The Role of Guru in the Process of Bhakti

Question: Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī writes in Mādhurya-kādambinīi that bhakti comes from bhakti. The Lord is the cause of all causes, so how can anything be beyond Him?

Answer: It is a way of analyzing. If bhakti is described as “causeless,” then the question arises: What can we do to get it? We can only do something about it if it has a cause, right? Therefore, we seek a cause because we want to find something within our control so that we can act to achieve the goal. In reality, bhakti is causeless, therefore all the statements about Bhagavān or devotees giving bhakti mean the same thing. But for the analysis related to sādhana-bhakti, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes that its cause is bhakti. Otherwise, if it is described as “causeless,” then what sādhana can we do to get it? There would be nothing on our part to do. We may become depressed or disinterested or just wait with the thought that it will happen whenever it will. To avoid such thinking, he says that bhakti comes from bhakti. By this he means that sādhana-bhakti leads to prema-bhakti. Now there is something within our means to perform, and that is sādhana-bhakti. In this way, he creates a path where there seems to be none. His main conclusion is that bhakti is self-manifest independently and comes from bhakti alone.

Question: What then is the role of the guru?

Answer: The role of the guru is to teach you the sadhana. Otherwise, how can you do sādhana-bhakti without a guru? Therefore, the first step is to take shelter of a guru. Without the first step, sadhana-bhakti does not even begin. This is very clearly stated in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

Question: What about Nārada Muni? He performed sadhana without having a guru.

Answer: How do you know that? Please read the story in Bhāgavata, chapters five and six. He got instructions from the sādhus (1.5.30).

Question: How can we engage in sādhana-bhakti if we don’t have bhakti?

Answer: You start with śraddhā. The qualification needed is śraddhā. Without that, you cannot do sādhu-saṅga or sādhana-bhakti.

Question: How does śraddhā come?

Answer: By associating with, listening to, and meeting sādhus.

Question: You said that bhakti has to be given by a devotee. If we have taken initiation from someone who has bhakti—does that mean we have it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: 100%?

Answer: When you accept a qualified guru and he accepts you, then it is understood that you have entered the path of bhakti. But there are different stages. For example, it was said by Viśvanātha Cakravartī that bhāva is one thing, and then prema is another thing that is given on top of bhāva. One way of obtaining it is to get a big dose of bhāva or prema directly. Such a recipient is called a kṛpā-siddha bhakta. The other way is to get it in quanta—śraddhā, then niṣṭhā, then ruci, āsakti, and so on. So, you get some, and then more, and then more. This is the usual path. Jīva Gosvāmī commented on this in BRS 1.4.15–16. There are other examples shown in śāstra, but they are not to be followed or practiced by us. We follow the process given in BRS 1.4.15–16. In the sādhana stage, we have to endeavor consciously even though it is not our nature, and in the bhāva stage, the endeavor becomes natural. So, we must hear again and again, and again, and again. That gives us strength and śraddhā, and we gradually lose interest in other things.

Bhakti is action, which is of two types—action before bhāva and action after bhāva. Before bhāva, the action is for the sake of attaining bhāva, and that action, because of its goal (i.e., bhāva), also becomes bhakti. Once you have bhāva, you still perform action, maybe even the same action, but it is natural as it is inspired by bhāva.

Sādhana, in turn, can be divided into two types—before and after niṣṭhā. Sādhana before niṣṭhā is the troublesome part. This is the clearing or anartha-nivṛtti stage. At this stage, one needs to endeavor with determination. It is like being on the frontline of the battlefield. It is Bhagavad Gītā unfolding in one’s personal life.

Question: At which stage does someone make a resolve to engage in bhakti?

Answer: Śraddhā. Śraddhā translates into “resolve.”

Question: Can you do service without resolve?

Answer: You will do it one day and run away the next. Without resolve, your mind will distract you and deviate you from the process.