англ. название записи: Q&A: Hari, Hare, Paramatma and Guru-nishtha - 2026-05-01 - Sri Prem Prayojan
0:22Radharani comes out of the left side of Sri Krishna, and that word Shiva comes out of the right. So my question is, can you explain the meaning of the words and the difference between Hari, Hara, and Hare?
0:56First of all, this narration that Radhika has come from the left side of Krishna and Mahadeva has come from the right side of Krishna, this is from the Padma Purana. And this pastime is not something that we think about if we are remembering Krishna, remembering his lila, remembering our service, because in Vraja, the mood of the Vraja-bhasis is that Krishna is the son of Vraja, so things cannot pop out of him here and there.
1:40He is a cowherd boy, he gets hungry, he gets thirsty, he gets tired, he needs food, he needs to drink, he needs to rest, he needs massage, he needs to be fanned, someone should fan him on his heart, like this, so, but still, in many shastras, such as Padma Purana and others, some descriptions be given to establish the bhagavata, the godhood, the godhood of Krishna, and that Radha and Krishna, they are not actually like a boy and a girl. Because a boy and a girl in this world, they are, first of all, they are two souls and they are only boy and girl by virtue of being embodied in a material body.
2:39And if they are attracted to each other, this is due to ignorance. Ignorance first of identifying with the body and secondly due to rajaguna, the mode of passion in the body making lust. So in the beginning person they have to become established in Siddhanta of Krishna Tattwa and Radha Tattwa that Krishna is not a boy and Radhika is not a girl but rather Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
3:13He is the cause of all causes, he is sarva-śaktimān, he is omnipotent, he has all potences, and his svarūpa is the sat-cit-ānanda-vigraha, the embodiment of eternal existence, consciousness and bliss, so when the bliss portion of his own svarūpa manifests from him, that is called that Ananda Amsa, the bliss portion, when that manifests from him, it's called Hladini Shakti, the pleasure potency, and that potency has a form, it is not impersonal, actually that Hladini potency has two aspects, murta and amurta, with form and also without a form, when that Hladini potency has no form, then it is called the bhakti, which is manifest as niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti, bhāva, prema, nāma, that is the different stages of love,
4:19and when that love is manifest in its original form, so amurta, without form, and murta, so the murta, the Hladini shakti with form, that is called Radha, Śrīmatī Rādhikā, and so the pastime is described, that once Krishna was sitting on the bank of Jamuna, at Vamshivata, and he thought, oh, I give happiness to the whole universe, my śakti, my rūpa, rasa, gandha, my sound, my taste, my fragrance, my form gives pleasure to everyone, but who will give pleasure to me? He was feeling sorry for himself, he was feeling sympathy for himself, so the very form of a sympathy for himself, of empathy for himself, manifest from his left side, and he looked and he saw a beautiful goddess whose only existence was
5:27empathy for him, how can I please him? So from that thought, this goddess appeared, and she began to run towards him, and so because she was impelled by rāga, rāga means spontaneous attachment, because she was impelled by rāga, she began to run towards him. so in Sanskrit the word she runs is dhāvati, so because rā-dhāvati, so because she ran towards him impelled by intense love, her name is Rādhā, so that is not, Krishna saw her and he realized, oh she is the embodiment of all my dreams and all my fulfillment of all desires and she is so astonishing that she causes Krishna at every moment to have newer and newer desires that he did not even know
6:30that he had, and then he even, she even fulfills the desires that he didn't know he had. This is Radha. How beautiful. Then it is said that at the banks now of Śrīkṛṣṇa, he wants to enjoy loving pastimes with Rādhikā and relish rasa, so that lila in which
7:09So there's one word, rasa, rasa means the mellows of love, but there's another word, rāsa, with a long a, that's the rāsa līlā, so rasānāṃ samūha, where all the individual flavors of love, samūha means the group, or the aggregate, where the aggregate of all rasas are relished, that lila is called rāsa, with a long a, rāsa līlā, so Krishna wanted to relish this lila, So Radhika, in order to please Krishna and make Krishna relish rasa in all ways, simultaneously at the same time, Radhika expanded herself and became millions of gopis.
