And this devotion to the guru is absolutely essential to spiritual progress. Krishna das Kaviraja says in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita that the spiritual master is “the active principle in spiritual life.” The Bengali word Srila Prabhupada gives as “active principle” here is sara. Another way to understand this word is essence, or essential principle. Consequently, we can see that surrender to the guru is the essence of spiritual life, and failure to do so means we completely miss the point of spiritual endeavor, which renders our attempts at progress useless. Srila Jiva Goswami says in Bhakti Sandarbha that satisfying the guru is the main cause of attaining divine love and service. Srila Prabhupada sometimes summed up the science of Krishna consciousness in six words: I am Krishna’s; he is mine. Visrambhena guroh seva implies that spiritual progress depends on having the same sentiment for the guru.

This topic is so exciting that I may have to write an article on it. I don’t think I can even do justice to provoking more discussion in a comment.

As a parent of three, I especially liked your narration of the instance when at the moment of distressed concern for your son’s safety you called out his name with absolutely no considerations of time, place, circumstance, or mundane propriety. Loving parents can all relate to that unbreakable paternal affection and its spontaneous expression, whether elicited by the gust of untoward events, or by the flow of sweet occurances, as the case may be.

Reading through the comments was also enriching. Thanks for catching me up in the loop. I will bring others to this site to read your article, and I will read it again myself, because it deserves re-reading. And again, thank you.

Your humble servant,
Hladini Shakti das

Another nice point by Sri Jiva is the idea that guru bhakti is arguably greater than Krsna bhakti because it is so immensely pleasing to Krsna. He provides Krsna’s own words to elucidate this point‚ “The worship of My devotee exceeds the worship of Me.”

In writing this piece, I became well aware that any ability I have to express faith in this principle and to feel such prospect in the face of my shortcomings is a result of my good fortune to have the guidance of a sad guru. I feel the most essential line in the whole piece is, “Bhakti adherents’ worldly sense of mine-ness will fade gradually as they tread the path under the guidance of a sad guru.” I would hope for the readers and especially for myself as the author that these sentiments expressed would inspire one to become more grateful of their good fortune and thus apply one self more vigorously to the principle of guru pada asraya. For sincere spiritual seekers who don’t have such fortune, I would hope for them to become more inspired to seek it out as an essential principle to their progress.

This is an important point for a number of reasons. One of which that comes to mind is that if properly understood it shatters the misconception that the guru is nothing more than an information board who gives instructions and that bhakti is a process that one can take up without much if any emphasis on the guru. In my experience, it is all about guru kripa. Without this grace there is no hope, and one who has the power to benedict is not an ordinary person or devotee.