(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 15 August 2015, Vrindavan, India, Bhagavad-gita 17.1)
Worship of the spiritual master goes beyond offering a flower and offering some incense. It goes beyond one’s own worship to the point of pleasing the spiritual master. The other day I was thinking, “Chant sixty-four rounds?” Then I thought, “That would be nice but wouldn’t it be nicer to make sixty-four devotees!
What would be a nicer offering – sixty-four rounds or sixty-four devotees? Of course, one does not necessarily exclude the other. One can chant sixty-four rounds and then make sixty-four devotees! But sometimes, rather than chant sixty-four rounds, maybe we should somehow or the other, spread Krsna consciousness.
So what does it mean to worship the spiritual master? When Srila Prabhupada received the order from his spiritual master to preach in the English language that was understood, in those days, to mean that he should preach to the English speaking world. But Prabhupada took it quite far. He could have just done some preaching in the Western world but Prabhupada filled that order to the maximum.
He extended not only in terms of language, from English to over seventy languages in which his books are translated. He also expanded it by traveling the globe. He expanded it to ultimately take it that his mission was to deliver the entire world – simply based on the words, “Preach in the English language!”
So where does it begin and where does it end – this worship of the spiritual master?
