Foreword

This volume is the first book about the extraordinary character and sublime teachings of our most revered holy master, oṃ viṣṇupāda paramahaṃsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, affectionately known as our beloved Śrīla Gurudeva. It is Śrīla Gurudeva’s extraordinary mercy that he has revealed a glimpse of the spiritual world and awakened within us a taste for the supremely sweet pastimes of Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīpāda ‘Vidyālaṅkāra’^[1] Mādhava Mahārāja is not writing just another book about some charismatic individual who is accepted by the general public as a guru. Nowadays the name guru has become quite fashionable. In the modern world we have financial gurus, management gurus, fashion gurus and so on, and it seems that any common man can be accepted as guru as long as he shows some expertise in his field. The approach of many so-called gurus may be of great appeal to the masses by making them feel good about the prospects of their material aspirations and the anticipated temporary pleasures of the mind and senses. One may receive some temporary upliftment from these self-styled gurus, but in the end, their encouragement for us to continuously chase after material happiness produces only a mental image of a possible future, but no ultimate satisfaction. That is because the material enjoyment they offer always ends in misery. This material enjoyment is just like a big fire; no matter how beautiful it is to look at, if you touch it, it will inevitably burn you and you will suffer tremendously. Similarly, harmful activities will make us suffer in the material world. People who are overpowered by the illusory material māyā of Kṛṣṇa feel happiness and suffering for many births under the influence of that illusory energy. Their happiness and sufferings are all the work of māyā, meaning ‘forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa’. There are many persons in this world who may appear or claim to be guru, but a bona fide guru follows Śrī Brahmā, the original guru and grandfather of the universe. Kṛṣṇa consciousness was propounded by Śrī Brahmā aeons ago when the creation was still in its infancy. Only a bona fide guru representing his guru and the Lord can give one the essential help to attain real freedom.

Guru is a Sanskrit word and its original and intended meanings are explained in the Vedic literatures. Gu means ‘ignorance’ and ru means ‘dispeller’, so a real guru is someone who is in a disciplic succession of gurus that dispells our ignorance. Those in a material conception of life will teach others that they can and will become happy here, thus increasing their ignorance and boosting their false ego of bodily identification. A real guru, on the other hand, gives eternal results by initiating us on the path that activates and reveals our true spiritual identity. He mercifully gives instructions, convincing us of the many perfect philosophical conclusions of bhakti. Serving him and submissively hearing from him frees us from the ignorance that has been ingrained within our hearts since time without beginning. It gradually but firmly establishes within us a deep love for Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, the divine Youthful Couple and the soul’s function fully awakens. This is what a guru should give–our pristine intrinsic nature, our eternal dharma. That’s what our Śrīla Gurudeva, the deliverer of the fallen, is giving to us.

Our eternal natural function, or dharma, is bhakti or devotional service. As one cannot separate heat from fire, so similarly, the service nature of the living entities cannot be taken away from them. We have to serve someone or something. We serve either Kṛṣṇa or māyā. unfortunately, during this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the insincerity and hypocrisy is so widespread that those who have a desire to follow religion are oftentimes misled; consequently they are disheartened to pursue religion with strong determination or conviction.

All religions propagated in the world are either steps leading to bhakti or else distortions of it. This being a fact, we should focus on our own cultivation of devotion and not worry or criticize what others are doing. We should be favourable towards the followers of other religions and have no animosity towards them. All of us advance according to the time that is ripe for us. Any religion should be respected according to its proportionate degree of purity.

In order to pursue our particular path with great devotion, we have to understand that there are mixed, polluted and imaginary concepts of bhakti that are falsely presented in the name of pure bhakti. There are different categories. One group may have a slight semblance of bhakti or a mixed devotion (mixed with fruitive action or speculative knowledge, etc.). These are gradations of bhakti but only unalloyed devotion (śuddha-bhakti) can give life’s ultimate goal–the nectar of pure love (prema). Only that śuddha-bhakti can bestow the highest results. Yet, on the path of bhakti, many try to give the impression that they are practicing pure bhakti, though in actuality they practice only a reflection or a shadow of devotion. It is important to know that whoever you follow, you will only be able to attain what they have, not more than that. Whatever level of consciousness one’s guru attains, the followers can advance up to that level, not higher than that. That is why the gift of the higher part, the transcendental realm, can only be obtained by the exclusive mercy of Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī, the ācārya of ujjvala-rasa, and his intimate associates. The original form of Bhagavān descended in this age as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to deliver all the living entities. Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī, who is priyasvarūpa, the very embodiment of everything dear to Him, is His foremost disciple in establishing the deepest wishes of His heart. Those who completely come under the guidance and care of the genuine followers of Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī will attain realization and advance through each successive stage of kṛṣṇa-prema.

