Always See Things As They Are
Your happiness or distress in life has nothing to do with your external circumstances. It depends entirely on your vision of reality. If your vision is clear, if you see things as they are, you will taste unlimited happiness. And if it is distorted by your only seeing things on the material plane, you will be constantly tossed on the waves of distress and so-called happiness. If you can understand and implement the proper vision of seeing everything in relationship with Krishna, you will be liberated from the realm of anxiety and will happily engage your eternal existence in the service of Lord Sri Krishna.
Receiving Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita As It Is in my early twenties, and reading to find faults so I could discard it, I felt that this was a genuine philosophy, but I couldn't make sense of how to apply Krishna's lofty words and Srila Prabhupada's wonderful explanations to my life. So it all still remained theoretical.
A few years later, the Ultimate Self Realization Course changed all that. I subscribed in 2004, and I haven't missed a single day of reading the daily and weekly emails since.
In the beginning, I had my doubts, more than my fair share of them. And I began to express them in challenging emails to the author of the daily emails, His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari. While I remained outwardly civil in my communication, my questions were quite strange, to say the least. My questions expressed my intense confusion from years of reading confusing writings by other confused authors, such as Swami Vivekananda, Jiddu Krishnamurti and A Parthasarathy, and many many others - practically I had been reading a book a day from the age of 12. My questions also expressed my doubts about the source, validity, authenticity, and authority of this philosophy and way of life.
But, His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari, now my very dear spiritual father, affectionately addressed as Srila Gurudeva, patiently answered each and every one of my emails with loving kindness. Sometimes he was starkly terse, and stern, sometimes very strict, sounding practically radical to my material mind, but even that was his loving kindness. More than 600 of those challenging emails later, my doubts thoroughly defeated, I knew I had met my eternal spiritual master, who had come to this world to take me out of this endless cycle of birth and death. So, seven years later, I surrendered as his duly initiated disciple. Of course, I have a long long way to go before being truly surrendered, or even as surrendered as he himself was to Srila Prabhupada on day one when he met him. But initiation is the beginning, and now I am sure my journey to spiritual perfection has begun, thanks to my spiritual master's mercy.
You know, a spiritual master vows to stay in the material world until all his disciples are delivered to pure Krishna consciousness. Who even takes such a heavy responsibility upon themselves!? I mean, people find it hard to stick to each other for one lifetime when times get difficult. Who knows the depth of karmic reactions I have accumulated in my millions of lifetimes in material existence? But my spiritual master knows that if I follow his instructions as he is following Srila Prabhupada's instructions, then it will all be fine. He is prepared to stay in material existence if Srila Prabhupada wants him to. Who can avoid surrendering to such a person?
Every single day, I read these daily thoughts of my spiritual master, and I marvel at his intensely inspiring Krishna consciousness. I express gratitude to him for doing this, and to Sri Krishna, for sending me his way. I strive to convince others to give this Ultimate Self Realization Course a try. It has given me a whole new outlook in life. Thanks to him, no matter what happens externally, I remain calm and peaceful inside, I am satisfied and content inside, even though I may compete fiercely outside. I feel deeply connected to Krishna, and seek to continue my journey to that eternally blissful and joyful nature as part-and-parcel of Krishna, the Supreme Absolute Truth. I hang on to the words of my spiritual master, these are the boat for me, once-lost, never forgotten, spirit soul.
I pray to read the words written by my spiritual master every single day for every day of my life, for this lifetime and all of eternity.
Please, I beg you, kindly try it out for yourself. You cannot imagine just how much you have to regain? What do you have to lose anyway?
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I have asked so many questions regarding this thing to you and my seniors, but I am still little bit confused. I am really sorry for giving inconvenience to you and I am very thankful to you as you are answering my foolish questions. I am very fortunate that I have come in contact with pure devotees like you and Srila Prabhupada.
You wrote me previously that I should take shelter of a spiritual master. But I have heard from my seniors that if you are not inspired by any senior devotee and if the instruction given by him does not touch your heart deeply then you will not be able to surrender yourself completely to spiritual master. He also told me that if you are not inspired by any devotee then you should pray to Krishna for this. You told me that I should take shelter of a bona fide guru, but if I have no deep feeling for any senior devotee then whom should i surrender completely?
Trying to be your humble servant,
S.V.
Regarding not being able to choose a spiritual master from whom to take shelter, kindly consider the following example:
If you are on a sinking ship and there are many lifeboats available for you to take shelter of and you are so indecisive regarding which lifeboat to take shelter of that you don't take shelter of any of them, you will go down with the ship and be drowned. Your indecision will be fatal. Therefore as soon as possible you should take whichever lifeboat is readily available.
This material world is a sinking ship, and the bona fide spiritual masters are the lifeboats. If you remain indecisive and never take shelter of any spiritual master, you will be take birth again in this miserable material world instead of going back to Godhead. As in the above example, your indecision will be fatal. Therefore, feeling or no feeling, you should accept any bona fide spiritual master who is readily available without be so concerned about which one, and thus become saved from the vicious cycle of birth and death.
The feelings of being deeply touched by the spiritual master's instructions are already there buried deeply within you heart. Simply by engaging yourself in the regulative activities of Krishna consciousness under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master those natural deep feelings will be aroused in due course of time.
