SRI GURU RECIPROCATES IN ALL RASAS

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

There are different ways in which different persons whose faculty of spiritual consciousness has been aroused judge about their own requirements. Every enlightened person is privileged to have a sight of Sri Gurudev in accordance with his particular mode of judgment. Sri Gurudev is that real entity who thus reveals himself to the view of enlightened souls in a variety of ways. Sri Gurudev is the daughter of Vrishabhanu (Sri Radha) in the madhurya-rasa (the spiritual humor of the sweetness of divine amour). Realized by the method of the rasa of parental affection, Sri Gurudev reveals himself as Nanda-Yashoda. In the rasa of friendly affection he is Sridama-Sudama. In the rasa of the devotion of servants to the master, the lotus feet of Sri Guru act as Chitrak-Patrak. The consideration of all these asrayas, devotees, about the visaya, Krishna rises naturally in the heart as one progresses in the service of Sri Guru. These subjects do not manifest themselves in the course of any artifi¬cial process. They are aroused spontaneously in the consciousness of fortunate souls on the appearance of the disposition for spiritual service of the divinity. We have no other function than the service of Sri Guru. By means of the adulterated consciousness of the material world it is not possible to discuss the eternal pastimes of Godhead that are inaccessible even to Shesha, Shiva, Brahma, and similar great personalities.

I have been asked sometimes by different people why we do not give away the realized method of service to all. As for myself, I cannot understand how the condition of self-realized souls and that of novices may be supposed to be identical. It passes our judgment to understand how the service and realization of souls free from all defects can be practiced during the period of novitiate, which is full of many defects. If any person happens to belong to the order of self-realized souls he may kindly intimate to me the fact. I can then know about the specific nature of his realized self.