Don't Give Me Illusory Happiness. Give Me the Real Thing.

When I was a youth growing up here in Houston, Texas back in the 1960's I was offered by my parents, teachers, and friends a life of happiness based on satisfying the urges of my material body. While it seemed promising, no matter how much material happiness I got I was still not satisfied. The idea was that you had to get more and more of it until you were finally satisfied. But the problem was that because it was illusory happiness based on a false conception of the self as being the material body, no matter how much I got of it I was still not satisfied. So what to do? I had to look somewhere else for the deeper purpose and meaning of my existence. My parents, teachers, and friends were not talking about this. So I had to branch out on my own into uncharted waters. Of course, this was not such a psychologically safe and secure to do, but still I had to do it because the alternative--bland, miserable mediocrity--was completely unacceptable. Luckily I had the help of my constant companion, the Supersoul--the Supreme Lord within my heart, who according to my level of sincerity invariably brought me into contact with just the right person or just the right book who would then guide to the next step on the pathway of self-discovery. It was not until I took complete shelter of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, that I fully emerged out of the dark tunnel into the bright sunshine of enlightened consciousness, Krishna consciousness. And now on his order it is my duty to spread it to the entire world!

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Srila Prabhupada Enlightens His Disciples

Srila Prabhupada Enlightens His Disciples

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Find a True Guru?

How can we find a bona fide and true spiritual master who can lead us to perfection? Nowadays there are many self proclaimed masters and the people seeking recourse out number them. So I feel it is cumbersome to seek the blessings of a true guru. How can we verify that a person is a true guru?

Raina

Answer: Be Sincere

If you are sincere to find the highest truth you do not have to go looking a spiritual master. The spiritual master will find you.

Discerning who is a bona fide spiritual master is not difficult. All you have to do is carefully study the Bhagavad-gita as it is directly spoken by Lord Sri Krishna. The bona fide spiritual master simply undistortedly presents whatever Lord Krishna says without any addition or subtraction. So if you will compare the words of Krishna with the words of the spiritual master you can easily understand whether he is a bona fide spiritual master or not.

While it is impossible to be truly blessed by the bogus so-called gurus, it is not cumbersome to get the blessings of a bona fide spiritual master. In fact, by Krishna's grace you are getting such blessings right now. Please utilize them well.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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