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We are gathered here on the most auspicious occasion of Lord Balarama's appearance day at the lotus feet of the Deities of Sri Sri Krsna-Balarama. Lord Balarama is considered the original spiritual master. As the first expansion of Krsna, He is the first servant of Lord Krsna. And He fulfills the two functions of the spiritual master: to engage in service to Krsna and to give knowledge of Krsna.

Once, in Calcutta , Srila Prabhupada raised the question, "What is the duty of the spiritual master?" And then he gave the answer: "The duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krsna." Then he asked, "What is the duty of the disciple?" And then answered: "The duty of the disciple is to assist the spiritual master." He gave the example that in the temple there are so many duties to perform, and the spiritual master, as the servant of Krsna, is responsible for all of them. So when the spiritual master asks the disciple to wash the floor, the disciple should think, "Actually, my spiritual master has to wash the floor and I am assisting him." So Lord Balarama, as the first expansion of Krsna, is the first servant of Krsna.

In terms of relationship, or rasa, Balarama mainly serves Krsna as a friend in sakhya-rasa. But because He is elder to Krsna, there is also a paternal element to Balarama's service, and so He also serves in vatsalya-rasa, or with vatsalya-bhava. But then again, because He is an expansion of Krsna, He is a servant of Krsna, and therefore He also serves Krsna in dasya-rasa, or with dasya-bhava. Still, there is one other rasa, madhurya-rasa, in which one can serve Krsna only in a female form. Balarama also wanted to serve Krsna in madhurya-rasa, and so He expanded Himself as Ananga-manjari, who in krsna-lila is the younger sister of Srimati Radharani. Thus Lord Balarama serves Krsna in madhurya-rasa--and in every principle relationship.

Bala means "strength" and rama means "pleasure." Balarama gives us spiritual strength, and with spiritual strength we can enjoy the highest pleasure. How? With spiritual strength we can serve and please Krsna, and in pleasing Krsna we experience the greatest pleasure. In fact, bhakti is composed of two elements, two of Krsna's potencies: samvit and hladhini. Samvit means "knowledge," knowledge of Krsna, and haldhini means 'pleasure'. Bhakti is composed of knowledge of Krsna and spiritual pleasure. We give pleasure to Krsna through bhakti, and through bhakti we also experience pleasure, through the hladhini-sakti, which is personified as Srimati Radharani.

Srila Prabhupada has explained, as many scriptures explain, that spiritual master has two divisions: diksa-guru and siksa-guru. The diksa-guru gives initiation, mantra, and the siksa-guru gives instruction. The rule is that one may accept only one diksa-guru but one may accept many siksa-gurus, although he need not. Once, when Srila Prabhupada detected that his disciples were straying here and there, he declared, "I am your diksa-guru and your siksa-guru." But in principle, although one may accept only one diksa-guru, one may accept more than one siksa-guru, provided that the siksa-guru supports one's service to one's diksa-guru. Srila Prabhupada has explained that one has only one diksa-guru, who initiates you, just as one has only one father. But anyone who teaches purely what one's initiating spiritual master has taught can be regarded as guru, siksa-guru.

Of course, Srila Prabhupada is the founder-acarya of ISKCON, and so he has a special position in the spiritual lives of all devotees in ISKCON. He wrote, "One who teaches can be treated as spiritual master. It is not that after we become initiated we become perfect. No. It requires teaching. So if we take instruction from them, all senior Godbrothers may be treated as guru, there is no harm. Actually, you have only one spiritual master, who initiates you, just as you have only one father. But every Vaisnava should be treated as prabhu, master, higher than me, and in this sense, if I learn from him, he may be regarded as guru. It is not that I disobey my real spiritual master and call someone else as spiritual master. That is wrong. It is only that I can call spiritual master someone who is teaching me purely what my initiating spiritual master has taught." Here he was referring to himself, because he was the only initiating spiritual master in ISKCON then. Yet even now in ISKCON, every instructor should strive to teach purely what Srila Prabhupada taught. At the same time, Srila Prabhupada phrased the principle generally: "that I can call spiritual master someone who is teaching me purely what my initiating spiritual master has taught."

