_r_ Guru Dar_ana As It Is

_r_ Guru Dar_ana As It IsThis book is a supplementary volume to Sri Guru Darshana, which is the biography of our Srila Gurudeva. All the conditioned living entities are physically arrested by the five material elements. It is not possible for them to break their relationship with these elements and cross over maya on their own accord. However, if someone goes to the samadhi center of a bona fide guru and prays for help there, this physical attachment can be cut very easily.

This book is a supplementary volume to Sri Guru Darshana, which is the biography of our Srila Gurudeva.

All the conditioned living entities are physically arrested by the five material elements. It is not possible for them to break their relationship with these elements and cross over maya on their own accord. However, if someone goes to the samadhi center of a bona fide guru and prays for help there, this physical attachment can be cut very easily. Such a person will then, under the guidance of the Vaisnavas, be able to take shelter of the samadhi-kunja in his subtle body. He will continue to pray and follow all the limbs of bhakti. He will no longer speak prajalpa (idle gossip), but will instead be very serious. He will lose his desire to cheat people and to do business. There will be no duplicity, fighting, competition, or challenging mood in his behaviour. Instead, with a humble attitude, he will be absorbed in prayer. Now his heart will start to melt, as it is more and more cleansed. His mind will become cool, and he will no longer be restless. Next, he will also cross the bondage of his subtle body and become fixed in his eternal soul identity. This is called svarupa-siddhi.

When our soul attains svarupa-siddhi, we will go to the eternal world, together with Sri Gurupada-padma, and perform service there. We will still have a physical structure, a material body and mind, but we will no longer have relationship with them. This is called sahaja-samadhi, or natural, real samadhi. To attain this, training at the samadhi center of a bona fide divine master is necessary. It is not possible to receive this training in any other place. Therefore, when our guru-varga returns to the spiritual world, they kindly leave behind this spiritual structure, their samadhi temple. From there, they are helping, teaching, giving training, and making the conditioned souls qualified. How do they do this? Srila Gurudeva will now explain their teaching process.