the eternal teacher.

Lately, when I think of the term "spiritual master", I imagine a certain scenario:

You're swimming languidly in an ocean that stretches across the horizon. You're relaxed and content, perfectly at ease with your life.

After a while however, the current builds in strength and you struggle to swim. Your hands flail desperately as you try to keep your head above water. You try to swim back to shore but you have to swim against the powerful current that keeps pulling you further back into the bottomless ocean.

Tired, drained, and desperate for a small flicker of hope, you surrender-

you surrender to the only personality who can save a human from even the darkest of dangers.

-And suddenly, a warm hand grasps onto your trembling, cold one. The hand pulls you towards shore. You look up in bewilderment. How is it possible for this person to push against the current?

You peek around and realization immediately washes upon you. There is a chain of people starting from the shore, all working together to pull you out of the water. Everyone is anchored to each other, working hard to save you.

I imagine the warm hand that grasps onto our cold, trembling one, to be the merciful hand of our spiritual master. While he holds onto us, his spiritual master is holding onto him, and so on and so forth.

The spiritual master is very special. He is not someone ordinary. It is mentioned in Radhanath Swami's Vyasa Puja post:

"A guru is one who takes one from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge, from suffering to true happiness."

Srila Prabhupada, you mercifully held out your hand and saved thousands of people across the globe from the ocean of miseries. Even now, your kindness, compassion, and determination to deliver the message of Lord Krishna can be felt through your books and lectures.

I hope I may one day contribute to your legacy.

Written for Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja (even though I'm a day late !)