Lord Balarama, as the original spiritual master, manifests Himself through so many spiritual masters in the line, through parampara. Even for us who have Srila Prabhupada, the most exalted spiritual master, as our founder-acarya and in some cases as our diksa-guru as well, Lord Balarama manifests in infinite number of forms.. He speaks to us through infinite numbers of mouths, and Srila Prabhupada also speaks to us through many 
mouths. Srila Prabhupada himself set the example by taking advice that others gave to him as if it was coming from his spiritual master. For example, when the proper time came, one of his Godbrothers, Bhaktiprajnana Kesava Maharaja, advised him to take sannyasa. Earlier, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had instructed Srila Prabhupada to 
preach, and Bhaktiprajnava Kesava Gosvami Maharaja advised Srila Prabhupada, "If you want to preach, you should take sannyasa." Later, Srila Prabhupada commented that his Guru Maharaja had spoken to him through that Godbrother. On other occasions Srila Prabhupada took advice even from ordinary people and friends as God-sent: Lord Balarama.

Last week I visited His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, who was my first temple president and also my siksa-guru. Tonight while we were singing the second pranama-mantra to Srila Prabhupada, namas te sarasvate deve, I thought of him, because he is the one who taught me the mantra. In the early days of ISKCON we didn't have the second pranama-mantra. We had only the first, nama om visnu-padaya. So Satsvarupa Maharaja taught us that second one, and he taught us so much about spiritual life. In my initiation letter, Srila Prabhupada wrote, "You should avoid the ten offenses as far as possible and follow the four regulative principles as Satsvarupa will instruct you. I know your good Godbrother, Satsvarupa, will always help you in this connection."

When I joined the Boston temple Satsvarupa Maharaja was also the editor of Back to Godhead magazine, and he was always encouraging devotees to write. He encouraged me to write too, and eventually I got the inspiration to write an article about guru. He helped me with it, and eventually the article was published in Back to Godhead. By then I had already gone to India, and when Srila Prabhupada got the magazine and read the article, he called for me and said, "I read your article in Back to Godhead. It was very nice. You should write." That, perhaps, is the main instruction Srila Prabhupada gave me, because at the time he added that my "first business" was to write. Of course, in between there were many other services. Srila Prabhupada engaged me in the Juhu project. But still, the instruction was there: "You should write. This is your first business."

So, when I visited Satsvarupa Maharaja, he pulled my book Watering the Seed from the shelf and started to read what Srila Prabhupada had instructed: "You should write. This is your first business." He was sort of prodding me. I had already told him about my current work, the festival book, but he considered that there was a difference between a book that is a collection of shorter pieces and a book that is written from beginning to end. Of course, I accepted the point. I explained that I knew that but that to really write a whole book from beginning to end, especially about a historical period in Srila Prabhupada's pastimes, would require a lot of concentration and that Visakha Priya was still compiling the basic material about Bombay and I was involved with the hospice and the widows' ashram in Vrndavana. Even though those projects don't take that much time, they require a type of attention that would make it hard for me to immerse myself in that historical period about Bombay. But I felt that probably within a few months the festival book would be finished and Visakha Priya would have most of the Bombay material organized, and by then the hospice and the women's ashram projects would be more developed as well.

The talk was pleasant, and while Satsvarupa Maharaja was reading to me what Srila Prabhupada had said, I actually felt--deeply felt--Srila Prabhupada's presence. And I felt that Satsvarupa Maharaja was speaking with an authority that was coming from Srila Prabhupada. Then we discussed other topics and parted ways, and I didn't think so much about what he had said. I just went for my walk and then retired for the night. But the next morning I found, unexpectedly, a tremendous impetus within me both to work on the Bombay book and to move the Vrndavana projects along faster so that I could be free to concentrate on the book. I actually did some work on theBombay book, which I hadn't done for a few weeks, and I did some things to push the hospice and other projects along. Then I thought, "This is spiritual master. He gives the appropriate instruction, and on top of it he gives the inspiration, or the empowerment, to fulfill it. This is spiritual  master."

