Symarani dasi: It is important to know about the individual spiritual masters in our Guru Parampara themselves, or...
Srila Gurudeva: It is important to know a little. If you don't know the characteristics of a mango tree, then you may think a thorn tree to be a mango tree, and you will try to take a mango from that thorn tree.
By jnana, yoga, and karma, no one can realize all these truths – only by bhakti - bhakti-vasah puruso bhaktir eva bhuyasi – the Supreme Person is controlled by devotion (Mathara-sruti). Bhakti is the last word in vidya (knowledge). Bhakti is the highest kind of vidya; it is tungavidya.
Syamarani dasi: What does 'tunga' mean?
Srila Gurudeva: It means 'topmost' or 'highest.' Try to properly honor Vaisnavas, some people collect and preserve the kanti-mala (neck-beads), eye-glasses, nails, clothes, and all other remnants of their Gurudeva; whereas devotees like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Jiva Gosvami, Rupa Gosvami, and Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami collect their Gurudeva's prema and keep it in their hearts. There is so much difference in this.
Try to collect the moods of all Vaisnavas, keep these in your heart and perform bhajana. I have collected only one external thing from my Guru Maharaja – his shoes in Mathura. I have collected all his moods and kept them in my heart. I have tried to collect this; nothing more.
It has been told in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu: anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama. What is anyabhilasa? You will have to give up all desires – worldly desires, and desires all the way up to Vaikuntha. You will have to give up all desire for Svarga (Heaven), and so on.
Vrndavana: November, 1994