From Sadhana to Prema through Sadhusanga

Simply by sadhusanga, the association of the saintly devotees of the Lord, one can elevated through the three stages of self realization and gradually attain the topmost platform of prema bhakti. This association is based on six types of loving exchanges: giving gifts and service to devotees, accepting gifts and service from devotees, distributing prasadam to devotees, accepting prasadam from devotees, revealing one's mind to the devotees, and open-heartedly hearing from the devotees when they reveal their minds. Simply by the power of this sadhusanga one will gradually be elevated from the platform of sadhana bhakti (devotional service executed according to rules and regulations), to raga bhakti (devotional service performed out of sincere attachment to the Lord), and finally to prema bhakti (devotional service in ecstatic love).

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: Have You Seen God Face to Face?

Humbly and respectfully I would like to ask you: Have you personally fully realized your own eternal spiritual nature and seen God face to face, eye to eye? Not as in imagining, remembering printed versions, or having chant, music, dance, exercise or drug induced hallucinations. I have had this. They do not satisfy the hunger.

Julio

Answer: We See God Always in Our Guru's Order

We can understand why your hunger for God was not satisfied. Instead of trying to see God you should try to be seen by God, not by drug induced hallucinations, but by instead always executing favorable devotional service to unto Him. Then you will without a doubt see God always in the most amazing and wonderful ways.

Regarding our seeing God: By the grace of our spiritual master we know that we are the eternal servants of Krishna, and we see Krishna always in the form of the order we have received from our spiritual master to make the entire world Krishna conscious. Seeing God is not a one time affair. Seeing God means seeing God at every minute as confirmed in the Brahma Samhita 5.38:

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yāṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syāmasundara, Krishna Himself, with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees always see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love."

When Krishna was personally present on this planet many people saw Him but did not recognize Him as the Supreme Lord and thus did not surrender to Him. Therefore seeing God is not very important. What is important is surrendering to God through the order that is directly received from Him, as in the case of Arjuna, or through His order received from His representative, the bona fide spiritual master. This is how you will truly see God at every minute.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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