Unless one is under the shelter of a realized spiritual master, his understanding of the Supreme is simply foolishness” quote from TLC
LA July 13 1971—Prabhupāda: Unless one is prepared that “I am accepting somebody as my spiritual master. I must accept whatever he says,” if there is any doubt, that “I cannot accept his words verbatim,” then one should not accept him as spiritual master. That is hypocrisy
I find these statements by Srila Prabhupada to be an indicator of ones faith in Srila Prabhupada. Over time we find so many devotees who will come up with their own interpretations of what Srila Prabhupada meant when he said such and such. Or they will fabricate their own philosophy or twist, instead , the Acaryas words. Just Like Prabhupada told us that the Gaudiya matha came up with their own version of Srila Bhaktisiddhantas orders for the matha’s continuation-by having self interested views, and then the result- they fought in the courts for 40 years or more. And then the same exact thing happened in iskcon. This is called mental speculation or existing on the mental platform, of accepting and/or rejecting the minds proposals instead of the proposals for obedience to the order of our bona fide spiritual master.
To explain this business of mental speculation in a simple way, he gave us the example of when the guru says a rope is a snake- then for the disciple, it is a snake. Being conditioned means, by definition, we don’t know what is really good for us, and that is why we accept advice from a bona fide spiritual master. Having a bona fide spiritual master means by whose order following we wont make mistakes. The four defects, explained as being in illusion, imperfect senses, making mistakes and the propensity to cheat, is overcome by unconditional acceptance of the order of the bona fide spiritual master.
To not put trust in ones own powers of speculation and just do what the guru tells us to do, right now, is called first class faith. And it is this very strong unwavering faith which is the secret to advancement in spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada often quotes Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur who in his purport tells us that satisfaction of the spiritual master is how the Lord becomes satisfied and by not satisfying the spiritual master then God is never satisfied.
So how do we know when we are speculating or on the mental platform especially in this age of hypocrisy where nobody wants to accept anything anybody else will say and just argue endlessly? Or worse still, they don’t even give some quotes from guru and sastra to prove their position?(see list of quotes at end)
One example is the one where a lusty man wanted to have sex with a well know prostitute but her fee was very high and he could not afford her. This man also had a very pious wife who would always try to satisfy her husband and knowing his inner desires went to that same prostitute and began to serve her without any pay. After a short while the prostitute asked what is it woman, that you want? The woman told her that her husband wanted to have sex with her but couldn’t pay the fee. So they both arranged a time for him to come meet with her. The prostitute cooked a nice meal for that man and served him on two different plates. One was served on gold the other was an iron plate. After eating she asked the man, which one tasted better, the one on the gold plate or the iron plate? He confessed, they both tasted the same. Then the prostitute explained that the pleasure of sex life is always the same no matter what type of body you may have-either a so called high class body or so called low class body, but the pleasure is still the same since it is only an itching sensation of two bodies. It is simply our minds that makes us think one is better than the other, just like the same food , but on two different plates. This is called the mental platform or speculation. And practically speaking,at one time or another, we all suffer from this malady.
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