англ. название записи: Q&A: How to Recognise My Guru and Uddhava Glorifying the Gopis - 2026-03-21 - Sri Prem Prayojan
0:01I wanted to ask that: how do I know if I have met my spiritual master in this lifetime? I am a conditioned soul; I will not recognize him straight away, or I don't know if I will ever recognize him, but would there be any symptoms, indicators, or emotions that would be stirring within or would be happening around me that could indicate that I have met my spiritual master?
1:05One can recognize Sri Guru only by the mercy of Sri Guru, just like you can only see the sun by the light of the sun. The conditioned soul does not have the capacity to understand anything transcendental, and Sri Guru is transcendental, being one aspect of the paraphernalia of the Supreme Lord.
2:09Śāstra tells, oh, it's very important. You should go to the holy dhāma. So, then the common people, they go and visit the holy dhāma. And then, but what is the purpose of going to the holy dhāma?
2:34To serve the mahat, the great devotees who are there in the dhāma. Then what is the result of serving the great devotees in the dhāma? You get śraddhā, faith, and especially vāsudeva-kathā-ruci, taste in Hari-kathā.
2:57So this is how the process of the spiritual evolution of a soul takes place. That you go to the dhāma, you meet a sādhu, you do some sevā, you get some faith, and then you get taste in hari-kathā. Then, if a person has taste in hari-kathā, Jīva Gosvāmī, Bhakti-sandarbha said, that person from whom we are hearing and is giving us so much inspiration...
3:36We may hear from different persons, but the prominent person from whom we get the most inspiration, the most clarity, and from whom we derive the most taste, generally that person becomes the guru because that person is nourishing our faith more and more and more.
4:00So there are some external symptoms. Guru should be learned in śāstra, but the conditioned soul himself is not so learned, so he cannot really decide.
4:25the living being only to a limited degree can understand that someone is very qualified in scripture, but it means here that the guru can speak and explain the scripture in such a way that our doubts become removed. And this is something we can directly experience; we come with doubts, we come with confusion, and if we ask questions and after asking questions, now actually [the mind] becomes very certain and clear; and also the evidence is there in śāstra.
5:00And our doubts have gone away, and so our heart feels cured, cured of the confusion that the doubt was causing. So this is a symptom by which a conditioned soul can also understand something.
5:22Brahmaṇy-upaśamāśrayam means that the Śrī Guru is the abode of peace. It means that the spiritual master has no attachment to money, disciples, temples, power, position, anything. An ācārya may use all these things in Krishna's service, but he has no attachment to anything, only to Krishna, not for his own sense gratification at all.
5:59So, these are outer symptoms. And the inner symptom is realization. So, realization, we cannot understand if Guru has a realization or not. But my spiritual master used to say, if someone has realization, there will be some signs, there will be some symptoms. And the main sign is attachment to chanting Harināma. We see in Kali-yuga, so many so-called gurus telling everyone to chant Hare Krishna, but they don't chant Hare Krishna themselves.
6:33Or they chant only walking around with the beads but not actually with any surrender and concentration. So Śrī Guru should chant one lakh, not less than one lakh, 64 rounds every day because Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that...
7:05So, one round is called a mālā, and four mālās is called a granthi, and sixteen granthis is called a nirbandha. So here, 'kṛṣṇa-nāma' kare japa, nirbandha-kārye māna, you should all chant nirbandha, it means 64 rounds.
7:28And Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that some brāhmaṇas invited, in Purī, some brāhmaṇas invited Him: 'Please come to my home.'
8:16that person who chants 100,000 names of Krishna every day is a Lakṣeśvara, I'll only eat in his house. That means, to speak of Krishna, Krishna is merciful, but Mahāprabhu is more merciful; but Mahāprabhu will not accept even a cup of water from a person who doesn't chant 16 rounds. Then how can any disciple take prasādam? Because the prasādam is not offered by you, it's offered by Guru, right? You take the picture of...
8:49Guru, and you take the bhoga, the naivedya, and you pray, 'Gurudev, I am not qualified, Gurudev, you please offer this to Krishna, I am your assistant.' So if the Guru is not chanting 64 rounds, then the disciple cannot—is eating bhoga and cannot take prasādam ever.
