Who is the real Acarya?
Adi 3.98 The External Reasons for
Lord Caitanya' s Appearance
Seeing the
activities of the world, the Acarya felt compassion and began
to ponder how He could act for the people's benefit.
PURPORT
This sort of
serious interest in the welfare of the public makes one a bona
fide acarya. An acarya does not exploit his followers.
Since the acarya is a confidential servitor of the Lord, his
heart is always full of compassion for humanity in its suffering. He
knows that all suffering is due to the absence of devotional service to
the Lord, and therefore he always tries to find ways to change
people's activities, making them favorable for the
attainment of devotion. That is the qualification of an
acarya. Although Sri Advaita Prabhu Himself was powerful
enough to do the work, as a submissive servitor He thought that
without the personal appearance of the Lord, no one could improve the
fallen condition of society.
In the grim clutches of maya, the first-class prisoners of this material
world wrongly think themselves happy because they are rich, powerful,
resourceful and so on. These foolish creatures do not know that they
are nothing but play dolls in the hands of material nature and that at
any moment material nature's pitiless intrigues can crush to dust
all their plans for godless activities. Such foolish prisoners cannot see
that however they improve their position by artificial means, the
calamities of repeated birth, death, disease and old age are always
beyond the jurisdiction of their control. Foolish as they are, they
neglect these major problems of life and busy themselves with false
things that cannot help them solve their real problems. They
know that they do not want to suffer death or the pangs of disease and
old age, but under the influence of the illusory energy, they are
grossly negligent and therefore do nothing to solve the problems.
This is called maya. People held in the grip of maya are thrown into
oblivion after death, and as a result of their karma, in the next life
they become dogs or gods, although most of them become dogs. To
become gods in the next life, they must engage in the devotional
service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; otherwise, they are sure
to become dogs or hogs in terms of the laws of nature.
The third-class prisoners, being less materially opulent than the first-class
prisoners, endeavor to imitate them, for they also have no information
of the real nature of their imprisonment. Thus they also are misled by
the illusory material nature. The function of the acarya, however,
is to change the activities of both the first-class and
third-class prisoners for their real benefit. This endeavor makes him a very
dear devotee of the Lord, who says clearly in the Bhagavad-gita
that no one in human society is dearer to Him than a devotee who
constantly engages in His service by finding ways to preach the
message of Godhead for the real benefit of the world. The so-called
acaryas of the Age of Kali are more concerned with exploiting
the resources of their followers than mitigating their miseries;
but Sri Advaita Prabhu,
as an ideal acarya, was concerned with improving the condition of
the world situation.
JUDGE BY THE RESULT.......BEFORE
AND NOW......
What happened when Srila
Prabhupada was here and what happened when he left?
Srila Prabhupada actually cared
for his devotees, he cared for
all humanity, and above all,he cared for His Lord Krsna Caitanya
Mahaprabhu who gave him solace when he took the Jaladuta across the
Atlantic ocean.
Compare him then to what
we have now. There is just NO comparison
at all, for none of us are on that level of devotion. Our best and
safest position is to humbly follow, somehow or other, in his grand
footsteps as the most humble servants of the servant.
Hare Krsna
your humble servant
Damaghosa das
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