The realm of the Supreme Lord is naturally full of love and there is never any force. Here also, we are never forced to love, but this world is a place where the Supreme Lord examines us. Do we want only Him, or do we still want something of this world? The Lord will fulfill our desire, as much as we desire, not more than that. According to what we desire in life, we will get an appropriate guru or spiritual teacher. If we want transcendental vision, we can only get it by the special mercy of great devotees who see and perceive the Lord at all times and in all places. Only by their mercy will we excel in the examination, be able to recognize our true selves and begin to hanker for the only thing that will satisfy us–pure bhakti. One can only remember the Lord in all circumstances when the inclination to serve the Lord arises in one’s heart by the sweet association and mercy of such a sādhu. unless we have the opportunity to hear the pure nectar of their hari-kathā, we will always go back and absorb ourselves in sense gratification, even if we are inclined towards religious life. It is only by their merciful glance and the sharp words emanating from their lotus mouths that the hidden fantasies in the mind for gross and subtle sense gratification are finally eradicated from the heart forever.

If someone possesses only pretentious devotion (chala-bhakti), that is what their followers will get from them. Some, even in the name of bhakti, instruct others against the principles of bhakti and lead them on a path that is totally opposed to it. Therefore our previous ācāryas have clearly cautioned us to avoid mixed and polluted concepts of bhakti. Only then will our hearts be thoroughly cleansed, so that our activities can be most favourably executed for the pleasure of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. everyone is controlled by the desire for sense enjoyment, even when it comes to modern day religion. Most of the general public become attracted to follow certain religious teachings to get material boons from God in the form of economic development (artha) and sense gratification (kāma). They are misled to ask and search for material benedictions, rather than establishing their pure loving relationship with the Lord. Although their values are presented as the topmost and most relevant for God consciousness, they are in actuality a distortion of pure bhakti and the practitioner can only develop a little faith in God. ultimately it is a deception and infinitely inferior to the flawless and completely pure śuddha-bhakti. That is why we should always hear the perfect philosophical conclusions of bhakti (bhakti-siddhānta) from qualified persons. unqualified persons with the four defects of human frailty^[2] are unable to properly teach anything transcendental that is worth hearing. We need to seek help from those who are free from these very serious defects that prevent us from getting even a glimpse of transcendence. Methods of learning under the operation of the four-fold defects are useless in our progress toward the Absolute, for they can never free us from those defects.

What Śrīla Gurudeva has come to give is not a lower step on the staircase of mixed bhakti, but the topmost level of pure love. Like the bhakti-rasācārya Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī, he has come to fulfill the innermost heart’s desire (mano’bhiṣṭa) of Kali-yuga pāvana āvatārī Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to give us the service to Śrīmati rādhikā as Her confidential maidservant. If Śrīla Gurudeva had not come to make all these things accessible to us, we would have been grasping for straws, trying to understand these confidential pastimes with our mundane intellect, or we would have foolishly ignored these pastimes, because others had advised us that they were inappropriate and would compromise our spiritual lives. The person to teach us the proper understanding and method to approach the Lord’s amorous relationships without offence is a bona fide representative of Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī, whose pure heart is immersed in these loving pastimes. Only someone like Śrīla Gurudeva, who is absorbed in the moods of these pastimes with Śrī rādhā, can plant the seed of pure devotion and nurture it without impediments. These most confidential pastimes are not at all subject to Sanskrit scholarship or artistic creative imagination, but are only revealed to someone who has pleased the Divine Couple and Their devotees with unmotivated, pure, loving service. The supreme treasure that the most munificent Lord Śrī Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu came to give personally would have certainly been lost from our vision unless Śrīla Gurudeva had mercifully unveiled it. Śrīla Gurudeva came to give the incomparable gift that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī and all our guru-varga came to give, namely the prema of unnatojjvala-rasa-sva-bhakti-śrīyam.^[3] Our material desires and pride would have kept us away if Śrīla Gurudeva had not come into our lives and qualified us with his potent hari-kathā. Without him, the pure desire to render unalloyed devotional service in the mood of the Vrajavāsis would perhaps never enter our hearts.