9:08This is not my idea; it's Caitanya Mahāprabhu's own words. So all of these things are important.
9:18The guru who is not qualified, in order to get followers, will flatter everyone. 'Yes, you are so nice, you are so great, you are all great devotees.' But sādhu means one who cuts.
9:36So real sādhu will speak the truth in such a way that you will listen and you will not feel comfortable. It will be quite scary for your mind, not for your soul, but for the mind. The mind will feel, 'Ah, this fire is too hot.' I cannot go near this fire, it's too hot.
10:03And that's why it's necessary to be sincere. If someone is not sincere they'll look for the guru who can give them the type of instructions whereby all their material desires can be fulfilled and their laziness and their bad habits and their attachments, everything is okay. But if someone is sincere only then they'll go to that guru who is like a fire and they'll go towards that fire and it's burning away all their material attachments and material desires and misconceptions.
10:36So those who are fortunate, they are ready to do some sacrifice in their life, to undergo difficulties and tribulations for the sake of searching out the truth, they will come to the authentic guru and those who are cheaters, cheaters will find another cheater and the dupes and their admiring under-dupe society will expand and expand.
11:07These are the words of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura; he said the society of dupes and their admiring under-dupes will spread everywhere, because it's Kali-yuga. So this is the main thing. Śrīla Gour Govinda Mahārāja, he used to say—many things I'm quoting from śāstra, and many things I'm quoting just directly what I heard from my guru, or from my śikṣā-guru Gour Govinda Mahārāja—if someone asked him this question, Śrīla Gour Govinda Mahārāja used to say, 'You have to cry...' to Nityānanda Prabhu, because Nityānanda Prabhu is akhaṇḍa-guru-tattva; He is the original guru, there is only one guru, it's Nityānanda Prabhu. And if there is any guru in this world, that is the vyaṣṭi-guru, the individual guru, it's only because the samaṣṭi-guru, Nityānanda Prabhu, has put His power into that individual. So if we want to meet a vyaṣṭi-guru, it's by the mercy of the samaṣṭi-guru, and if a person will cry...
12:21Oh, Nityananda, please, I am in ignorance, I am drowning in the ocean of material existence, please, give me your shelter in the form of guru-tattva in this world, guide me, I don't know anything, but you are in my heart. Sankarshana-karna-toya-shayi, Garbhodaka-shayi, cha Payobdhi-shayi. Payobdhi-shayi means the Paramatma, Kshirodaka-shayi Vishnu. Payo means kshir, milk. Payobdhi-shayi. So Nityananda,
12:55your expansion of expansion of expansion is in my heart, just guide my intelligence that I can come to your shelter, reveal to me your representative, your manifestation in this world, and I promise I will surrender and not waste your time, because guru does not need any disciples, but disciples need guru. So it's important that one should not try to come and take shelter of a guru, but not be sincere, then you're wasting his time. So, Sri Krishna will... any persons, bad persons, and persons, cheaters and time-wasters, then very often, Krishna will protect the pure devotee, that those persons don't come, they can go somewhere else.
14:07So, as we were mentioning the other day, in Gita, Sri Krishna has said, The meaning is, sincerity is invincible. If one is sincere and praying to Nityananda Prabhu, then he's so merciful, causelessly merciful. He'll overlook our faults and bring us to the lotus feet of Sri Guru and there even we may not recognize it first, so one should hear, one should hear, and by hearing then doubts will go away and certainty will come, nishtha.
15:01Faith is a gift. We cannot generate faith by our intellectual operations. Faith is, faith is not a vritti of the gunas. It's not a movement of the mind that comes from the gunas. So our mind is trigunatmak. In this world the three gunas are moving. Our thoughts, manoratha,
15:32the non-devotee in this world is just riding on the manoratha, the chariot of his mind.
15:45So, mind will not give us, increase our desire to serve Krishna. So, shraddha is a gift. When we associate with pure devotees and we hear from them, then this impression comes to us, vishesh-sanskar, that I want to serve Krishna. So, it is a gift. So, whoever is nourishing that very intensely, then we can take shelter there.
