Śrīla Gurudeva’s Continuous Mission to Make Us Qualified
How can someone, after receiving harināma and dīkṣā initiation, develop a real relationship with Śrīla Gurudeva? How can he understand Śrīla Gurudeva and come close to him? When Śrīla Gurudeva gives mantra and dīkṣā, he also gives śakti, or power, to practice, but if the disciple is not serving his guru and not following his guru’s instructions, advice and orders, then he will again be disconnected from that śakti.Śrīla Gurudeva looks into the heart of his disciples and checks what kind of desires are present there. To clean the heart, he will then give some chastisement, punishment, or strong advice. If anyone desires to accept what Śrīla Gurudeva wants to give, he will follow Śrīla Gurudeva’s orders and teachings. At first, he may not be able to follow everything, but he will try. When he is able to accept Śrīla Gurudeva’s teachings fully, this means that Gurudeva has mercifully cleaned his heart and removed his anarthas. At that time, Śrīla Gurudeva will also create a platform in the disciple’s heart on which he himself will reside.
For millions of lives we have been very far away from Śrīla Gurudeva. Now we came close to him, but Gurudeva sees that now also, our love is divided. We are not continuously following his orders and instructions. We are not studying śāstra regularly and are not properly respecting sādhus. We cannot, with love, accept mantra and nāma. Therefore, Gurudeva starts the process of washing and cleaning our heart. But this is not possible in one day. The sādhaka, the disciple, would not be able to tolerate such a big cleaning in one day.
So on one side Śrīla Gurudeva is cleaning us, and on the other side he is making a strong foundation for constructing a nice kuñja-kuṭīra in our heart. Without that foundation, without having a connection and a strong relationhip with Śrīla Gurudeva, without having affection and attraction for him, it is not possible to build that kuñja-kuṭīra. This connection, affection, attraction, and attachment are like the pillars of that foundation. When these are fixed, then Śrīla Gurudeva will start washing and cleaning our heart. He will plant the seed of bhakti and cultivate it, always checking up on the progress. Are there any grasses growing? Meaning, are there still anarthas rising up in the heart? He will give good advice, and then check if we are following and practicing. If we are not, then he again starts cleaning and cultivating our creeper of bhakti.
Śrīman Mahāprabhu Himself has taught this cleaning process by starting guṇḍicā-mārjana, the cleaning of the Guṇḍicā temple. He did not do this just for one year. He performed His guṇḍicā-mārjana-līlā for eighteen years. Śrīla Gurudeva first called all his followers and devotees by harināma, by his attraction power, love, mercy, blessings, kindness, sweetness and nectar. After that, he started his program: how to make us practice the process of bhakti, and how to make our heart into a beautiful kuñja-kuṭīra for Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His dear-most associates.
For us, the first and foremost dear associate of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is Śrīla Gurudeva. But if we have no room for him in our heart, if we are not close to him, if we don’t understand his eternal svarūpa and service, and if, at present, we are not completely following his advice, then how will he be happy and pleased with us? We will be very far away from him. Śrī Gurupāda-padma comes to this world only for the purpose of training the jīvas and making them qualified to have a sweet relationship with God. When that training is completed, he will offer those jīvas to Mahāprabhu, and then to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. By their mercy, the jīvas will become permanent loving rāgānuga sevakas, and they will be able to enter into the eternal Vraja-maṇḍala, where they will again meet with Śrīla Gurudeva and serve and please Śrī Śrī Rādha and Kṛṣṇa under his guidance.
Excerpted from the Bhakta Bandhav Publication “Śrī Guru-darśana As It Is”, Chapter 13
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