7:56But there should be a suitable place for that lila to take place. And therefore, the Padma Purana said, from the right side of Krishna manifested Mahadeva. But this Mahadeva is not the Mahadeva that is conceived of by the general people who are worshipping Shiva-linga to get worldly things.
8:17This Mahadeva is not even Shiva-tattva, it's Vishnu-tattva.
8:26So all Shaktis manifest from the left side, just like if you see the Pancha-tattva, Gurudev-ad-gita's on the left, but the Vishnu-tattvas manifest from the right. so, so Nityananda, go ahead from the right side of Mahaprabhu's right, that is our left Mahaprabhu's right, so from the right side of Krishna manifests Shiva, that means Gopishwara Mahadeva, so Gopishwara Mahadeva is the Kshetrapala, he is the guardian of the rasa mandala, the arena of the rasa, the Jamuna pulin, the very bank of the Jamuna, which is where the rasa lila takes place and which is guarded by the Kshetrapala, the protector of the rasa mandala.
9:21That arena of the rasa is a manifestation of Lord Shiva and he resides there as Gopishwara Mahadeva at the entrance to the rasa mandala and no one can enter into that lila without receiving the mercy of Gopishwara Mahadeva. So, these are all tattvas because the palace of rasa, the relishment of the mellows of love, no one can experience, no one can construct within their heart the palace of rasa unless they have a very strong foundation of siddhanta, tattva-siddhanta.
10:03If you want to make a tall building, then you'll have to make the foundation so many stories deep, otherwise the building will collapse. So in the same way, first it's necessary to understand Krishna-tattva. This is why Srila Prabhupada, when they asked him, oh why have you come to the west? He said, I've come to teach you what you have forgotten.
10:32But he said, you have forgotten that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And then when our Gurudeva, Srila Bhakti Vedanta Narayana Maharaja, came here to bhajan, he said, Prabhupada came to teach you what you have forgotten. You have forgotten that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. you should remember this. But now I have come to teach you that you should forget that Krishna is the sublime santa. And know that he is the son of Nanda and Yashoda. So these are stages in our spiritual education. First of all, we should be established in Siddhanta. And then those who are chanting Harinama daily deeply every day, as they go into the stage of the Samadhi, into trance, every day,
11:19We have to smarana, dharana, dhyana, go into the state of dharana, concentration, dhyana, meditation, every day. The first stage of trance is called the Savikalpa Samadhi. Srila Prabhupada Kaur said, unless when you are chanting, you go into the Savikalpa Samadhi every day, then you cannot become free from anarthas. Because the samskaras of identifying with the body are so strong, they will always overpower your consciousness.
11:59But if a person will sit peacefully in one place without moving and challenge for some hours without distraction, without looking at the phone, without looking here and there, without talking, without going shopping in the mind, But really, deeply hearing the holy name, with the patience and tolerance, gradually, gradually, one will sink into the Savikalpa Samadhi, and in that state some impressions come, and those impressions that we are not this physical body, that we are souls, and that we are related to Krishna, this Sanskrit is made and becomes deeper every day, and then gradually, because there's a competition going on inside, between our previous material sanskars and the spiritual sanskars we've received from sadhu sangha and from our daily sadhana serving the deities, hearing Bhagavatam and so on.
13:04And so every day we practice a sadhana to make more and more spiritual impressions or make the impressions we have more deep. And in this way, the amount of the spiritual impressions becomes more and more and more, and it overpowers the amount and the effect of the material impressions, until the spiritual impressions become dominant, and then it becomes your intuitive moment-by-moment experience that I am not this body, no one else is the body, and that everything in this world is all paravatma, is everywhere, in everyone, in every, atom. It's a clean mind. The light is on now. And then in that stage one can go and chant more and more deeply and he even forgets about Paramatma and only relates to Krishna as the son
14:10of Dhanamars. That is, relating to Krishna according to our sambandha kyan, the knowledge, our vishish sambandha, our particular special relationship which is indicated by Guru at the time of diksha and which which manifests from the illumination of the Gopal Mantra and Kham Gayatri. So these are the stages. Now to completely answer to your question, you asked about these words, Hara, Hari and Hari. So Hara is a name of Mahadev.
