"Become Guru and Deliver the Whole World"

In Los Angeles, California, USA on December 17, 1973 my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, instructed us, his disciples:

"Just become perfect in the understanding of this science and become guru and deliver the whole world."

Since he accepted me as his disciple it is my duty to obey his instructions. But amazingly enough, because of the materialistic nature of this age, there are many envious persons who label me a demon and criticize me for my humble attempt to serve the orders of my spiritual master. They say that I am not qualified to do what my spiritual master has ordered me to do and that my attempt to do so is sinful.

Of course, I agree with them that I am not qualified. The disciple must always feel himself to be unqualified. But still it is my duty to faithfully try to execute the orders given to me by my spiritual master and depend on his mercy that the seemingly impossible task of delivering the whole world can be accomplished by his mercy. So it is most definitely not sinful. In fact, it is most pious and virtuous to try one's best to serve his spiritual master's orders.

Therefore I am simply placing myself as an instrument in his hands so that through me and his other followers he can deliver the world. The disciple never feels that he is the doer. He simply sees himself as the servant of his spiritual master. In this connection there is a wonderful Vedic mantra as follows:

mukam karoti vacalam
pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande
sri gurum dina-taranam

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, the deliverer of all fallen souls, whose mercy turns the dumb into eloquent speakers, and enables the lame to cross mountains."

So even though I am certainly most dumb and lame, I am praying that by the mercy of my spiritual master I can do something wonderful to assist him in making the whole world Krishna conscious.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How Are We One with Krishna?

You mentioned that we are eternal spirit-souls in quality one with the supreme source of all existence, Krishna or God. However it is also mentioned that Krishna is the energetic, i.e. the source and that we are his marginal energies. How then these two entities be qualitatively the same?

Youur servant,

Nishikant

Answer: As the Sun and the Sunshine

The sunshine is one with the sun planet because it is nothing other than the expanded energy of the sun planet. In a similar way, the living beings and the Supreme Being are one because the living beings are nothing but the expanded energy of the Supreme Being.

The difference is that the sun planet is emanating the sunshine. The sun planet is not being emanated by sunshine. Similarly, the Supreme Being is emanating the living beings. He is not an emanation from the living beings.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari