What is the highest welfare activity?
Let everyone be devoted to Krsna. This is the highest benediction for the world's people. The highest form of welfare is to engage people's minds at Krsna's lotus feet. The topmost charity or altruism is to distribute Krsna's devotional service to everyone. The devotees are always anxious to help others in this way.
How do we achieve devotional service?
Attaining Krsna's lotus feet is the living entity's topmost achievement, but devotional service can be attained only in the association of devotees. Only the most fortunate souls can attain Krsna. A living entity becomes fortunate when his desire to wander throughout the universe is extinguished. Then, when by the strength of the guru's mercy his constitutional propensity is revived, he attains the seed of devotional service. There is no difference between Krsna's and the guru's mercy.
Is there harm in not properly following the spiritual master's orders?
By not following the orders of the all-auspicious spiritual master the living entities invite suffering. Such disobedience or neglect increases their material desires and they go to hell after death. Anyone who does not obey his spiritual master's order is certainly a materialist and offender. Those who transgress the spiritual master's orders take birth as pigs. Those who are too attached to material enjoyment cannot attain benefit because they do not serve the spiritual master with heart and soul, even though, due to good fortune, they have received a bonafide guru. Since they do not understand the value of such an invaluable gift they consider the temporary material world eternal and suffer birth after birth.
Is the spiritual master great?
We are smaller than the smaller and the spiritual master is greater than the greatest. The spiritual master serves the Great, and that Great is controlled by his love. Those who worship Krsna in the mood of *madhurya-rasa* accept the spiritual master as nondifferent from the daughter of Vrshabhanu. Those who are candidates for *vatsalya-rasa* accept him as a manifestitation of Nanda and Yashoda. Those who serve on the platform of *sakhya-rasa* know the spiritual master as one of Krsna's friends such as Sudama or Sridhama as well as manifestation of Lord Nityananda, who is the Lord of Krsna's friends. Those who pursue *dasya-rasa* consider the spiritual master a manifestation of Nanda maharaja's servants such as Raktaka and Pakraka.
What actions will bring us auspiciousness?
By serving the spiritual master with great faith we will definitely attain auspiciousness. Human beings work hard in this world of distress simply so they can suffer more and more. This is maya's arrangement for the conditioned souls. Those who are busy trying to attain worldly happiness certainly invite the inauspiciousness. Due to their aversion to the Lord's service, human beings have developed such a mentality. They cannot understand that their distress is caused by their endeavor to achieve personal happiness. The entire fourteen worlds are a place of such inauspiciousness.
Is anything possible without the spiritual master's mercy?
I am blinded by ignorance, so who will show me the right path? Who will impart to me real knowledge? Everything is attained simply by the spiritual master's mercy. We are fallen conditioned souls and the spiritual master is our only shelter. A spiritual master is he who always serves the Supreme Lord. The spiritual master is the servitor God. Are we looking at him in that way? If not, how can we expect to benefit from his association.
What are the initiating and instructing gurus? What is the function of the guru who dwells in the heart?
There are three types of spiritual masters, the initiating guru, the instructing guru, and the *caitya-guru*. The spiritual master is never ordinary. He is godly. It is an offense to separate the spiritual master from Sri Krsna Caitanya by considering him an ordinary, insignificant human being. In the form of the spiritual master, Krsna alone awakens the living entity's spiritual consciousness and thereby helps him attain eternal benefit.
Isn't the dust from the feet of guru and Vaishnavas worshipable?
If the spiritual master and the saintly persons mercifully allow us to take dust from their lotus feet, we should respectfully accept it. However there is a possibility of inviting inauspiciousness if we forcibly or by request try to take dust from their lotus feet. One day, when a person named Vrndavanacandra Lashkar touched my spiritual master's lotus feet, my spiritual master became upset
Is it most offensive to disobey the spiritual master's order?
To disobey the spiritual master's order is the third offense in chanting the holy name. To disregard the spiritual master means to consider him an ordinary living being, a product of matter, an insignificant person. To neglect his service is also an offense against the holy name. If we commit offenses against our spiritual master, the holy name will not appear in our heart. Without the spiritual master's mercy human beings cannot become liberated from the influence of high birth, opulence, vast knowledge, and fame. Such persons will be unable to attain service at the Lord's lotus feet.
What is the result of taking shelter at the feet of a bonafide spiritual master?
By taking shelter of a bonafide spiritual master a living entity can make the highest advancement on the path of worshiping Hari. By serving guru and Krsna a living entity's mundane conceptions are destroyed and he attains Goloka. As a result of sincere service a living entity can attain an equal position with liberated souls - even eternally liberated souls. The spiritual master, who is non different from Lord Nityananda, is not a lump of flesh and blood. By taking shelter at his lotus feet, a living entity can attain freedom from the threefold material miseries.
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- কলি-কুশলী
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- দশম-অধস্তন আচার্য্যবৃন্দ - The 10th Generation Acāryas
- Vinode Vaibhava Sarasvatī
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Message of Srila Bhakti Vinode Thakur.
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