14:43Hara, Hara, Mahadev. Like all the monkeys in the Battle of Lankar. So Hara is a name of Lord Shiva. Shiva, and sometimes it may refer to the Harihara, that means that there is, Shiva is understood on three levels, the first level is the Mahadev who manifests from the right side of Krishna, that is Vishnu Tattwa, actually, he is Vishnu Tattwa, like Advaita Charya, he is Vishnu Tattwa, he is Mahavishnu, but he is also Shiva, but with Shiva, Vishnu Tattwa, the Sadashiva, so the Shiva is Vishnu Tattwa, he is called Sadashiva, Then, another form of Shiva, but is on a lower level, and that is the Shambhu.
15:39So Shambhu, because the Vishnu Thakpa never touches the material energy, but his expansion, he has a special expansion that is in contact with Maya, the material energy. So that is called Shambhu.
15:59So he said that just as milk and yogurt are the same thing. But Lord Vishnu is like milk, and the Shambhu is like yogurt. So the milk becomes yogurt by contact with a curdling agent, like tamarind. So just as yogurt is non-different from milk, but there is a difference. The difference is this. Milk can become yogurt, but yogurt cannot become milk. So Vishnu Tattva can manifest Shambhu, but Shambhu cannot manifest Vishnu.
16:41And even though yogurt, sorry, milk transforms, it is by vikar, it is a transformation, but that part of the analogy should be left aside, because Vishnu is near vikar, he cannot transform, he is near vikar, he does not transform, only the idea is that the existence of yogurt depends on the existence of milk.
17:09This is a question of dependence of existence. Not that Vishnu actually transforms. So one part, in most metaphors or analogies, you have to take a part of it, you don't take the whole. Something has to be left aside. So that Chambhu is the, considered to be the halo of the glance of Mahavishnu, his glance is his icha, and the halo of the glance, his glance is icha, his desire, that is Kal, the time, and the halo of his glance is Mahadev, that Mahadev, he comes in touch with the material energy, Mayadev, so he is the Kal Purush material time, the force of material time,
17:57and then the material world manifests. And then from that Shambhu manifests 11 Rudras. And these 11 Rudras, they perform the Tandavan Ritya, the dance of destruction and dissolve the universes at the time of annihilation. So Shiva should be understood on three levels, Sadashi, Vishnu Tattva, then Shambhu Tattva, and then Rudra Tattva. So that is Shiva. Another name of Shiva is Hara. So Hara can refer to either of the three levels of the Shiva Tattva.
18:30of Shiva. And then Hari means, refers to Krishna, or it can also refer to any expansion of Narayan as well, Hari, because the word Hari means, comes from Harati, Khridatu, the verb of Khri becomes Harati means he steals, he takes away. So because only Krishna can, only the Vishnu Tattwa can remove, can take away all of our suffering and sorrow, can take away our entire material existence. So his name is Hari. But especially is Hari because he steals, in Vrindavan, Krishna steals butter, he steals the clothes of the gopis, he steals the hearts of everyone, he steals the heart of Radhika, so his name is Hari. Now the word Hari, actually the word is Hara, not Hara, Hara with a long A. If it's Hara, two short A's, it means Siva.
19:37But hara, with a long a, in feminine, it refers to radha. Again, harati, it means that female person who steals. So Radhika steals the heart of Krishna, steals the mind of Krishna. So her name is hara. And when a female noun ending in a, long a, is declined in the vocative case, in the astamibha bhakti, then hara becomes harin, just like radha becomes radhei, this is a feminine noun ending, so just as when you call radha, you say radhei, so if you call hara, you say harin, so this is the analysis of the words hari, hara, and harin, yes, raise your hand if you have another question, yes, Vrinda Dasi, nice to see you, so glad you're here, please come again soon, stay longer,
20:46My question is, coming from your first class, that you spoke about Guru Tathva, Guru Kata, I had a couple of thoughts that came up in my mind related to what you were saying, that Gurudev said, the first thing, because you were talking about Paramatma, the first thing is that I heard that Gurudev said that once you get connected, to him, he takes the place of Paramatma. And the other thing that Gurudev has said is, I am closer to you than the air you breathe. And I felt that those things that he said was related to many things that you said in class, so I would like you to make that connection and expand and expand on it.