16:18But Shastra said, don't take initiation. First, just take shelter. Do guru-pada-ashraya and serve and develop the relationship stronger. And then, after one year, ekavarsa-nivasa-na-sena, Shastra said, one should serve Guru and associate with Guru as much as possible, if possible, live with Guru for at least one year. and then the realization will come as one goes on hearing and all the questions are being answered even without asking. Then the person has the understanding, "Oh, the Lord who is in my heart, I cannot hear him, but he has come outside in the form of this Vaishnava, because even without asking the questions, the answers are coming. Here is guru-tattva, I should surrender here." And so then initiation takes place. So the initiation is the fruit of guru-pada-ashraya. Initiation is not a formality, it is not a
17:25fashion. Everyone is taking initiation, so I'll also take initiation. It's not an external ritual. But the heart has to be prepared first by the development of faith. And when the soil is prepared, is fertile, then when you put a seed, it will grow. If you put a seed in the barren land, then it will not grow. So the prospective disciple has to be prepared first before initiation, so the initiation sanga can be successful. I should understand in this way. Is it clear? Follow what, go to detail. Oh, little look, please, please, help me. Everything will become clear. Yes. I did. In Uddhava-gita, Sri Uddhava is glorifying the Gopis, and in the second verse,
18:36I don't understand how is glorifying the Gopis, as in the first two parts, in two lines of the verse, he says that how amazing is that the Gopis that seems spoiled by misbehaving, going to the forest, they obtain Radha-bhava, but then I say that actually it's not so amazing as... Krishna, Krishna is so merciful even to who who is ignorant, and worship him like as a doctor who gives the medicine. So I don't understand how is why is using this metaphor and how is the glorification of the Gopis as it seems like a glorification of the the causeless mercy of Krishna that is giving this gift to them.
19:46This verse is so deep and to explain it it will take hours. I will give some classes maybe on this world tour when I come to Europe and I'll go through all of these prayers. But just to give some idea. First of all you should know that any verse of Bhagavatam doesn't have one meaning.
20:48If I write a book with 18,001 verses, then it's more than the Bhagavad-gita. So how is Bhagavad-gita unlimited?
20:59Mahaprabhu is saying, prati-shloki, prati-akshare nanarthakai, every verse has many meanings. No, every letter has many meanings, even. So here, 'kvi-striyau-vana-carin-yau-vyabhicara-dushtaha', so in Sanskrit, then the feminine plural ends in 'aha', with a trivikrama A and visarga, understand? And what is the bahuvachanam, the plural of masculine, Krishna, huh? It's the same, yes, it's the same.
22:51like Bhishmadeva, like Shukadeva Goswami, like the Navayogendras, sorry, Navayogendras are liberated. So there are those who want liberation, those who are liberated, and then those who are in the category of Uddhava, like himself and Vyasadeva and Narada, that means they are associates, eternal associates.
23:22So this is, Vayam is in the plural, means we, we persons, is in the plural. So this ku-strī-vyabhicāra-duṣṭāḥ means that in connection because every verse and every word has many meanings and more meanings come when you connect one verse with the previous verse also. So here duṣṭāḥ means that we, myself Uddhava and Narada and Vyasa, we are all duṣṭa, we are all defiled by vyabhicāra. Why? Because Śāstra said,
24:41So the gopis are great, and it seems that they are contaminated by vyabhicāra, that means deviation, but actually we are the ones who are deviated from the conclusion of Śāstra, that means you should do everything and anything to please Krishna, only the gopis are the example of that, so I am contaminated. But anyway, nanv īśvaro, nanu, means na, not nu, certainly. Nanu itself can mean certainly, but nanu can be divided into two, not certainly. Nanv īśvaro, anubhajatō, anu means a little, and bhajata means that they have served.
