Prabhupāda looked in my eyes and said... | Srila Gopal Krishna Goswami #Prabhupāda

14 Oct 2023 · 1 min

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In this devotional lecture, the speaker emphasizes that a disciple’s life is inseparable from the instructions of the spiritual master, just as the body cannot be separated from the soul. The master’s sole desire is the disciple’s purification and liberation from material tendencies, which bind one to material existence. The teachings are not original inventions of the master but are faithfully transmitted through the disciplic succession, ultimately tracing back to the Supreme Lord. The master’s role is corrective, not flattering; an anecdote recounts Prabhupada telling a disciple in 1976, “My business is to find faults in you,” underscoring that the guru’s purpose is to point out shortcomings so the disciple can progress spiritually.

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Ṛgṛda-bhaktinoda has said, just like you cannot separate the body from the soul, a disciple cannot separate his life from the instructions of the spiritual master. What is the desire of the spiritual master? Only one: that the disciple continue to purify oneself, that one free oneself from the material tendencies, because material tendencies are responsible for keeping one entangled in material existence. And the spiritual master does not concoct the process of self-realization. He just repeats what he has heard from his spiritual master. Like nearly everything that we speak in our classes is what we have heard from Prabhupāda. And almost everything that Prabhupāda spoke was what he heard from his spiritual master. So this way the disciplic succession traces back to the original speaker, the Supreme Lord. Disciples should not think the spiritual master will just come and flatter me. Once I was walking with Prabhupāda in Bombay in 1976, and looking at my face, Prabhupāda said, "My business is to find faults in you." So the spiritual master's His business is not to flatter the disciple, but to correct the inabilities or shortcomings of the disciple so that he can make spiritual advancement on the journey back to Godhead.