22:08санскрит в речиand by watching, by his glance, mayadhyakshinaprakriti, by his glance, it activates the mature energy and everything is flowing according to the sanskars, the sanskars in the mahatatwa and in the chitra of the living entities. So everyone's just getting their karma and he doesn't interfere in that, he's just, he's completely neutral. Neutral. If someone is experiencing some great fortune, they're becoming wealthy and famous and successful, he's just watching silently. And if someone is being tortured or burnt alive in a fire, he's just watching silently. He's not involved, he's completely neutral, because the Supreme Lord interacts with his internal potency. He doesn't become involved in the activities of the material energy.
23:05and so that is Paramatma. So that Paramatma is in the heart of everyone. Without the presence of Paramatma we could not experience anything. If you consider it that if your eyes are injured, you become blind, you cannot see. But on the other hand, if a soul leaves a body without the soul, the eyes of the dead body cannot see. So the soul has no power to see this world and the eyes have no power to see this world. So if you get two blind people and you put them together, then can they see? No, they're still blind.
23:44light. So, what is it that connects the soul with the functions of the senses? That is Rishikesh, the master of the senses, and that is Paramatri. And so, Krishna said in Bhagavad-gita, also speaking in the mood of the Paramatman, he said,
24:15That doesn't only mean knowledge of the Bhagavad-gita or the Srimad Bhagavatam, it means every knowledge. You have five senses, they're called the Gyanindriya, the knowledge acquiring senses. So it is the Paramatma in the heart who gives us the knowledge, just this bare basic knowledge of being able to see, to hear, to taste, to touch, to smell.
24:45You know, atheistic people, they don't believe, they believe in logic and reason, but they don't believe in revelation that God can reveal something. in the scripture. But the truth of the matter is, everything is revelation. There's nothing that isn't revelation, because if the paramatma in our hearts were not revealing to us by his shakti, even the activities of our own mind and senses, we wouldn't be experiencing anything, just as we don't experience anything in the state of deep sleep. We're conscious in deep sleep, but we're not conscious of anything.
25:20And it's the Paramatma who calls us out of deep sleep into the dreaming state and from the dreaming state into the waking state.
25:31So if we consider this, then we'll realize this very radical notion that we are completely dependent on God at every second and in every way.
25:52So this is a Paramatma realization.
26:24It actually means a sense of attachment. Just like perhaps some of you came here, I did, I came on an airplane. So someone may ask you, who did you come with? I said, I came alone. So does that mean I had a chartered flight and all to myself? Private jet? No. I was on a plane with hundreds of people. But if you ask me, I came alone. Why? Because I don't have any, I don't know anyone on that plane. So when Krishna says, I am in them and they are in me. What he means to say is, because I am attached to my devotee and my devotee is attached to me. Otherwise, what's the point? Because the Paramatma is in everyone and everyone is in the Paramatma anyway. So why do you say, those who are devoted to me, I am in them and they are in me? Because he's already in everyone and everyone is in him. So this actually indicates his attachment. Though I'm with everyone, I'm not really with everyone. But when someone loves me, yes, I'm with that person.
27:39So, because the lila of the Paramatma is only the creation of the world and the witness of the world and by his glance he's activating all the karmas, once a person has devotion, now it's a different pastime, right? It's not just the pastime of creation and giving karma to everyone, it's something else now.
28:00So then that aspect of God is not Paramatma, it becomes whoever is the Ishtadeva of that devotee, that's who's in the heart from that moment. So let's say you receive initiation and you have a relationship with Krishna, so now you should not think that it's a four-armed Paramatma standing there like a neutral judge, without any concern whatsoever.
28:26No, now the person who is in my heart is my Ishtadev. So if Hanuman will open his chest, Sitaram is there. But for us, then Radha Krishna. So this is what Gurudev is expressing. Srila Bhakti Nandan Thakur said,
29:34And so then, the Paramatma is there, you are neutral to me, I am neutral to you, that's Krishna's way of dealing with people, If you are neutral to me, then the Paramatma is also neutral to the souls.