Śrīla Gurudeva is a vastly learned scholar and author who has written and translated more than one hundred books in Hindi, that have been translated into many languages around the world, with over seventy titles in english. even though he is ninety-one years old, he is still producing more transcendental literatures every year. These books are relished and appreciated by all those who are serious to study the deep Kṛṣṇa conscious meanings of the rūpānuga ācāryas.

People are very much eager to learn more about this outstanding preacher of kevalā-bhakti, who has manifest with his pen such a vast array of Gauḍīya literature and who has spread this knowledge throughout the whole world. This book helps us to know more intimately the person responsible for all of those books and gives us a chance to become more acquainted with the essential truths that he came to speak. It shows how he protected the siddhānta whenever it was needed and how he is the guardian of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. Here the readers will not only know about the greatness of Śrīla Gurudeva’s accomplishments, but also his profound, internal purpose and moods. These things cannot be understood by outsiders, but Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja gives us a peek at the gravity and depth of his personality, which no other biographer–no matter how expert–can give.

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja shows us in very simple language how Śrīla Gurudeva personally applies and demonstrates the instructions of his books in his own life, thereby instructing us how to ourselves act and advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīla Gurudeva perfectly exemplifies the conclusion of the Lord that one should teach by example. In this book you will see how Śrī Guru perfectly represents the siddhānta that is the very substance of the entirety of the Vedas. With logic and discrimination, Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja has described the name, fame, devotional activities and transcendental moods of Śrīla Gurudeva and he has strung this together in such a beautiful way, to show the very essence of the Absolute Truth.

He proves how Śrīla Gurudeva has an ‘eternal’ relationship with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja ‘based on spontaneous love’ and how he is considered by him to be ‘the real guru-sevaka’, the real servant of Śrī Guru. unscrupulous persons try to defame him in an attempt to establish their own superiority, but their attempts simply increase his transcendental fame and reputation.

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja has done an amazing service in the form of this biography. Not only is Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja Śrīla Gurudeva’s personal servant; Śrīla Gurudeva himself has said on many occasions that he is his ‘mother, father, minister, doctor, dietician, cook and bosom friend’. He personally heard from many of the contemporaries of Śrīla Gurudeva, but mostly he noted down these incidents from hearing directly from Śrīla Gurudeva himself, whom he has served for more than thirty years. He was always by his side, attentively hearing his scriptural debates with opposing parties, his answers to diverse questions, and his personal dealings with all types of different personalities and situations. He gives intimate details of the transcendental qualities and characteristics of Śrīla Gurudeva and explains how they are similar to those of the Lord. He also shows how Śrīla Gurudeva changes people’s hearts by delivering the pure transcendental name, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and by always describing the power, qualities and mercy of the holy name. The holy name, which is identical with the Lord, has the power to free us and associate us with those spiritual beauties of the highest possible standards of excellence.

Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja gives a detailed account of how in 1952, at the young age of thirty-one, Śrīla Gurudeva took sannyāsa, the renounced order. At that time he taught and presented scriptural quotes which brought about the proper chanting of this mahā-mantra when it was being chanted in reverse sequence by almost everyone in the holy places of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in Vraja-maṇḍala. Śrīla Gurudeva would enthusiastically go to the pastime places of the Lord over and over again and describe the Lord’s transcendental līlās that took place there, greatly inspiring all the devotees who came for pilgrimage. He also explains how Śrīla Gurudeva is constantly chanting the mahā-mantra under any circumstance. His presentation will astound even a stone-hearted person.

That mercy you get from the rasika Vaiṣṇava is perpetual. It goes on forever and will never stop. This is the supreme treasure. It is not something perishable, like all benedictions you receive from materialistic people. Spiritual greed (lobha) will increase when one associates with the rāgānuga-rasika Vaiṣṇava, hears from him, or hears about him. When a person hears from his lotus lips about the supremely blissful, sweet pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa–and especially the Lord’s mādhurya pastimes with the vraja-gopīs–that genuine greed (lobha) enters the mind or the heart (citta-vṛtti).