25:48So, nanv īśvaro anubhajatō viduṣo, anubhajatō viduṣo, hi viduṣo is actually aviduṣo, it's not viduṣo, bhajatō aviduṣo, because the a disappears, it is the lopa, the a is lopa, it disappears because the previous letter is o, so aviduṣo, that means ignorant person,
26:28Anu bhajato, who did some bhajan, ignorant person who did some bhajan, anu, no, who did only a little bit of bhajan, nanv, an ignorant person who did not even do a little bit of bhajan, who is that? Uddhava is referring to himself, I am a useless ignorant person who has not even done a little bit of bhajan, sākṣād śreyas tanoty agada-rāja ivopayukta, but the Supreme Lord expands, Tanoti means he expands the śreya, the good fortune, even of a person who has done no bhajan, not even a little bit, and who is ignorant, like me. So here the meaning is that even though I am ignorant and foolish and I have not really served Krishna, but still he expands my fortune by sending me to Braja,
27:42to have the association of Braja gopis. Understand? Uddhava is glorifying the gopis to the sky, to the high sky. This is only one of the meanings. So all of these verses have many, many meanings. If you know Sanskrit very well, then you still cannot understand Bhagavatam. I'm explaining only some grammar like this so you can know what each one of the words is. But without understanding the context and the bhāva of Uddhava, you cannot understand what he's saying.
28:23And this is why You have to learn Bhagavatam by hearing from a Vaishnava. So what I'm saying is this is Sanatana Goswami's commentary, not my commentary. Sanatana Goswami has given this commentary and many other explanations as well. All of these things I heard directly from my Gurudev, but you can read the commentary of Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Jiva Goswami, Sanatana Goswami.
28:50They bring out all of these meanings. So it is amazing.
29:02My Gurudev always used to give this example that if you read one sentence on a page If you read one sentence, Ram, where have you been? Right? So do you understand? Do you understand? Ram, where have you been? Do you know? Ram, what case is this in? No, completely wrong.
29:45What case? Sambodhana. He's talking, hey Ram, why will it be? Ram is not the subject of the sentence. It's a sambodhana. So, Ram, where have you been? So, even if you get the grammar correct, what to speak if you get the grammar? But even if you get the grammar correct, you still cannot understand what the meaning of the sentence is. Why? Because the context and the bhāva of the speaker is not there.
30:31The meaning depends on context and also depends on the feeling of the speaker. So let's say that someone decided to meet with his friend called Ram at 5 o'clock and Ram, he did not come till 7 o'clock. Then he says, Ram, where have you been? So he knows he was in his home. Where have you been means why are you late? Right? The suggestion is not where have you been. He knows he was in his home, but it means
31:13That means, why were you late? Or, there may be that Ram, he has a secret girlfriend. So then his friend found out that he went to meet with a secret girlfriend. So then next time he saw Ram, he says, Ram, where have you been? Then what does it mean? That means, I know exactly where you have been. You see? So only the ink on a page will not save you.
31:53That is, Bhagavatam is not ink on a page. Bhagavatam is Krishna. And only the Bhagavatam, the Vaishnava who is Bhakta-Bhagavata, who is the embodiment of Srimad Bhagavatam, can explain Srimad Bhagavatam because he can see the context and he knows the mood. Another thing, these prayers, they're not called Uddhava-gita. Uddhava-gita is Krishna's teachings to Uddhava in the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. And Uddhava-sandesha is the message that Krishna sent to the gopis through Uddhava. So there's Uddhava-gita, Uddhava-sandesha, like this. And then these prayers are simple. They come after the Brahma-gita. Uddhava's glorification of Braja-gopis after Brahma-gita. So you should understand it in this way.
32:59Another part of this verse is that nanv īśvaro, certainly Krishna, he expands the fortune of those persons who anubhajatō, here anu now means not little but continuously, that is the nirantaryāmī, continuously serving, even aviduṣo, here aviduṣo means who doesn't have knowledge,
33:39knowledge means that the gopis don't have the aiśvarya-jñāna. The gopis don't have knowledge of Krishna's Bhagavata. The gopis think that we have left our husbands to go to meet with our secret lover, Krishna, the cowherd boy. They think like this. Uddhava knows that Krishna is God and Uddhava knows that the gopis, by leaving their husbands, so-called husbands, to meet with Krishna, haven't done anything wrong.