29:55But if someone is surrendered, really, they try to turn their heart towards Krishna, then when someone prays, then Krishna is there. One thing we should know is that
30:10There is only one truth and it is Advaya, the non-dual conscious reality. So Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, they are not three things. Really, there is only Krishna. The absolute truth is Krishna. But if a person tries to approach Krishna and their bhakti is mixed with jñāna, then they can realize Brahman and Brahman is yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi...
30:41it is the effulgence, it is the aṅga-saṅga-avas, the partial semblance of the effulgence that comes from Sri Krishna, that Brahman so, nirvikalpatayā sākṣāt kṛte prāmāṇikatvāt Jiva Goswami says that the realization of Brahman is just the rudimentary, it's just the initial experience of Krishna. So on the way to realizing Krishna, I have to go through that, through Brahman.
31:21And the Paramatma is also Krishna, but when Bhagavan, when God is experienced, but with some upādhis, with some designations of his material energy, It is not that the person is in māyā themselves, but they can see the Lord along with his material energy Now the material energy has three broad categories, one is called virāṭ, and that is the gross material energy And then there is hiraṇyagarbha, that is the subtle material energy And then there is the kāraṇa, the subtle cause of the effects of material energy So, these are three degrees of a density or grossness of the material energy.
32:19And so, when one sees Krishna but with the Upādhi of the Virāṭ, then he is experienced as the Paramatma Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. When one sees the Krishna with your body of the Hiraṇyagarbha, the subtle elements, then that same person is experienced as Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. And if one experiences only with the Kāraṇa, the subtle cause of all material elements, then he is experienced as Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. So everyone is familiar with this concept in the śāstra that there are three Viṣṇus.
33:05But actually, the truth is one, there's only Krishna. But when we see Him through the Upādhis, the filter, if you like, of different degrees of the grossness of the material energy, so He's experienced that as three different types of Viṣṇu. But when that same reality is experienced without any Upādhis,
33:47So the truth is one, but experienced as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan, depending on our method of approach. If someone practices karma or jñāna or yoga, they can realize exactly zero, nothing. No process is independently powerful, they're all lame. Bhakti is always required. But if someone will approach through jñāna and they'll also mix bhakti, gradually as they become purified by the power of Bhakti Devi, even though they have subordinated her to the path of jñāna, they will eventually get Brahman realization.
34:24And if someone practices the path of yoga, but they must practice bhakti along with that, when they become purified, they'll realize the paramatma, and if someone practices pure bhakti without any mixture, anyabhilashita-shunyam jnana-karmady-anavritam, they realize Bhagavan. So truth is one, but it depends on the method of approach.
35:21or, shiksha-guru hoy krishna-mahanta-svarupe, that paramatma comes out in the form of a mahanta, so mahanta means the acharya, or pure Vaishnava, when he's present in this world, when he leaves, then he's no longer the mahanta, then, of course, he's a great soul, but in a mark, the mahanta is also like the present acharya, or in, let's say, in a Christian monastery, they would say the abbot, the abbot of the monastery. And then when that person leaves, then the next person becomes the main person in charge of that monastery. That's called a mahant. So the word mahant, mahanta-guru, mahanta-guru is not used for the guru who became aprakata. Mahanta-guru is only for the guru who is
36:12present at this moment. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, he said that this is one difficulty that can come if If someone puts the idea that, oh, Jesus Christ is my guru, because he has ascended now, and someone may be Jagat-guru, someone may be guru of the world, but without Mahanta-guru, who is present and guiding us face to face, right now, there's every possibility that a person will misunderstand the teachings of any Jagat-guru, because they'll filter it through their own misconceptions.
36:50So here in this verse, jive sakshat nahi tate guru chaitya-rupe, shiksha-guru hoy krishna-mahanta-svarupe, the paramatma in the heart, in the conditioned state, we cannot perceive, so he comes out in the form of the acharya who is present right now, and gives shiksha, he gives teaching, like this.
37:14So, though here it's mentioned Chaitya-guru, the Guru in the heart, that is Paramatma, but if a person is on the devotional path, then that form of the Lord in the heart is their Ishtadev, and therefore it should be understood that that Ishtadev in the heart comes out in the form of Guru, and so Guru is Sakshad-hari, directly a form of Krishna.
