Always Remain Teachable

The secret of how to make steady spiritual advancement is to always remain teachable. If you think you know everything and that you have nothing more to learn, you will be stagnated on the path of spiritual awakening and will make no further progress beyond your current level, which is still steeped in ignorance. On 10 December 1976 in Hyderabad, India Srila Prabhupada explained that even when one has a become a spiritual master he should always remain teachable. He told his disciples that in the future they would become gurus with their own disciples, but even though they are acting as gurus they should still remain students. Since the spiritual masters are themselves always teachable, how much even more teachable their disciples must be. The conclusion is that if one is not teachable, he is not really a disciple. He is a disciple in name only, not in reality.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Srila Prabhupada Instructs His Disciples in Mayapur

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Transcend Physical Suffering?

Hare Krishna, Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisance
All glories to Srila Prabhupada

It is the soul that suffers and not the body. But there is a way out of this suffering by becoming Krishna conscious. Is my understanding correct? If one is suffering physically, how to draw back the mind to usual Krishna conscious activities?

Thank you
Your unworthy servant,
L.T.

Answer: Go Deep Into Krishna Consciousness

Yes, you have understood correctly. Thank you very much! The technique for drawing the mind away from material miseries and keeping it absorbed on the spiritual platform is to be understood as follows:

The body is just a machine. It cannot feel any pain. A dead body, for example, cannot feel any pain. You can kick it as hard as you want, and it will not protest. So it is the soul situated within the body who feels pain due to his foolish misidentification with the body, not the body itself.

The more deeply and intensely you become absorbed in Krishna consciousness the less you will be distracted by the pains and pleasures that are experienced through the material body. There are many things you can do to absorb yourself in Krishna consciousness. According to Srila Rupa Goswami the three most important things you need to do are:

1. Accept the shelter of the bona fide spiritual master.
2. Take initiation from him.
3. Serve him with respect and reverence.

So we recommend that you seriously adopt the above three items in order to be fully situated in transcendental bliss and relieved from all the distresses of material existence.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari