The Nectar of Devotion - 1970 ISKCON press edition ... - Prabhupada

XVlllThe Nectar of DevotionIIII:IIIIIacaryas (holy teachers), who are compared with sharks in the greatocean of nectar and who do not care for the various rivers of liberation.Impersonalists are very fond of merging into the supreme, likerivers that come down and merge into the ocean. The ocean can becompared with liberation and the rivers with all the different pathsof liberation. The impersonalists are dwelling in the river water,which eventually comes to mix with the ocean. They have no information,however, that within the ocean, as within the river, there areinnumerable aquatic living entities. The sharks who dwell in theocean do not care for the rivers which are gliding down into it. Thedevotees eternally live in the ocean of devotional service, and theydo not care for the rivers. In other words, those who are pure devoteesalways remain in the ocean of transcendental loving service tothe Lord and have no business with the other processes, which arecompared to the rivers that only gradually come to the ocean.Srila Riipa Gosvami prays to his spiritual master, Srila Sanatana Gosvami,for the protection of Bhakti-rasiimrta-sindhu-the Ocean ofthe Pure Nectar of Devotional Service-from the argumentative logicianswho unnecessarily meddle in the science of service to the Lord.He compares their arguments and logic to volcanic eruptions in themidst of the ocean. In the midst of the ocean such volcanic eruptionscan do very little harm, and similarly, those who are against devotionalservice to the Lord and who put forward many philosophicaltheses about the ultimate transcendental realization cannot disturbthis great ocean of devotional service.The author of Bhakti-rasiimrta-sindhu, Srila Riipa Gosvami, veryhumbly submits that he is just trying to spread Kr!la consciousnessall over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for thiswork. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Kr!la consciousnessmovement, following in the footsteps of Srila Riipa Gosvami.We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, butshould always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previousiiciiryas, and simply by following in their footsteps we may beable to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity.Bhakti-rasiimrta-sindhu is divided into four parts, j ust as the oceanis sometimes divided into four parts, and there are different sections