Later I mentioned the incident to Aghari Prabhu, who sort of organizes Satsvarupa Maharaja's medical care and other services. In fact, he has provided the house where Satsvarupa Maharaja stays. I told him my little story, and he told me his. He had joined in 1974 and never had much association with Srila Prabhupada. He saw him just three times. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada, and then on November 14, 1977, Srila 
Prabhupada left. Aghari Prabhu was devastated. He felt a great sadness in his heart that he just couldn't shake. Then Satsvarupa Maharaja returned to the United States from India, from Vrndavana. He gave a series of talks on service in separation that were later published as a small book called He Lives Forever, with a beautiful black-and-white picture of Srila Prabhupada on the cover. Anyway, Aghari Prabhu told me that later Satsvarupa Maharaja somehow entered his heart and did something, and all the sadness went away. That emptiness just wasn't there anymore. And then Aghari Prabhu said to me, "That is guru. To be able to do that--that is guru."

The idea is that Lord Balarama speaks through an infinity of mouths. He works through an infinity of agents, whom we can call spiritual masters. And we find the same with Srila Prabhupada. He is the world acarya, the founder-acarya of ISKCON, and for some of us our direct spiritual master. In any case, he is the main instructor for many, many devotees. Yet he too works through his agents, and I felt he was working through Satsvarupa 
Maharaja to help me.

Just before I left Satsvarupa Maharaja's retreat, I thought back on my first article, which Satsvarupa Maharaja had helped me write and which Srila Prabhupada so appreciated. In recent years I had been wondering how I could actually write a book. I knew I could write small pieces and assemble them into a collection, but I wasn't sure how I would write a whole book. And beyond even the question of how to write an entire book was the 
question of what to write. We already had Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta with a lot of historical information. What would be my specific contribution? Why was I writing? Was I more or less just going to say the same things and add some details? I knew the answer was no; I was writing to share my realizations about Srila Prabhupada and about service to Srila Prabhupada.

But how to do it I couldn't say. In our talks Satsvarupa Maharaja gave me some ideas, and I am sure that when I actually start to work with the material, things will become clear. And it will also become clear what things are not clear. And I expect that Satsvarupa Maharaja will help me. I may not even ask him, but somehow I have faith, as Srila Prabhupada wrote, that "your good Godbrother, Satsvarupa, will always help you," just as he helped me with my first article for Back to Godhead. So that has given me a lot of confidence--not just hope--but assurance that the effort can be successful.

With the thought that Satsvarupa Maharaja was going to help me with the book, I felt elated, very elated, that "I am going back to Godhead! Satsvarupa Maharaja is taking me back to Godhead! He is taking me back to Godhead!" How? He will help me to write my books about Srila Prabhupada, and by writing my books about Srila Prabhupada, I may become eligible to go back to Godhead.

So I thank His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Goswami for all the help he has given me over the years, and I thank Srila Prabhupada for bringing me close to him. (It is also very interesting how Srila Prabhupada brought me close to himself. Although I had so many authorities who were very helpful to me, at the same time Srila Prabhupada also brought me close to him. From the first time he actually asked for me to meet him alone, inBombay in 1970, even though I was under other senior devotees, he also would reciprocate 
with me directly. Still, I was under their guidance and management.) And I thank Srila Prabhupada for all the help that he has sent to me through his disciples such as Satsvarupa Maharaja, Tamal Krishna Goswami, His Holiness Sridhar Maharaja, and so many others. And ultimately I must express my gratitude and appreciation to Lord Balarama, the origin of it all.

So we pray to Lord Balarama to give us all strength and intelligence in our devotional service, in our missions. ("'Strength' means intelligence," Srila Prabhupada once said.) And we pray to Lord Balarama and Srila Prabhupada to speak to us in ways we can hear, through voices that we recognize, even when we are apart. And so our futures in devotional service are bright--by the grace of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Balarama.