Preaching with grace: Respecting feeling of surrender to Divine





Surrender to Supreme Lord means to perform activities of devotional service like Nav vidha Bhakti for the pleasure of supreme Lord. A person absorbed in materialism always thinks of acquiring more and more sense pleasure and forgets to address the inner calling of union with the divine. By great fortune one comes to the stage when one starts addressing that inner calling of union with the divine and starts performing Bhakti. In order to perform these activities he seeks guidance of experts  in this field and expects them to show him the right path. Another aspect of Bhakti is to show compassion to the neophyte devotees and therefore the experts in this field perform this service of guiding the neophyte devotees for the pleasure of their supreme Lord. However, this service requires great attention. Since, the student exposes his lot of vulnerability and trust in the guide, therefore slight lack of attention can cause hurt to the student and resulting in disservice. The slight eagerness of student to perform devotional activities has to be fanned by the guide such that it becomes a blazing fire of feeling of separation from supreme Lord. However, if the guide is less careful, he may end up reducing the eagerness of the student. A good student takes less resources than required and give better performance, but a bad student takes lot of resources and the performance is also not so good.

Similary a good teacher takes lesser energy of the student and shapes him in a good way but a bad teacher takes lot of resources and energy from the student but disorts him from his actual position.

A good guide will never take cheaply the enthusiasm of the student to learn and will always be prepared to give his best to the student and would rather be ready to give them more than they can handle. Feelings of surrender or affection for the Lord are the personal assets of the supreme Lord and has been bestowed upon conditioned soul by His mercy and the teacher never takes these assets of the Lord for granted and is cautious not to trample upon any of these flower like assets by his carelessness rather holds them very sensitively.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomara Kinkora Ami

Image
Tomara Kinkora Ami Relationship between master and servant is of very intimate nature in context of bhartiya culture. Servant is kept under complete care of svami and swami takes care of his sevaak as his own body part. There are code of ethics and nitis about how to deal with servants. Isavasyam idddam sarvam . Everything is property of Krishna and therefore when something is given as our property, it is a gift from Krishna. Actually relationship with Krishna is of very intimate nature. There are also verses in Bhagwatam telling that those who are protected by Krishna can’t be offended even by ferocious animals, diseases as well as powerful dacoits what to say of others. Such is the strong shield and security one receives on identifying himself as Kinkora ami. Servants are never humiliated for their low status by a dharmic swamis and if by chance swami humilitates a servant due to his low status, he becomes implicated in karma by higher powers. Krishna is the creato...
Read more

Transcedental Hierarchy vs Material Hierarchy

Image
Transcedental Hierarchy vs Material Hierarchy In the transcendental realms of Vaikunta and Goloka, everything is chinmaya and full of spiritual potencies. The body of Sri Krishna who is considered as supreme object of everyone's attention in spiritual world has body parts such that each body part can do the function of other body part if need arises but still there is variegatedness. Hierarchies and control happen through love rather than impositional stands. Supreme Lord also takes the lower position than his own devotees by becoming their son, servant , small brother, nephew and offer them respect accordingly. Hierarchies in material realm however are quite different in nature than the spiritual hierarchies. In the material realm, everyone wants to be the separate enjoyer and the controller and wants to use everyone else as a resource for his personal agendas. Therefore, when a materialistic person takes the role of a leader, he tries to manipulate his juniors ...
Read more

Dealing with Bullying Gurus

Image
Dealing with bullying Gurus We all rightfully look to our devotee community to be a safe place, a retreat into relationships that support, encourage, and challenge us. The family of Krishna comes to worship together and live life together as we work for the mission of the Prabhupad—to spread the message of Lord Chaitanya and welcome conditioned souls. We find grace, forgiveness, and hope. However, not all of us experience such a utopia. What happens when we are betrayed by the very devotee community whom we trust? We become deeply wounded, jaded, and confused. This is true when in any family abuse goes unchecked. Perpetrators in the devotee community hide behind spirituality and can blindside us. These perpetrators can even be preachers and managers in the community. They are actually representatives of Hiranyakashipu, trying to inflict pain upon innocent devotees like Prahalad. How do we deal with these spiritual bullies? I have identified four bu...
Read more