Mysterious, Yet Familiar

Prabhupada is mysterious and we cannot fully understand him.  We know him the way an affectionate child knows his father.  We think, “This was my father’s cup and these were his shoes.  This is what he says.”  We know him in a familiar way, yet we also know that he is inconceivable.  We should never minimize the strength that we get by thinking of ourselves as followers of that person, Prabhupada.

If I study a God consciousness or Vaisnava philosophy with someone who does not have a tight connection with guru – or if I myself do not feel my connection to Srila Prabhupada – then spiritual life becomes vague.  There is a hollow feeling.  Someone may talk of “experience of God,” but you want to ask him, “Do you know what you are talking about?  Do you have experience of this?”  No matter what he may say, he cannot convince or touch me the way Prabhupada did.  That which is most solid for me in Krishna consciousness is based on my relationship with Prabhupada.  It comes to this:  God is known by our relationship to the guru.  If all you know is guru, you are doing all right.  Vaisnava philosophy does not approve of strong aspirations for connection with God, while maintaining weak connections to guru.