Hare Krishna and Pranam dear devotees,
Most of us, at least I can speak for myself, are struggling devotees, struggling to shuffle between our spiritual, family and professional life. We struggle, feel stretched and many times feel frustrated as well. The Acharyas are merciful, and understanding our condition, they leave in their footsteps, keys on how to build spiritual muscles and keep on progressing further in Krishna consciousness with enthusiasm, patience and tolerance. I am sharing one such key today. This is a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam and partial purport, highlighting how do we get spiritual strength.
As long as one has to accept a material body, with its different parts and paraphernalia, which are not fully under one’s control, one must have the lotus feet of his superiors, namely his spiritual master and the spiritual master’s predecessors. By their mercy, one can sharpen the sword of knowledge, and with the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s mercy one must then conquer the enemies mentioned above. In this way, the devotee should be able to merge into his own transcendental bliss, and then he may give up his body and resume his spiritual identity.
It’s a packed verse and we can go on and on unpacking it however today we will look at only one key from it- spiritual strength. Now we will go to the purport which not only highlights this particular key so we do not miss out to ‘pick’ it up but it also tells us how to ‘operate’ this key to build our spiritual strength. Here it goes-
A significant word here is acyuta-balaḥ. The spiritual master is certainly very merciful to his disciples, and consequently by satisfying him a devotee gets strength from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja: one must first please the spiritual master, and then one automatically pleases Kṛṣṇa and gets the strength with which to cross the ocean of nescience.
If one seriously desires to return home, back to Godhead, one must therefore become strong enough by pleasing the spiritual master, for thus one gets the weapon with which to conquer the enemy, and one also gets the grace of Kṛṣṇa. Simply getting the weapon of jñāna is insufficient. One must sharpen the weapon by serving the spiritual master and adhering to his instructions. Then the candidate will get the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
It is difficult to pull myself away from reading Srila Prabhupada’s purports. They seem like an unending ocean with precious gems spread all over. The only effort needed is to go a little deeper. We don’t find precious gems in the shallow part of the sea. As we delve deeper into Bhaktivedanta purports we can feel the mistakable presence of Srila Prabhupada, his gentle hand nudging and guiding us into newer and newer regions of the vast sea of Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, CC or any other scripture he wrote for us. It is an amazing experience, and it’s accessible to all of us.
They are not my words, as I have repeatedly informed you that I am simply the bearer of the message from Lord Caitanya through the disciplic succession and I do not make any addition or subtraction.
(Letter to Bhagavan das, 10th Jan, 1970)
Happy surfing in the ocean of mercy!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your servant,
Giriraj dasa