This book is about the person who is a supreme treasure for the world and who gives the supreme treasure of bhakti to the world. People are looking everywhere in the world for treasures, but they fail to realize that the supreme treasure is right there in their heart. unfortunately, they do not see this and are running after a mirage. Only Śrī Guru can dissolve the mirage, remove the ignorance and give us entrance into the kingdom of supreme, everlasting happiness. We want happiness, but for the most part, it escapes us. even if we find temporary happiness in some superficial pleasures, it is shortlived and misery comes and takes its place. It is useless even to enter some kind of pseudo-religious movement and externally break our bad habits, if there is no lasting transformation. The speculations of the pseudo-religionists show that they are still completely bewildered by their material existence.

We were also painfully wallowing in total forgetfulness of the Lord, but Śrīla Gurudeva, who is the friend of the destitute and lowly, has overlooked our disqualifications to give us that supreme treasure which is our real welfare. ultimately material life and sensual pleasure is a deception that entraps us, bewilders us, keeps us entangled and leaves us hurt. Due to all the suffering, we gain some power of discrimination and eventually we come to the point in our life... where we are exhausted... where we have had enough... where we are truly crying out to the Lord.

When we are truly destitute and deep in our hearts, desperate to have a connection only with God, the Lord hears our sincere longing and warms our hearts by sending His pure devotee, who is our only friend and shelter in this world. Although such association is extremely rare, the Lord will reveal to us His own eternal personal associate, the bhakta-bhāgavata. When we know how difficult that association is to attain, then we should sincerely pray for it without duplicity.

We cannot always get the association of living sādhus, so in the absence of the bhakta-bhāgavata, the Lord’s devotee, we can take the association of the other all-auspicious type of sādhu, the grantha-bhāgavata, the śāstra. The sādhus, have with great endeavor meticulously written down the śāstras for our benefit and we can receive their association there. When we take shelter of these two sādhus, the bhakta-bhāgavata and the grantha-bhāgavata, they will make us qualified so that we will never give up Vrajendra-nandana Śrī Kṛṣṇa. When we always hear their hari-kathā laden with their potency, our intelligence will become firmly fixed in the proper philosophical conclusions.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the fountainhead of all rasas (akhila-rasāmṛtamūrti) and we can offer Him our eternal loving service in the mood of deep friendship, maternal or fatherly love, or in amorous love. In the worship of other forms of the Lord, although we can completely surrender unto Him with unwavering faith and love which is fully satisfying, we are not able to offer such confidential service and unconditional love as His friends, parents or lovers.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself in the mood and complexion of Śrīmatī rādhārāṇī, descended to this world to give love of God. Having reflected on the living entity’s difficult and unfortunate situation, Śrī rādhā and Śrī Kṛṣṇa personally appeared in Their combined form of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, who is an ocean of compassion for the fallen souls. Śrīpāda Bhaktivedānta Mādhava Mahārāja in this book is showing how devotees all over the world are becoming happy and satisfied by hearing the pure message of Śrīman Mahāprabhu from Śrīla Gurudeva. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came some five hundred years ago to give us the topmost, all-auspicious spiritual knowledge and to show us how to practice it in pure love. He has now arranged to send His messenger Śrīla Gurudeva to us so that we can hear pure harikathā (topics in glorification of Lord Hari and His devotees) flowing constantly from his lotus mouth. If we have the extreme fortune to continually drink the ambrosial nectar that emanates from his lotus mouth and which flows from his pen, we shall never have to live again in misery, adverse to the Supreme Lord. While persons in this world are becoming more and more mad to enjoy their mundane senses, but are instead drowning in misery, searching for wealth, women and mundane reputation and fame, this book will help them to forget such fleeting happiness. Śrīla Gurudeva has never been in forgetfulness of the Lord and he can teach us how to live our life in such constant remembrance. He shows us how we can truly be happy by engaging in Kṛṣṇa’s service. There is immense happiness in serving Him and a very relishable love and affection that is not found in material relationships. There are oceans of love and affection in Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental abode.

Not only is Śrīla Gurudeva the supreme treasure; he is also giving us this invaluable treasure, namely the awakening and nurturing of our eternal loving personal relationship with the Divine Couple. He is not giving us a partially developed understanding, but is giving us the full and perfect philosophical conclusion (siddhānta) of the bona fide gurus (ācāryas) including Lord Caitanya Himself.

