupada: Basis, just to see whether he’s qualified, that’s all. Just like ordinarily one manager is appointed by the superior authority on the merit, on his qualification. That’s all.
Interviewer: Okay, is it a mediated choice or is it a direct communication from Krishna, that’s my question.
Prabhupada: No.
Ramesvara: He’s asking whether we claim that God speaks to us directly.
Prabhupada: Yes, God speaks to you when you are qualified. You cannot expect God as order supplier. When he sees that you are qualified, he will speak to you.
Bali-mardana: The spiritual master is the representative of God to the disciple because he is in direct contact with God.
Prabhupada: My spiritual master appointed me that “You do this.” Similarly I shall appoint somebody else, this is the way.
Ramesvara: It’s difficult for people to understand that God can speak to a man. They question, “How can God speak to some man?”
Prabhupada: That is, anything, that, the radio message is coming, a foolish man cannot understand how it is coming. He’ll think “How it is that, speaking?” So any foolish man will be astonished how things are happening. That is foolishness. But God says, find out this verse…
Hari-sauri: Four three? Sa evayam maya te ‘dya [Bg. 4.3]?
Prabhupada: Huh? No no. Buddhi-yogam dadami tam yena mam upayanti te.
Ramesvara: Tesam satata-yuktanam [Bg. 10.10].
Prabhupada: Ah, tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam [Bg. 10.10].
Hari-sauri: Dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te.
Prabhupada: Ah, yes.
Hari-sauri: “To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give them the understanding by which they can come to Me.”
Prabhupada: God is situated in everyone’s heart. As soon as He sees that “Here is a qualified person,” then He gives him instruction.
Interviewer: But in the same way that Krishna says He’ll provide for your needs you still must work to achieve whatever Krishna is giving you.
Prabhupada: Yes. You work for Krishna. You have to work to get your necessities.
Interviewer: In the same way I’m curious with respect to the way Krishna communicates with you, whether it’s in a similar kind of way that He gives you your necessities.
Bali-mardana: In other words, when you decide that someone is to be in charge of a particular temple does Krishna tell you that this person should be in charge.
Interviewer: Or do you by judging him say this person is qualified.
Prabhupada: Yes, because a devotee always consults Krishna and He gives order.
Interviewer: It’s a more direct communication.
Prabhupada: Yes. And He gives order.
Ramesvara: Because intelligence, our philosophy is that intelligence comes from Krishna. So if I have some…
Interviewer: And your philosophy is that your daily necessities come from Krishna as well.
Ramesvara: Yes, try to understand. Suppose my intelligence sees that this person is qualified, that means Krishna has told me.
Prabhupada: No, not necessarily, Krishna will tell directly. A devotee always consults Krishna and Krishna tells him, “Do like this.” Not figuratively.
Interviewer: Does that apply then to other kinds of decisions and other kinds of activities as well?
Prabhupada: Everything. Because a devotee does not do anything without consulting Krishna.
Bali-mardana: But that applies to a very greatly elevated soul, that is not an ordinary person.
Prabhupada: That is, therefore the minor devotees, they consult the spiritual master. That is our process. Yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah.
Ramesvara: I see, I was trying to explain the minor devotees.
Interviewer: No, I was talking about…
Ramesvara: You’re talking about the topmost level.
Interviewer: Yes. That will do it for me, I thank you, kindly.