34:19So this vyabhicāra-duṣṭāḥ is spoken with some irony.
34:26ku-strī-vyabhicāra-duṣṭāḥ.
34:29Oh, where are these gopis who are defiled by adharmic activities and they became homeless? Vanacārī, they're wandering in the forest because they've left their homes. Since Krishna left, they're just crying in the forest. They don't even return to their homes.
34:53So this line describing the gopis is spoken with irony because they have no vyabhicāra and they are not duṣṭa. We are duṣṭa. Gopis are not vyabhicāra-duṣṭa. And Uddhava knows this because he knows that Krishna is God. But the gopis themselves, they are thinking that they are vyabhicāra-duṣṭa, because they have transgressed all dharma to meet with their secret beloved Krishna, the cowherd boy.
35:34So they are aviduṣo, that means, aviduṣo means one who knows, aviduṣo means one who doesn't know. So, but here is, they don't know that Krishna is God. So then someone can say, if someone raises the question, that I know Krishna's tu bhagavān svayaṁ, so I am a great devotee, but these gopis, they don't know that Krishna is God, so how can they be great?
36:08So to reply to that, another meaning is that Uddhava is saying that Krishna doesn't care, for him he doesn't care if you don't have knowledge that he is God. In fact, He prefers it. He only sees the bhajan. So even though someone does not know He is God, then, but they are serving Him fully, then Krishna will expand that person's good fortune. He will reciprocate with that person, despite their absence of knowledge. So the gopi's absence of knowledge that Krishna is God is the glorification of the gopis.
37:00is it the glorification of the gopis or not? It is the glory that the go- look, does Rukmini know that Krishna is God? Yes. Does Lakshmi Devi know that Krishna is God? Yes. Does Rati, Gauri, Lila, all these great goddesses, do they know that Krishna is God? They all know. Who doesn't know that Krishna is God? Only the gopis. So this is the glory of the gopis. Then one could say, well, why would God expand the opportunities
37:34and fortune and give himself because here to expand the fortune what does it mean for someone to be fortunate we discussed it yesterday for a female her fortune is measured by how much she controlled her love it so that Krishna expands the fortune of the gopis means that he becomes controlled by their prema is this answering your question how is this the glory of the gopis so just as if there's a medicine and you
38:24If you don't know what this medicine is, agada-rāja, here agada-rāja really means nectar, because nectar is the medicine that never fails. Even if you're dead and you take it, you'll come back to life. So, if you don't know what is in a medicine, but you take it, it still works, it will still work. So, in the same way, for those who serve Krishna, even if they don't know his God, then Krishna will expand their fortune.
39:03So, Hare Krishna. So, in the case of the Vraja-gopis, they don't know that Krishna is God, yet they're doing anubhajana. They're serving Him continually. What? By rūḍha-bhāva. That means, svābhāvika-prema, natural love, not by even sneha-māna-praṇaya-rāga-anurāga, but by rūḍha-bhāva. They're serving Him. And so, Krishna expands their fortune, actually means that He becomes completely controlled by them.
39:43so in this way and also in many there are many many meanings to this verse it is amazing you can just become lost in this verse my gurudev used to say I have not studied very much shastra because when I read one verse I become lost in that verse for six months it is better to know oh two or three books very deeply to know than to know thousands of books superficially because the purpose of the the study is to realize krishna not to become like a donkey. A donkey can carry a big weight on his back. He can carry a big load of thousands of books on his back. So we don't want to become like a donkey who's just carrying lots of books
40:38in our head. But we should know Gita, Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamrita, and some of the main books of the Goswamis, deeply. Oh, I wanted to apologize. Yesterday I was speaking about, oh, there's a verse in Bhakti. Rupa Goswami has quoted it that says that whatever is established by one logician will be overturned by another logician, who is more expert in logic. And therefore, by logic, we cannot positively establish anything. And this is why our acharyas, when they use logic, they use anyathā-anupapatti, that doesn't try to positively establish, but establishes by negation of all other
41:35candidate theories like this. So this verse that Rupa Goswami quotes, it's from the Vākya-padīya of Bhartṛhari, but yesterday I said he was from the varṇavāda school, he's from the sphoṭavāda school, which is the competitor to the varṇavāda school. The main scholar of the varṇavāda school is Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, and in the sphoṭavāda school it is the Bhartṛhari, like that.