The book also talks about some controversial subjects, misunderstandings and slanderous statements. People are deceiving themselves if they do not properly respect a Vaiṣṇava and it is an offence to the holy name to disrespect and blaspheme the saintly devotees whose characters are spotless. Śrīpāda Bhaktivedānta Mādhava Mahārāja addresses many mistaken viewpoints and misguided mentalities and gives the facts of many incidents that were previously presented giving the wrong impression of Śrīla Gurudeva. He does this to protect the immaculate reputation of our most illustrious Śrīla Gurudeva and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya that he represents. He presents it not as a challenge, but to acquaint the innocent with the real facts and dispel their doubts and to warn them about the seriousness of offending Vaiṣṇavas who are so very dear to the Lord.

A pure devotee has no hostile mentality, personal grudges or dissatisfaction with anyone. Thus anyone who takes initiation of the holy name must wholeheartedly reject any tendency to disregard or disrespect any Vaiṣṇava. Śrī Guru is our greatest well-wisher and best friend. There is no one more merciful than him in this world, but those who are adverse to him cannot see it. A person develops his or her mentality and body in accordance with the activities that they have performed in their previous birth. The Lord is bestowing the fruits of their action, whatever they may be, to enjoy and engage in further acts. Those who are adverse to the Lord will be impelled to act by the external, illusory energy (māyā) of the Lord, and those who are surrendered without duplicity will see all the virtues of the Vaiṣṇava revealed in their true features. They will see the Vaiṣṇava’s extraordinary transcendental qualities and will not liken them to mundane qualities, whereas those who are impelled by māyā and who commit offences, will not.

The example has been given of a palace made entirely of gems. Those whose hearts are pure will see its splendor, whereas an ant or someone with an offensive mentality will only try to find the hole. If we see how Śrīla Gurudeva is always serving Śrī Śrī rādhāKṛṣṇa Yugala and how he is exclusively surrendered to Them, that will attract us and arouse in us an affection for him. And those who are not gentle and well-behaved towards him, will still unfortunately not be able to recognize the transcendental Vaiṣṇava, no matter how many virtues and material intelligence they may have developed by their karmas. They will not be able to judge his exclusive surrender to Their Lordships and will instead select a mundane personality.

Śrīla Gurudeva has brought with him the immaculate moods of the pure devotees and placed it right in the forefront of our consciousness. All we have to do is faithfully pay attention to him and we will benefit remarkably. He is not simply giving us an idea to ponder over like the armchair philosophers. rather, he is showing us our exact spiritual identity and abode, and how to realize them. We should take advantage of this opportunity. This divine mercy comes only from a specially empowered personality who is overflowing with mercy from Lord Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmati rādhārāṇī. No matter how low we jīvas have fallen, a powerful guru like Śrīla Gurudeva can bring us to the highest spiritual position by nourishing us and awakening our real nature and intrinsic mood of pure love of God.

We invite the sincere readers to deliberate on this first book fully and relish the nature of Śrīla Gurudeva’s śuddha-bhakti, the ultimate goal of all scriptures. See for yourself how the nectar of the kṛṣṇa-prema that he came to give manifests in his life and actions. We sincerely pray that Śrīla Gurudeva, who is the personification of mercy and forgiveness, may transmit his potency into the core of our hearts, so that we can render some pleasing service to fulfill his inner heart’s longing to give prema-bhakti to the world. If we remain aloof from adverse association, hear from the lotus lips of pure devotees and read their devotional literatures, we will receive the highest, most sublime revelation of all, the supreme treasure, service to Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Yugala.

I humbly beg your forgiveness for any mistakes,

Aspiring for the service of
Śrī Hari, Guru & Vaiṣṇavas
Rūpa-Raghunātha dāsa

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Śrīla Gurudeva gave the title Vidyālaṅkāra, which means an ocean of knowledge, to Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja because of his expertise in his assisting Śrīla Gurudeva with his books.

[2]:

As described in Śrī Tattva-sandarbha, Anuccheda 9, the four defects of human frailty are: (1) a tendency to make mistakes, (2) the tendency become under the illusion of false ideas and beliefs, (3) the propensity to cheat and (4) imperfect senses.

[3]:

The prema of unnatojjvala-rasa-sva-bhakti-śrīyam means the mañjarī-bhāva of Śrīmatī rādhārāṇī’s maidservants. (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.4)

Other Vaishnavism Concepts:

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Discover the significance of concepts within the article: ‘Foreword’. Further sources in the context of Vaishnavism might help you critically compare this page with similair documents:

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