37:38So we see that Uddhava has prayed Uddhava said, O Krishna, even the great poets who are so eloquent, if they were to glorify you for the lifetime of Lord Brahma even, 311 trillion years, still they would not be able to adequately express their gratitude to you because oh my lord Krishna you are so kind that you appear in two forms one as the antaryami means one is inside as the chaitya-guru so he's saying Krishna you are the antaryami in my heart and Krishna you also appear by acharya-chesta-upasana so that you appear outwardly as as the Acharya. So if you're a devotee of Krishna, then the relationship is not with
38:48Paramatma, one has gone beyond that stage, and so the Antaryami in your heart is Krishna, and your guru outside, that is, the Krishna in your heart has come out and taken this form of guru to guide us. Now when Gurudev said, I'm closer than the air you breathe, well that's wonderful, because, you know, air is just one one of the five gross elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether. So even if you take it as prana, even if you take it as prana, the prana which is the life air, which is not the gross physical air, so that prana is the sutra-tattva, which is a rajasic transformation of citta. Remember last year we were going over these very foundational components of our
39:43Gaudiya cosmology. They're essential. They want you to understand those topics very clearly, and they will give insights into almost every discussion, even if it's a discussion of Radha-Krishna's pastimes, because so many prana-dharanas, there are so many aspects of even Mahabhava that you cannot understand without reference to understanding what Prana is and how it works.
40:09But in this material world, our material prana is, you can see, from the pradhana, which is the unmanifest material energy, first element that comes out is the sattvic mahat-tattva, mahat-tattva is sattvic, so the mahat-tattva is niskriya, it doesn't move, it's bright, it's luminous, but it has no movement, and that mahat-tattva in the universe, it's called mahat-tattva, but the portion of that mahat-tattva which is in your subtle body is called citta, that is your citta.
40:43Now we speak about citta, prana, mahat-tattva, cleaning the citta. So what are the types of contamination of the citta? That is when the citta is highly sattvic but when rajas appears then the citta condenses and now it's not niskriya anymore, it's not without movement, it condenses and begins to move. and so that first movement of the contaminated rajasic citta is called sutra-tattva, sutra-tattva, in the universe, and it causes, whatever movement is going on in the universe is caused by sutra-tattva, and that sutra-tattva is also called the prana, the universal prana, so that element is the sutra-tattva, it causes all movement in the universe, but when that portion of the element is in you, that's called your prana, you see?
41:36and that prana causes movement and that movement is experienced as our breathing and so on and so we take the gross element of air so whether you take air to mean the life air prana or air to mean the element of air which is around us then both of these things are not so close as Gurudev because even the most subtle the gross element is obviously gross and it's very external it's part of it moves in the in the material body but then And even the fine air, the prana, the life air, is the rajasic transformation of citta.
42:16Even the citta is not the soul. The citta is quite close. But even the citta is not really the soul. But the soul of the soul is Paramatma. And when we surrender to Guru, that becomes our Ishtadev, and that Ishtadev comes out as Guru. So Guru is literally the soul of our soul.
42:36So, bhakti-ksham, gurudevata-atma, one should accept guru as the form of the Lord and as the Atma, but it's really more than Atma, it's the Atma of your Atma, the soul of your soul. So, when Gurudev says, I am close to you, then the air you breathe, it's not hyperbole, it's not just a figure of speech, it's literally an ontological fact.
43:07Yes, you can take one more question.
43:09Let's dig up in the pool.
