iMonk | December 2005

Soquel, California — Saturday, December 17th

Hopeless...

Today is the 76th anniversary of the divine appearance of our beloved Srila Gurudeva, His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Sri Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.

om ajnana-timirandhasya / jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena / tasmai sri-gurave namaha

The spiritual world (om) is dark to me (ajnana-timirandhasya) because I am blindfolded by material desire. Let me therefore submit to you, my teacher (tasmai sri-gurave namaha) who can remove this self-imposed impediment from my eyes (caksur unmilitam yena) by slicing through the impossibly complex Gordian knot with the sword of transcendental knowledge (jnananjana-salakaya).

I know now that the disease is my own eye, that it is only the covering of desire that prevents me from having a proper estimation of this world, and that my effort to become free from desire (illusion) depends on how sincerely I dedicate the rest of my life (pranipatena) to your instructions (pariprasnena) and try to serve that ideal (sevaya). In the Bhagavad Gita (4:34) Krishna says:

tad viddhi pranipatena / pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam / jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"To understand what is what (tad viddhi), it is necessary to surrender exclusively (pranipatena) to a pure devotee who has direct experience of the Supreme Absolute Truth (jnaninas tattva-darsinah), and if he is pleased with your submissive inquiries (pariprasnena) and your desire to serve (sevaya) that higher plane of reality, he will bless you with this 'knowledge beyond mortality' (upadeksyanti te jnanam)."

But because I stubbornly persist in always seeing this world objectively ("seeing is believing"), I cannot get a glimpse of that real, subjective world that you try to show me. Because I have no faith, I cannot "see" — but only faith will help me ("believing is seeing"). I am hopeless!

You, gurudeva, came to the world on this day to search for your lost servants. I am not only lost, but blind... how will I be saved?

Soquel, California — Monday, December 19th

Lucky stars

Today is the anniversary of the disappearance of our param-gurudeva, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad.

Although this "brightest star in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sky" is no longer visible, we are not left in total darkness: as always, in our disciplic line of succession (guru-parampara), when one light is extinguished another takes its place, to continue to guide us, to continue to light our way...

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur filled the sky with his best and brightest stars, and two in particular — Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad and Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj — shone so brightly that they could be seen all the way here in the West.

And both those stars pointed to and foretold the rise of their star pupil, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, who would dispel the darkness of our world after their departure...

So today we "thank our lucky stars" that we have the good fortune to be connected, by their light, to that great Vaishnava luminary, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad.

URL: http://www.imonk.net/05/december3.html
Layout by iMonk — December 19th, 2005.