On guru-tattva
"Decorated with these qualities, sri guru stands like the towering lighthouse in the night for those lost at sea, dissipating the shadows of their fear and illuminating their hearts with the hope that the shore is near." (p. 4)
"Along with this inner necessity, it is a combination of our sincerity and our previous bhakti-samskaras (impressions from prior encounters with bhakti) that determine our ability to connect with the principle and person of sri guru." (p.5)
"Because the guru is dear to God, he or she is considered competent to represent him, and as such one should regard sri guru as though God Himself were present."
(p. 23)
"The disciple's realization of all that guru-tattva constitutes is in no way better facilitated than by association of such devotees, in whose company one finds one's guru."
(p. 24)
On guru-tattva and Blind Faith
"The perception of relativity fosters within the student the need to go deeper and embrace the spirit of the guru's instruction should it conflict with the letter of the law. The apparent virtue of blindly following is replaced with the knowledge that sri guru teaches us not to follow blindly. Shades of blind faith are dispelled in the light of well-reasoned faith that is comfortable with a degree of uncertainty in the context of an ideal that is spiritually dynamic. One's heart of faith is thus harmonized with one's head. And again, while the personalities of one's gurus do not disappear as relativity enters the picture, the philosophical principle of guru-tattva takes center stage as one sorts out the relative from the absolute in preparation to enter a veritable land of gurus." (p. 8)
On Progressing along the path/ Developing a higher understanding of guru-tattva
"Progressing along the path, the student learns to think and act spiritually and develops a spiritual mind of his or her own. This progress enables one to harmonize the absolute and relative aspects of the guru, to identify with substance over form. As a more essential understanding of guru-tattva comes to the foreground and a more childlike understanding of what it means to follow one's gurus recedes to the background, one's intelligence is spiritualized and one's practice deepened. This stage is followed by an enduring taste for spiritual practice, as what was once medicine now becomes food." (p. 9)
"As one's practice is driven by taste, spiritual attachment for the Deity of one's heart manifests and spiritual emotion follows. It is in these later stages of spiritual process that the philosophy underlying the guru phenomenon recedes to the background and the person of the prominent guru in one's life comes to the foreground anew, appearing not in a practitioner's body to teach bhakti in practice, but in an internal spiritual body, a meditative form of love of God that the disciple follows in the footsteps of." (p. 9)
Diksa and Siksa
"Diksa without siksa may be likened to a seed without water or sunshine, and siksa without diksa to water and sunshine without a seed." (p. 6)
Guru-tattva/Sadhu-sanga/rasas
"Sri guru, serving as either the initiating or instructing guru, is a realized soul who directly represents Sri Krsna and whose ecstasy, or bhava, one follows into eternity to serve Krsna in the same ecstasy." (p. 20)
"Sri Rupa informs us that in this life one chooses one rasa over another on the basis of previous impressions of that same rasa in this or previous lives. These impressions are not intellectual transmissions. Even unknowingly they influence one's citta, the internal, subtle medium of perception. Generally speaking, material impressions are imprinted on the citta, and they subsequently reinforce material habits. In spiritual practice, this citta is cleansed of such material impressions, or samskaras. However in sadhana-bhakti, the heart of which is sadhu-sanga, or saintly association, not only are material impressions removed, spiritual impressions are imprinted on one's citta. These impressions foster further spiritual practice as well as a particular type of spiritual perfection." (p. 21)
"The Vaisnava guru's own ananda represents that of one of Krsna's eternal associates, whose ecstasy his or her disciples follow in the wake of." (p. 22)
"Internally, the disciple contemplates the significance of sri guru's relationship with Krsna-the guru's bhava-krsnanandaya dhimahi. It is this higher internal impression of sri guru that will eternally guide the mature student in Sri Krsna's lila-seva." (p. 23)
On self-sacrifice
"It is by the fire of self-sacrifice that one moves forward in this world. If there is anything to gain in this world, it is to be found in the act of giving. Give and grow, give and live a life worth living. And if we are to give comprehensively, we must do so without motive. We must also give to the center, by which the circumference and all within its circle will be served." (p. 13)
Gaudiya Vaisnava concept of God and Panentheism
"In answering Brahma's questions, Krsna describes himself as the uncaused cause of the objective world of matter, who appears in the subjective world of pure consciousness in forms that correspond with both majestic and intimate love of God. He explains the world of material experience is a manifestation of his saktis, or potencies. It is the effect and he is the cause, but in as much as his potencies rely on him and have no independent existence, he is also the effect as well as the cause. He is the world and beyond the world in a panentheistic sense." (p. 17)
On Krsna as the Jewel of all Meditation
"In his commentary on this verse, Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami explains that the word cinta, from the word cintamani, also means "meditation," and mani means jewel. Sri Krsna is the jewel of all meditation." (p. 18)
On Krsna as a Mountain of Nectar
"The word soma, from the word somagiri, means "nectar" and giri means mountain. Sri Krsna is a mountain of nectar." (p. 18)
On Avatara-tattva
"The avatara is a specific emotional moment in the eternal life of the Godhead manifest in form. At the same time, the avatara appears within time as if its beginning were datable-a particular spiritual, emotional reality of the Absolute appearing at the juncture of time and eternity. This appearance is in the eternal present tense. Unline the Western notion of the incarnation, the avataras are numerous and reoccurring like the emotional moments in our own lives." (p. 26)
"Aside from descending emotional moments of the Godhead-avataras- there are those manifestations of divinity that remain within the timeless transspatial realm and for the most part never cross into time's watch. Krsnadasa turns to them next, referring to them as prakasa-manifestations/expansions." (p. 27)
On Maya
"There is a real objective physical and psychic world, but it is not what it appears to be-it is maya."
(p. 36)
On Vedic Texts Not Being Science Books in the Modern Sense
"Texts such as the Bhagavata Purana are not objective history, psychology, or science books in any modern sense, even while they tell a sacred history, address yogic psychology, describe the methodology or science of spiritual practice, and describe the nature of consciousness and matter with an emphasis on the former." (p. 37)
On Seeing through Eyes of Devotion
"The Srimad Bhagavatam teaches that not everyone who saw Krsna with his or her eyes saw him for who he is. For he is only truly seen with eyes of devotion. And eyes of devotion lend to descriptions of that which is ineffable, or that about which not enough can be seen. The experience of the authors of the sacred narratives is such that if one were to take all of the world's oceans and turn them into ink, all the world's land mass and turn it into paper, and assign all the world's human population with the task of describing the two brothers Krsna and Balarama, they could not do justice to any particular aspect of their lives, appearance, qualities, or lilas." (p. 37)
These are jewels!
ReplyDelete