Don’t Have Any Doubt

Srila Gurudeva: You know Mirabai? In India, she was a first class devotee. She was not in our line, but yet she was a first class devotee. She had somewhat of an inclination to Dvarakadisa, but no harm. She wrote a letter to Tulsi dasa, a very great bhakta, that, “My entire family, my husband, my father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, everyone in my family is opposing me. They are opposing me and saying that I should not do bhajana. They are always opposing me and making so much disturbance. What should I do? I am a female. What should I do? Should I be in this family or should I give up my family and go to Vrndavana?”

At once, Tulsi dasa, a very renowned person, he wrote:

jake priya na rama-baidehi

tajiye tahi koti bairi sama jadyapi parama sanehi

tajyo pita prahalada bibhisana bandhu bharata mahatari

bali guru tajyo kanta braja-banitanhi bhaye muda-mangalakari

Rama-carita-manasa 174.1-2

[If someone does not consider Sri Sita and Sri Rama to be dear to him, then he should be given up as if he were ten million enemies, even if he is most dear to you. Thus, Prahlada Maharaja rejected his father, Vibhisana his relatives, Bharata his mother, Bali Maharaja his Guru, and the gopis their husbands, and they thus attained joy and auspiciousness.]

The purport of this is that if anyone who is so much near and dear to us, like our life and soul, but yet they are not serving and not having any attachment to Krsna and Srimati Radhika, then they should be given up like poison. Like how Prahlada Maharaja left his father, how Bharata Maharaja, the brother of Rama, how he left his mother Kaikeyi forever. After that he never told her, “O mother Kaikeyi.” Never. He would only say, “Queen, Queen Kaikeyi,” not mother. Also Bali Maharaja, he left his Gurudeva, Sukracarya. His Gurudeva made some disturbance when he was giving three steps of land to Vamanadeva.

He told Bali Maharaja, “He is Visnu and He will take everything, so don’t give Him anything.”

But Bharata Maharaja told him, “I have promised Him this, so I must give it. Also if He is Visnu, then anyhow He will take it because He is the owner of the whole world. He created this world, so why should I not give everything to Him? I must give Him this. I have promised, so I should give this to Him.”

So Sukracarya said, “I reject you from my discipleship.”

Then what did Bali Maharaja say in response? “Oh, I am rejecting you as my Guru.” Then at last Sukracarya became blind. He was not seeing reality, and that is his blindness. I think that he was not really blind, but why was it told that he was blind? Because he was not seeing the truth. He was not see things as they really are.

So Tulsi dasa is saying, “Anyone who is so near and dear to us like a father, mother, sister, even our wife or husband, we should give them up for the sake of service to Krsna if they are unfavorable. So, you should go to Vrndavana.” So Mirabai gave up her entire family and went to Vrndavana. Then her father, mother, husband, and all other began to pursue her, saying, “Oh, we have made a great mistake. You should return home.”

But she told them, “Oh, never.” And thus she went to Vrndavana. We should be very strong in this. We should not have any doubt in Guru-tattva, in those who are certainly krsna-tattva-vetta, like Bhaktivinoda Thakura. I see that in the last so many years, there is no one equal to Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Prabhupada in the whole world. He was so qualified, equipped with so many transcendental qualities. Bhaktivinoda Thakura was called to heaven by demigods like Indra and Brhaspati. They had some doubt in this sloka, api cet su-duracaro (BG 9.30), so he was called there. He went and removed all their doubts.

So how qualified is Bhaktivinoda Thakura? If anyone has any doubt that he has no Guru-parampara, then we should cut their tongue out, no harm. You should be very, very strong in this thing. It is better to live in foolishness, no harm, like a kanistha-adhikari. I think that it is not good to be a pandita, a bogus pandita. Panditas are so qualified, but really they are only foolish. Panditas have so many qualities, but really their only quality is that they are foolish. They cannot determine what is right and what is wrong.

Once, a very big pandita, very big scholar, very big scholar in Sanskrit and grammar, he was going through a forest anywhere. The villagers came to him and told him, “Don’t go through this dense forest, there are so many tigers and lions. They will attack you and at once eat you. Don’t go through here.”

“Oh, tigers? I know that vyaghrah, by grammar vyaghrah means, coming from jighrati, from this dhatu (verbal root), this means that he will smell me. He will not eat me, because it is not in this verbal root.”

“Oh, you are not obeying me. Okay, you can go through this forest and you will realize the fact.” Thus that man went on through the forest. He saw a very dangerous tiger in the distance and he began to roar very loudly. That tiger saw that man and at once jumped towards him. That man thought, “Oh, he will come and he will smell me. He will not eat me.” But when he jumped and began to bite him, then he thought, “Oh, sometimes it is used as eating also [devotees laugh], I forgot.” Then in the meantime that tiger ate his whole body and he was finished. So panditas are like this. Don’t go towards these things. Actually offer yourself at the lotus feet of a tattva-vetta Guru. Don’t think all these things. You cannot understand all these things by your intelligence.