43:13Regarding, that was an issue, but regarding that, also on your first class when you're talking about Guru Tattva, one question came in my mind regarding how to apply the context of Guru Nishtha in Guru Tattva when it comes to the whole Guru Parampara or oneself's personal Guru and having Guru Nishtha towards the whole Guru Parampara, having Guru Nishtha towards one Guru, because sometimes that can turn into like kind of like fanatism and create offenses towards the whole Guru Parampara, so my question is like how can we put together the Guru Nishtha and the Guru Parampara and our own self, like you were saying, that we have to have a living Guru, not become like Prabhupada-anuga, so it's Jesus-anugas or like that, or even the Guru-Nishtha-anuga, like, yes, yes, if because the danger is there, you know, one of the 13
44:13Apa-sampradayas is called the Kartabhaja, Kartabhaja-sampradaya. And the speciality of the Kartabhaja-sampradaya is they, in their philosophy, you can take initiation from a guru who has become unmanifest from this world. So that's literally, they are the original ritviks, you know, what we have today, what people call the ritviks. It's not something new. It's literally the Kartabhaja-apa-sampradaya. There's nothing new in the world. And all the deviations have already been done, you can only rediscover them. So, it's necessary, as long as one is in a conditioned state, then he must be under the anugatya of Sri Guru, and in this regard, it should be understood that the Mahanta Guru who is present now, and from whom we take guidance, is the transparent, transparent via medium of Krishna, and the whole
45:20all Guru-parampara, that all the Acharyas can speak to us through the Guru-tattva. So, there's a very beautiful example. Once, Srila Gurudev, he was on tour, and there was one devotee, Srila Vaishnava, he had taken Harinam from Srila Prabhupada, and then Srila Prabhupada left. And then, he went to the shelter of Parampujyapada Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Goswami, and then he left. And then, after some time, he came to the shelter of Gurudev. But just as the question that you had in your mind, this question was also in his mind, and he couldn't understand how to have nistha. If I've got three gurus, how can I have nistha in anyone? That was in his mind, and he hadn't expressed it. But Gurudev, just looking in his eyes, could understand that that was a type of confusion internally that he was experiencing.
46:20And Gurudev said to him, after morning wara, he sat down, and that devotee sat down, and Gurudev said to him, you are divided, your heart is divided, it's going in three directions, and you have not reconciled it. He said, so let me give you one example. And Gurudev said that when I used to sit at the feet of my Gurudev, and I heard my Gurudev explaining the Vedanta Sutra, Then I looked at him, and suddenly I realized, oh, it is as if Baladeva Vidyabhusana is speaking.
47:02Gurudev had that realization, because Baladeva Vidyabhusana is in our line, the Acharya who has given the commentary on Vedanta Sutra, and explained it so beautifully. And so at that time when Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava was speaking, there was a drsti of Baladeva Vidyabhusana, and it was manifested there, and he was speaking. And then Gurudev said, and when I heard my Gurudev was speaking about the Krishna-tattva or Paramatma-tattva, these things, then I looked and I saw it was Jiva Goswami, who has written Tattva-sandarbha and Paramatma-sandarbha and Krishna-sandarbha, explaining all these tattvas in detail.
47:48Gurudev was speaking, but actually, Jiva Goswami was present, and he was speaking through Gurudev, and then sometimes I would sit and listen to Gurudev, and he was explaining the beautiful, loving pastimes of Radha and Krishna, and Gurudev said, when I looked at my Gurudev, I experienced that, oh, Rupa Goswami was speaking. So Guru, any sad-guru, represents the whole Guru-parampara. And so we should hear and inquire and serve and have nistha towards our diksa-guru, towards our siksa-guru. One important point, one very important point, is that siksa-guru can be several persons at the same time or at different times in one's life.
48:37But there should be one siksa-guru who is prominent. But the diksa-guru must only be one. Diksa-guru can only be one. And there's a reason for this. Unless the diksa-guru is only one, then the living entity cannot be freed from manodharma. Manodharma means sankalpa-vikalpa, accepting and rejecting, accepting and rejecting. That's the nature of the mind. It has no fixity. It has no steadiness.
49:07And there's no question of nistha; nistha means citta-aikagrya, aikagrya-ta-citta; nistha means the one-pointedness of the citta, the steadiness, internal steadiness, and that's the point from which realization comes, because as soon as the citta becomes steady, then when you chant Hari-nama, Nama-prabhu reflects his beautiful svarupa in the mirror of your citta. So realization of bhakti begins from nistha. Once the cittas become steady, then realization begins. From sraddha up to nistha is not actually bhakti-tattva, it's sraddha-tattva. It's the gradual development from soft faith to firm faith. And once the faith is firm, then bhakti begins.