So don't waste time. Do the needful now to save yourself from the cycle of birth and death. Take shelter of a bona fide spiritual and get off of the sinking ship.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Teaching the Science of Krishna in Vrindavan--11 April 2015
Testimonial from Mahabhagavat Das
Even though I was born in a supposedly pious family in South India, I received practically no training in spiritual life. Most of my family members were engaged busily in earning money and pursuing sense gratification. In fact, so much so, that in my teenage years, I was practically convinced that there was no God, or that if there was a God, it was some sort of impersonal entity and I couldn't care less. I just wanted as much power, as much money, and as much material enjoyment as I could amass, with a curiosity about spiritual life that fortunately never left me.Receiving Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita As It Is in my early twenties, and reading to find faults so I could discard it, I felt that this was a genuine philosophy, but I couldn't make sense of how to apply Krishna's lofty words and Srila Prabhupada's wonderful explanations to my life. So it all still remained theoretical.
A few years later, the Ultimate Self Realization Course changed all that. I subscribed in 2004, and I haven't missed a single day of reading the daily and weekly emails since.
In the beginning, I had my doubts, more than my fair share of them. And I began to express them in challenging emails to the author of the daily emails, His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari. While I remained outwardly civil in my communication, my questions were quite strange, to say the least. My questions expressed my intense confusion from years of reading confusing writings by other confused authors, such as Swami Vivekananda, Jiddu Krishnamurti and A Parthasarathy, and many many others - practically I had been reading a book a day from the age of 12. My questions also expressed my doubts about the source, validity, authenticity, and authority of this philosophy and way of life.
But, His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari, now my very dear spiritual father, affectionately addressed as Srila Gurudeva, patiently answered each and every one of my emails with loving kindness. Sometimes he was starkly terse, and stern, sometimes very strict, sounding practically radical to my material mind, but even that was his loving kindness. More than 600 of those challenging emails later, my doubts thoroughly defeated, I knew I had met my eternal spiritual master, who had come to this world to take me out of this endless cycle of birth and death. So, seven years later, I surrendered as his duly initiated disciple. Of course, I have a long long way to go before being truly surrendered, or even as surrendered as he himself was to Srila Prabhupada on day one when he met him. But initiation is the beginning, and now I am sure my journey to spiritual perfection has begun, thanks to my spiritual master's mercy.
You know, a spiritual master vows to stay in the material world until all his disciples are delivered to pure Krishna consciousness. Who even takes such a heavy responsibility upon themselves!? I mean, people find it hard to stick to each other for one lifetime when times get difficult. Who knows the depth of karmic reactions I have accumulated in my millions of lifetimes in material existence? But my spiritual master knows that if I follow his instructions as he is following Srila Prabhupada's instructions, then it will all be fine. He is prepared to stay in material existence if Srila Prabhupada wants him to. Who can avoid surrendering to such a person?
Every single day, I read these daily thoughts of my spiritual master, and I marvel at his intensely inspiring Krishna consciousness. I express gratitude to him for doing this, and to Sri Krishna, for sending me his way. I strive to convince others to give this Ultimate Self Realization Course a try. It has given me a whole new outlook in life. Thanks to him, no matter what happens externally, I remain calm and peaceful inside, I am satisfied and content inside, even though I may compete fiercely outside. I feel deeply connected to Krishna, and seek to continue my journey to that eternally blissful and joyful nature as part-and-parcel of Krishna, the Supreme Absolute Truth. I hang on to the words of my spiritual master, these are the boat for me, once-lost, never forgotten, spirit soul.
I pray to read the words written by my spiritual master every single day for every day of my life, for this lifetime and all of eternity.
Please, I beg you, kindly try it out for yourself. You cannot imagine just how much you have to regain? What do you have to lose anyway?
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:
Question: How to Choose a Spiritual Master?
Hare Krishna Gurudeva,Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I have asked so many questions regarding this thing to you and my seniors, but I am still little bit confused. I am really sorry for giving inconvenience to you and I am very thankful to you as you are answering my foolish questions. I am very fortunate that I have come in contact with pure devotees like you and Srila Prabhupada.
You wrote me previously that I should take shelter of a spiritual master. But I have heard from my seniors that if you are not inspired by any senior devotee and if the instruction given by him does not touch your heart deeply then you will not be able to surrender yourself completely to spiritual master. He also told me that if you are not inspired by any devotee then you should pray to Krishna for this. You told me that I should take shelter of a bona fide guru, but if I have no deep feeling for any senior devotee then whom should i surrender completely?
Trying to be your humble servant,
S.V.
Answer: Don't Go Down With the Sinking Ship
It is amazing that your heart is more deeply touched by these "seniors" than by those spiritual masters who are qualified to deliver you from the cycle of birth and earth. You are taking the guidance of less advanced devotees as more significant that the guidance of those who are more advanced. This is your less intelligence.Regarding not being able to choose a spiritual master from whom to take shelter, kindly consider the following example:
If you are on a sinking ship and there are many lifeboats available for you to take shelter of and you are so indecisive regarding which lifeboat to take shelter of that you don't take shelter of any of them, you will go down with the ship and be drowned. Your indecision will be fatal. Therefore as soon as possible you should take whichever lifeboat is readily available.
This material world is a sinking ship, and the bona fide spiritual masters are the lifeboats. If you remain indecisive and never take shelter of any spiritual master, you will be take birth again in this miserable material world instead of going back to Godhead. As in the above example, your indecision will be fatal. Therefore, feeling or no feeling, you should accept any bona fide spiritual master who is readily available without be so concerned about which one, and thus become saved from the vicious cycle of birth and death.
The feelings of being deeply touched by the spiritual master's instructions are already there buried deeply within you heart. Simply by engaging yourself in the regulative activities of Krishna consciousness under the direction of the bona fide spiritual master those natural deep feelings will be aroused in due course of time.
So don't waste time. Do the needful now to save yourself from the cycle of birth and death. Take shelter of a bona fide spiritual and get off of the sinking ship.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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