Teachings - Dear Friend of my soul

Dear Friend of my soul

Please accept my prayers for the blessings of the holy name and all the pure devotees to always descend into your life.

It is so nice that we can share these few precious moments. Srila Prabhupada, my spiritual master, is guiding us in this world as much as we wish. He gave his life for us by sharing his love and wisdom under difficult circumstances with all those who had the fortune to meet him. He also extended his grace to all who will hear about him, read his books and try to follow his recommendations in their life.

He revealed to us the meaning of a spiritual family. That is not a formal connection. It is a heart to heart transaction. It is real and always capable of expanding to reach out to people previously unknown to us. A spiritual family comes into existence by discovering joint ideals, joint selfless projects we identify to serve and join people we love. Those who take up more responsibility in making a spiritual family work and provide different forums for association naturally endear themselves to the others in a special way. In other words, whoever wants to become dear to others in his spiritual family makes an effort to serve the common goals and help others.

We are generally very lonely in this material world. We cannot identify with the ego goals of others, nor are others happy with our own ego projects. Thus we suffer by having no one to exchange deep concerns with. Even boy and girlfriends, husbands and wives, children and parents run into this same problem. We have not enough to offer to fill the emptiness in others' hearts. We can try and we experience some relief in the attempt, but finally we end up again -lonely and empty. What to speak of drugs, money or entertainment, they cannot give us any love.

Neither do they give us health or beauty. It is really the spiritual family, which can provide us with a taste of the love for the supreme. That is where we can get faith, and the enthusiasm for some real positive engagement. We can develop all the good qualities, such as selflessness, gratefulness and compassion. Our life gets real meaning and we can even endure difficult moments.

This is the gift Srila Prabhupada gave us. Far away from institutional concerns and that made his spiritual family grow rapidly. Even today, 27 years after his departure from this planet his family is spreading in different units and branches inspired by those who have taken this spirit to heart. If any selfish interests invade a spiritual family the tendency is that the spirit of family and sacrifice dries out and a portion of the family distorts into something else or simply disappears. We have also seen that countless times in the world of religious institutions and also our faith is no exception to this danger.

But in order to keep the beautiful spiritual family alive and growing we need a loving and trusting relationship with those who truly stand for the truth with heart and soul.

And this relationship has to be able to pass the scrutinized review of the Holy Scriptures, the spiritual masters and the holy dedicated souls. That is really the only job of our own hearts revision. We always have to be alert that our spiritual family and all new friends will be properly guided.

And then there is your own participation. Please be careful to not allow your mind to distance you from the association of other serious devotees. The pretext of the diverse failures of others to justify distancing yourself from your spiritual master and personal service is a trick of Maya. That is the reason why we accept a spiritual master above our mind. If anything goes wrong and our desire to serve diminishes or we feel in trouble, it is his answer we have to seek to solve our dilemma. Otherwise it is not fair. We ask the Guru to accept us as his spiritual children and when we have trouble we do not give him a chance to remove the obstacles. That will make him suffer, because when you accept a spiritual child you feel personally committed to his welfare.

Sometimes devotees say I did not want to bother you with my problems.
But then the problem becomes much bigger and it gives me real pain.
Especially if in a long time I have not heard anything from you.
Through the chats I am trying to make myself available almost every Sunday. Since I cannot visit every temple very often, I appreciate the method to chat.

I consider every chat like a very nice Istagosthi to enthuse the devotees, to report about your new projects and to let all of us feel the spirit of a Vaisnava family.

Unfortunately sometimes in a family, there exists some ego clash or some individual failures. That should never disturb you. No children - no problems. Many children -many problems. All glories to the problems; excuse me, to the Vaisnava children. If someone is searching for a pretext to enjoy in Maya again, there are hundreds of reasons. But if you want to remain fixed in devotional service, there are millions of reasons to continue the struggle against illusion.

But we should not speak about the failures of others. We should stay under the shelter of those who only see the good things or at least who do not unnecessarily dwell on the problems of others. And the chats in particular are a platform to associate with your spiritual master and some other functions, which we try to offer to Srila Prabhupada´s Vrinda family.

I am committed to train all of you up for qualified spiritual leadership. If you cannot engage in this way at least you can learn to recognize a real spiritual representative of mine and you can give support to my efforts by helping in some practical way. Work only with those devotees who your really love and trust. I am not interested in a big institution. I only want to offer to Srila Prabhupada a beautiful spiritual family or many family braches of it.
I am not really expert in any of these duties, but somehow ever since I took shelter of Srila Prabhupada a shower of services has been send to me. And we have to learn to swim in the water. Do not expect any perfection. I will not be able to deliver that to you. But you can help me to make our family a little bit more perfect every day. This is my humble request. I cannot do this job without you. Your love for Srila Prabhupada and for Krishna can be shown by helping me to serve all of you.

Even if you slipped along the way or got submerged in a family or other affair, do not hesitate to return quickly and give me some relief, some help to worship Krishna in his different deity forms in our Vrinda centers. Help me by giving classes in our Vaisnava academies. There is so much to do. Enough for all and for many more.
Do not think that I am not talking to you. Some devotee thinks: "I am so fallen. I am a woman, how can I preach. I am not important. My Guru has no time for me. Etc. " Well if you think like this you are wrong. Srila Prabhupada wanted all of us to be actively involved in helping others. That is what can save us from illusion.

I am sending you this letter from Madrid hoping to reach your heart.
I beg my spiritual masters to shower all of you with their divine blessings and with purity to be able to chant the holy name of Krishna from the core of your heart.

Oh my Lord please let me become an instrument of your love. See you soon. Please let me know what you think about this letter to you. At least let us meet regularly on the Sunday chats. With all my love

Your ever well-wisher,
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti