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By ( name withheld )

In the wake of the abolishment of the zonal acharya system, and also in the wake of the falldown of several later gurus, the standard for guru worship was toned down considerably. However, I feel that we have gone a little too far in the other direction. It has almost become as if worshipping ones guru is some illicit activity. If you really insist on doing it, you can, but (I am exaggeration a little) only in some dark corner when nobody is watching.

Maybe it is a hot potato because of the ritviks and all that, but I feel there is a danger of downplaying the role of the guru too much, so that we actually become disconnected from the guru parampara and lose the chance to become purified by learning to be a servant of Krishnas devotee. There is nothing that more effectively than serving the guru cuts the hard knot of our false ego, and that might also be (at least part of) the reason, why guru tattva has become such a controversial issue in ISKCON. After alle we are also conditioned souls and therefore we are sometimes looking for excuses not to surrender. I myself have had the experience of having my spiritual master fall down, but I seriously feel, that if somebody follows the process given by Srila Prabhupada, he need not have the slightes problem in spite of such an event.

I am a little envious of the direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada, who are allowed to freely worship their Spiritual Master. What about all of us who do not have this privilege. Some time ago there was an article by Giriraja Swami in BTG about service to the spiritual master. It was very nice and inspiring. Since Maharaja is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, I guess it was natural for him to speak about his relationship with Srila Prabhupada. However, after reading the article I couldn’t help asking myself; ”What about me. I am not directly connected with Srila Prabhupada. Does that mean that I have to forget about serving Krishnas representative directly.” Of course I know it is not like that, but the article did not speak very much about service to the guru as a universal principle, which applies to everyone, not only Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. This is just an example of what I feel is a general tendency to avoid pointing out the paramount importance of serving the guru, even if he doesn’t happen to be Srila Prabhupada. After all, why did Srila Prabhupada instituted the singing of Gurvastakam as the first thing we do in the morning. Did he mean for everyone to simply think about him when singing that song. I think it is obvious, that he wanted to underscore the universal principle of worshiping ones guru, as he also did in his books and lectures.

I feel the time has maybe come to encourage the disciples of present gurus a little more to worship their guru. After all it is stated in NOC that you cannot even become a sadhaka without taking shelter of a spiritual master. My suggestion is, that disciples should be allowed to worship their guru by keeping his picture underneath Prabhupada on his vyasasana during Srila Praphupada’s guru puja. In this way it will be easier to remember to worship ones guru daily, as one should, and also to remember that it is through the guru that we approach Srila Prabhupada and also Krishna. I don’t see, why anybody should have a problem with that, and personally I would feel much more connected with guru and Krishna in that way.