Category:Praying to a Spiritual Master
Theme Analysis
The practice of offering prayers to the spiritual master is a foundational element in the science of devotional service. Through his extensive translations and purports, Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that the bona fide guru is the direct representative of the Supreme Lord, and without his mercy, no one can escape the blazing fire of saṁsāra. By submissively praying to the spiritual master, a conditioned soul receives transcendental knowledge, spiritual strength, and the ultimate protection needed to succeed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
- Extinguishing Material Existence: The repetition of birth and death is compared to a raging forest fire, which can only be extinguished by the mercy received through sincere prayers to the spiritual master.
- Receiving Spiritual Strength: Overcoming material impediments and successfully executing the mission of the Lord requires the practitioner to constantly pray to their guru for divine empowerment.
- Identical with the Lord: Because the spiritual master is the most confidential servant of Kṛṣṇa, all revealed scriptures mandate that he be prayed to and honored exactly like the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Awakening Transcendental Vision: The conditioned soul is born into the darkness of ignorance; it is the spiritual master who opens the disciple's eyes with the light of knowledge, a mercy invoked through daily prayer.
- Following the Predecessors: Great authorities and ācāryas constantly pray for the shelter and blessings of their own spiritual masters, demonstrating the perfect attitude of humility and dependence.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: How Praying to a Spiritual Master Extinguishes Saṁsāra.
Pages in category "Praying to a Spiritual Master"
The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total.
A
- Although the demons are insignificant in comparison to Lord Brahma, because of the strength of their guru they were so powerful that they could even seize Brahmaloka from Lord Brahma. We therefore pray to the spiritual master
- At the end of the Daksa-yajna and the disastrous incidents there, Daksa offered his prayer to Lord Siva
I
- I (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura) should meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day, and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master. BG 1972 purports
- I am praying to my spiritual master to give me strength to finish this work. I am neither a great scholar nor a great devotee; I am simply a humble servant of him, and to the best of my ability I am trying to please him by publishing these books
- In his prayers to the spiritual master, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura confirms that all the revealed scriptures accept the spiritual master to be identical with the Personality of Godhead because he is a very dear & confidential servant of the Lord
K
- King Rahugana was very repentant because he had forced Jada Bharata to carry his palanquin. He therefore began offering prayers to all kinds of brahmanas and self-realized persons, even though they might be playing like children or hiding in some guises
- Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami ends every chapter with this verse: Praying at the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, always desiring their mercy, I, Krsnadasa, narrate Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, following in their footsteps
T
- The gopis also worshiped Lord Siva in Vrndavana, and the lord is still staying there as Gopisvara. The gopis, however, prayed that Lord Siva bless them by giving them Lord Krsna as their husband
- The student submissively prays to the spiritual master, "Train me in such a way that I will be able to give up all other processes of self-realization and simply engage in Krsna consciousness, devotional service"
- This chanting of Hare Krsna extinguishes the blazing fire of material nature. This is also the purport to the following prayer to the spiritual master - Sri Gurvastakam, Verse 1
W
- We offer our prayer to our spiritual master, rupanuga-varaya te, because he follows Rupa Gosvami, therefore we accept, spiritual master. Not that one has become more than Rupa Gosvami
- We offer our prayers to the spiritual master with the following sloka: (om ajnana-timirandhasya) "I offer respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who with the light of knowledge has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance"
- We say or we offer our prayer to our spiritual master, rupanuga-varaya te. Rupanuga-varaya te. Because he follows Rupa Gosvami, therefore we accept, spiritual master. Not that one has become more than Rupa Gosvami or more than . . . no
- When a bona fide student approaches a bona fide spiritual master, he submissively prays to the spiritual master, "My dear lord, kindly accept me as your student"
- When Prahlada's mother, Hiranyakasipu's wife, Kayadhu, was under the protection of Narada, she prayed for the protection of her son from the enemy, and Narada Muni gave assurance that Prahlada Maharaja would always be saved from the enemy's hands