42:12So, in my mind, I sometimes can mix up Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Bhartṛhari. So, the sphoṭavāda theory was propagated. One of the proponents, main proponents of that school is Bhartṛhari. He was a king, you know. I think you may have seen the drama. Many of our devotees have made this drama about how Bhartṛhari became renounced from life.
42:41He wrote from his life as a king. He wrote the Vairāgya-śataka, 100 verses, glorifying detachment from this world. So he is one of the proponents of the sphoṭavāda school, not the varṇavāda school. So just a little correction there. The varṇavāda school is mainly, that is the Pūrva-mīmāṃsā school, was promoted by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa.
43:03But this is an interesting point also, Rupa Goswami does not support the philosophy of sphoṭavāda, but still he quoted from him and put it in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So don't think that just because our Acharyas, they quote some verse, that they are giving the wholesale endorsements of that author.
43:30It is not like that, you know. Sometimes we quote from the Śrī-sampradāya, Rāmānuja-sampradāya, very often actually, Jiva Goswami has quoted so much. Even sometimes we quote from Śaṅkarācārya as well. So just because our acharya is ever quoted from here and there, it's not a complete endorsement of that author or other things that they have written.
43:59They just saw that this particular phrase or expression is expressing a particular idea which is congruent with the conclusions of Gauḍīya-siddhānta. Like that, you should see it in that way.
44:27So, how was the class yesterday? Nām-tattva? Good, yes. Okay, so who will speak on Nām-tattva this morning? Two volunteers. But you cannot repeat the same thing. You can summarize, but you should go a bit further as well. And when you speak on Nām-tattva, not only philosophy, but there should always be some illustration. So if you say a siddhāntic point, then the verse should be there.
45:29So there are so many examples, like the Gopāla Guru, he saw one person, he was going to the bathroom and he was holding his tongue, because he was trying to stop his tongue from chanting, there are so many examples, just like when the Muslims, they tried to smash the mṛdaṅga and stop the kīrtanas, then afterwards they came to the Kazi and said, we went to try to stop the kīrtana and our beards were on fire, and then we told the Hindus, stop chanting Hari, Hari, Hari, Hari, Hari, Hari, and then we also, we could not stop chanting Hari, Hari, so all these are examples, or how Bharata Mahārāja, when he was a deer, just when the deer was about to die, he began to offer prayers in Sanskrit, how can a deer speak Sanskrit, deer cannot even speak any words, why?
46:33O Mahaprabhu, he told Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī,
46:47Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī had some criticism. Why is this sannyāsī singing and dancing in the street with thousands of common people? He should be sitting alone and studying the Vedānta-sūtra. So Mahāprabhu explained to him, he said, I am not singing and dancing by my own desire, but the name is making me sing and the name is making me dance.
47:16So if you give some siddhānta, the siddhānta you should also illustrate. Otherwise, what is this? Then it's only just like some dry theories. Everyone will become like some boring college professor speaking some dry theories. So you should give the siddhānta and give some illustration.
48:06pracodita, yena purā sarasvatī, vicanvitā, śāstra-satīṃ smṛtiṃ vidhi, only when Sarasvatī manifests, that is vāk-śakti comes, then it's real transcendental Harikathā, but still, don't make all the audience fall asleep, and give very good siddhānta with pramāṇa from śāstra, and also some examples and illustrations as well, because then it will also be fixed in your heart, the reality of this, the tattva. So who will speak on nām-tattva today? Who will take the remnants of Madhava and Rāmānanda Rāya? They have eaten but something was left on the plate. Who will come and take their remnants today? Volunteer? Okay, Jīva Priya Prabhu and Gopīnātha is volunteering? Okay, so Jīva Priya Prabhu and Gopīnātha will give the morning class today. Jai. Hare Krishna.
