In Krishna consciousness we always hear that as practitioners we must try to elevate our consciousness every day. Sadhu-sanga is very important in this endeavour, but even direct association with the sadhu doesn’t have any value if it’s not producing a positive change in our consciousness. Srila Sridhar Maharaj said that even though insects, germs, and other living entities are in contact with the sadhu, that type of association has no real value. So we can understand that even sadhu-sanga, the highest instrument of our salvation, cannot rescue us if we do not have the will to transform our consciousness. It’s all based on our consciousness.
Srila Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, says that our ‘trying attitude must be perfect,’ and only through that the result will come. So it seems a perfect equation: we have the association of the devotees and through that we try to redirect our consciousness to Krishna. By this process the favourable result will come to us.
But yesterday Sripad Avadhut Maharaj added: “Yes, but we are dealing with the highest, and even though our consciousness must be aiming towards that, if the degree of our surrender is not proportional to our state of consciousness, then it’s not right. In this world we find so many religions, many persons with different layers of consciousness, different concepts of Divinity, but if in this formula, in this equation, there is no dedication, it’s only intellectualism. They are all material concepts, because happiness can only come through dedication.”
If we follow the devotional process properly and sincerely, the result of elevating our consciousness cannot take us in any other direction than the unconditional service to the devotee of Krishna, service to the Vaisnava sadhu.
The true necessity of the soul is to find a Spiritual Guardian; a true devotee of Krishna, for he can give Krishna. But the only requirement is absolute faith that he can rescue us from our present position. And service and dedication is the only means through which we can keep that connection alive.
Every other approach is not directed toward Divinity. So we have to always check ourselves, and ask, “What is our consciousness aiming for?”
Vrinda Devi Dasi
New Delhi, India
In Spanish 20 May 2006 (In English: 27 May 2006)