49:59So, the problem is that many persons, they're not coming to nistha, fixity, because they keep changing their mind about everything, do something, and then do something else, and do something else, and always uncertain, not really sure of what they should be doing or not doing, and therefore, for such a situation, it's impossible to attain nistha and enter into bhakti, because one remains under the control of manodharma, sankalpa-vikalpa, accepting and rejecting.
50:31So let's say, if there were not a rule in the Shastra that says diksa-guru is one, then what would happen? Someone would come to a guru, receive diksa initiation, and start to serve, and then one day the guru will say, do this. And the person will say, I don't really want to do that.
50:48And then they will go to another guru and receive diksa there from a guru who will tell them to do the thing that they want to do. And then they'll do what they want to do in the name of guru-seva. And so one day the guru says, can you do this thing? and then, ah, I'm not sure, and then they'll go to another guru. So, that's the nature of the conditioned soul, they're full of duplicity and always trying to wriggle out of surrender, you see, and therefore, to stop this process from going on continuously, the shastra says, diksa-guru is one, should be one.
51:20So once a person, they take shelter of their diksa-guru, then they should follow what he's doing, and they should know with certainty, this is what God wants me to do. And by surrendering to the order of the diksa-guru, then the mind becomes steady and realization comes. Now, a person also will be maybe inspired in their life by the siksa-guru.
51:47So the speciality of the siksa-guru is the siksa-guru is really only a siksa-guru. If he nourishes our bhakti in such a way that our relationship with our diksa-guru is becoming stronger and stronger, that our love and realization of the glories of our diksa-guru is growing and growing, that's a siksa-guru. If a siksa-guru is speaking in such a way that he's taking us away from our diksa-guru, then it's undoing all the work that was necessary to attain nistha, the ekagrata-citta, one-pointedness of the heart.
52:29So when we say the word nistha, it corresponds with the steadiness of the heart, so it's called nistha. but that's more or less a metaphysical explanation. In terms of our subjective attitude, nistha means loyalty, loyalty, so just by saying the heart is steady, that doesn't give you the same sense of what it means subjectively; nistha, guru-nistha means loyalty to guru, and so that loyalty to guru means that guru has given us some instruction how to engage in sadhana, He's given some instruction how to engage in the mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He's given some glorifications of our Acharyas and given us the responsibility to
53:28may the glories of our Acharyas be spread all over the world. So we should also not only glorify our own Guru, but glorify Prabhupada, glorify Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, glorify Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Jiva Goswami, Rupa Goswami, So Guru gives all these responsibilities, and being fixed in those responsibilities is loyalty.
53:54Giving up sense gratification is loyalty, because Guru never told you, oh, you should enjoy the senses. He said you should engage all your senses in Krishna's service. So even leaving behind the worldly pleasures, that itself is the act of loyalty. And so you can see now the correlation between being loyal to Sri Guru and also nistha, because you can never have the steadiness of the citta, the steadiness of the heart, if one is again and again trying to taste the sense objects in this world.
54:30So you can look at nistha from the point of view of the metaphysical understanding of nistha and the subjective component of the feeling, the dedication of loyalty. So this is how you should reconcile. For example, on Vyasa Puja day, Vyasa Puja is not the day when the Guru receives worship from all the disciples, but Vyasa Puja day is the day when the Guru engages all the disciples in the worship of each and every one of the members of his Guru-parampara.
55:08And when Sri Guru speaks, he represents the teachings of all the Acharyas in the Guru-parampara. And so as long as that tradition of honoring Guru, and the Guru is engaging everyone in honoring each member of the Parampara, then you have the Sat-sampradaya, authentic sampradaya. And if the focus is only on the Guru, without the help of a śikṣā-guru, because you can misunderstand, but another senior vaiṣṇava can help you understand the teachings of your own guru.
55:43And as long as one sees the guru himself not in isolation, not without context, but as a servant of the whole guru-varga, representing their ideas, not inventing something new, but only representing their desire,
56:09So then, this is not any type of dogmatic fanaticism, anything like that. This is the true anugatya-mayī-bhakti, the path of anugatya-mayī-bhakti, devotion under the guidance of our divine authorities. Śrīla Gurudeva kī jaya!
