Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Narada Bhakti Sutra 50

sa tarati sa tarati lokams tarayati

SYNONYMS

sah -- he; tarati -- crosses beyond; sah -- he; tarati -- crosses beyond; lokan -- the people of this world; tarayati -- he makes cross beyond.

TRANSLATION

Such a person, indeed, is delivered, and he also delivers the rest of the world.

PURPORT

Narada repeats "He crosses maya" so that there will be no doubt. The skeptic questions, "Has anyone really crossed over maya?" Don't doubt, Narada says: The pure devotee crosses maya, and he can deliver you, too.

Many disciples of Srila Prabhupada attest to the fact that he personally picked them up from maya. When I first met Srila Prabhupada, I asked him, "Is there a stage in spiritual advancement from which one won't fall back?" Prabhupada replied, "Yes." And his answer convinced me. The perfect answer in a book would not have been enough for me. Although great souls are not self-assertive, they personally demonstrate that liberated persons do exist, and that they can help us. As the demigods stated in their prayers to Krsna as He lay in the womb of Devaki, "When acaryas completely take shelter under Your lotus feet in order to cross the fierce ocean of nescience, they leave behind on earth the method by which they cross, and because You are very merciful to Your other devotees, You accept this method to help them" (Bhag. 10.2.31). Srila Prabhupada writes,

If things are made easy, this affords facility for the person who has made them easy and also for others who follow the same principles. The process recommended for crossing the ocean of nescience is easy not only for the devotee but for common persons who follow the devotee (maha-jano yena gatah sa panthah). [Bhag. 10.2.30, purport]

Pure devotees help others in many ways. Sometimes they give lectures, and at other times they meet with both devotees and nondevotees. When persons come forward for more serious instruction, the pure devotee acts as spiritual master and trains disciples to render service to the Personality of Godhead. Sometimes pure devotees become authors. Srila Prabhupada writes, "It is the duty of the acarya to publish books that will help future candidates take up the method of service and become eligible to return home, back to Godhead, by the mercy of the Lord." Sometimes the liberated souls recruit disciples who then go out and preach, following the example of their spiritual master. Great souls sometimes begin movements or societies in which devotees can live and practice bhakti. And sometimes they construct temples where the public can come to see the Deity form of Lord Krsna and taste His prasadam, the remnants of food offered to Him. Thus both by personal example and by precept, and even after their disappearance from the mortal world, the great souls help the conditioned souls who have forgotten their love for Krsna. As Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura so eloquently put it:

He reasons ill who says that Vaisnavas die,

When thou art living still in sound!

The Vaisnavas die to live, and living try

To spread the holy name around.

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Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari