(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada offering full dandavats to Radha Govinda)
"Anyone who has got unflinching faith in God... God means Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). So anyone who has got unflinching faith in God and similar faith in guru, then the Vedic purpose becomes revealed to him. Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau, tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ. The Vedic mantras and their artha becomes revealed. This is the process.
So these students, European, American students, they are offering respect to their spiritual master. Outsiders may think that the spiritual master is very puffed up, and he is sitting and taking respect from the disciple. But the fact is that they are to be taught like that, how to offer respect to the spiritual master. This is our Vedic process. Any sect or Vedic sect, the principle is ādau gurv-āśrayam: 'The first principle is to accept guru.' Unless there is guru, how it can be executed, yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23)? This is Vedic injunction. Other Vedic injunctions are like the same. Kaṭha Upaniṣad says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12): 'If you want to learn that transcendental science, then your first business is to go to a guru.'
Guru... As God is one, guru is also one. There cannot be different gurus. Nowadays it has become a fashion that 'I have got my own guru. You have got your own guru.' No. Guru means the representative of God. As God is one, similarly, guru is also one. There cannot be different gurus. Because God is one, how there can be different gurus? The principle of guru is one. The original guru is Kṛṣṇa. Yaṁ brahmā varuṇendra-rudra stunvanti divyaiḥ stavaiḥ (SB 12.13.1). Original guru, unto whom Brahmā, yaṁ brahmā varuṇa indra, all the demigods, offering their prayers. Within this universe Brahmā is considered to be the foremost living being, but he also offering respect to Kṛṣṇa. Śiva-viriñci-nutam (SB 11.5.33). Lord Śiva is also offering respect to Kṛṣṇa. That is the Vedic process.
So Kṛṣṇa is the original guru. Therefore Kṛṣṇa comes to teach these fallen souls. Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bhārata, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7). As guru's business is to protect the subordinate disciples from falldown... Just like I am traveling all over the world twice, thrice in a year. My duty is to see that my disciples who have accepted me guru, they may not fall down. That is my anxiety. So similarly, Kṛṣṇa, being the original guru, He is also very anxious that 'My sons...' We are all sons of Kṛṣṇa, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7).
sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ
tāsāṁ mahad-yonir brahma
ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
(BG 14.4)
Kṛṣṇa is not Indian or Hindu. Kṛṣṇa is everything. Everyone is Kṛṣṇa's sons, in any form. Sarva-yoniṣu. Yoni means species. There are 8,400,000 species. So all of them are living entities, and they are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is very much anxious to see His sons become very happy, just like father wants to see his son very happy. So Kṛṣṇa has admitted that He is bīja-pradaḥ pitā, He is the supreme father. I think in Christianity also God is accepted as supreme father. So actually that is the fact. God is the supreme father. So as the father wants to see his sons very happy, similarly, Kṛṣṇa wants to see all of us very happy. That is Kṛṣṇa. But we are persistently avoiding Kṛṣṇa and suffering. This is our business."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, San Francisco, July 15, 1975)
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