Gurupournima Series: Day 4: Patience and Openness to Correction: Jiva Goswami

Gurupournima will be celebrated on July 24, 2021. This is the special day in the life of all saadhakaas to honour their Guru or Acharyar. To do this in the most effective way, it is critical to develop in ourselves the qualities of a shisya or disciple. As a buildup to that, by the Guru’s grace, I will be putting up one blog post everyday from today till July 24. I pray that the Guru tattva blesses us all to be able to understand, imbibe and practice these qualities in our life to be able to make maximum spiritual progress.

Quality 4: Patience and Openness to Correction

Jiva was a loving disciple of Srila Rupa Goswami, one of the revered 6 goswamis of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaay (sect). Jiva was well versed in Samskrita, philosophy and logic and yet, served his Guru with humility and dedication and fierce loyalty.

Once, the senior Vaishnava Vallabhacharya visited Srila Rupa Goswami in Vrindaavan as he was writing the text called Bhakti Rasaamrita Sindhu. Jiva was fanning his Guru and therefore, privy to their conversation. Vallabhacharya pointed out what he considered as some errors in the writing, and Srila Rupa Goswami happily handed over his text to the senior Vaishnava, asking him to go through the entire writing and make all corrections as he saw fit.

When Vallabhacharya left for a dip in the Yamuna river, Jiva followed him and engaged in a discussion with the venerable Acharya, pointing out how the verses penned by his Guru were actually correct. For each flaw that Vallabhacharya pointed out, Jiva had the perfect answer to counter the objection and the senior Vaishnava was thoroughly impressed by the young shishya’s learning as well as his loyalty to his Guru.

Vallabhacharya returned to Srila Rupa Goswami, and handed back the text to him, recounting the entire episode. Hearing this, the Guru’s face turned dark, and with a cold voice, he turned to Jiva.

“You sought to correct the great senior Vaishnava? He was kind enough to edit the writing for my benefit, but you have hurt him! You have no control over your anger. If you must get angry, let it be on your own impatience instead of on others! There is no place for such an upstart in a holy place like Vrindaavan! Go away from here and go back to wherever you came from and return only when you have learned patience!”

Image courtesy: https://www.brajrasik.org/articles/588e423558f4ac271a08b951/when-roop-goswami-personally-graced-jiva-goswami-control-his-anger-and-to-be-more-patient

Jiva was in tears because it was to support the Guru that he had sought to correct what he believed to be the arrogant proposals of Vallabhacharya. Now, hearing the same Guru’s words, he felt shocked to realize that he had committed the great sin of interfering in a way that displeased his Guru! He realized that he had to yet develop the patience and willingness to listen that his Guru expected of him.

Jiva immediately went away from Srila Rupa Goswami’s ashram and took up residence in a crocodile hole in a place called Nanda Ghat. He would fast most of the time, and occasionally obtain wheat flour by bhiksha (begging alms), mix it with little water from the Yamuna, and drink the gruel. All his time was taken up in praying to Lord Krishna, singing bhajans, chanting the Lord’s name, and in crying out loud to his Guru Srila Rupa Goswami, begging for forgiveness for his mistakes.

One day, another of the 6 goswamis, Sanatan Goswami passed that way. He was Rupa Goswami’s elder brother. He brought Jiva back to Vrindaavan, negotiated on his behalf, and engineered the reunion of the repentant, now wiser shishya with his dear Guru. Srila Rupa Goswami forgave the errant Jiva and blessed him and the latter went on to become one of the future goswamis who himself authored several treatises of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaay.

Points to ponder

If we put ourselves into the shoes of Jiva as he was being banished from Vrindaavan by his Guru, we would probably think that the Guru’s action was extremely unjust. Reading this story, we are probably wondering if it was fair of the Guru to give such a harsh punishment to the disciple who was correct in principle regarding the philosophical points, more so when he was trying to support you!

However, in spiritual practice, being correct on a matter of philosophy is not as important as having the attitude of humility and being open to correction. Srila Rupa Goswami, the Guru himself, was willing to let his writing be scrutinized by his senior Vallabhacharya and it is exactly this spirit he wanted the young Jiva to cultivate. 

An egoistic seeker (saadhaka) and equally, an egoistic Guru, are probably the most dangerous type of oxymoron!

In his famous work, the Upadeshaamritaa, Srila Rupa Goswami writes:



Let us pray for divine grace to meet a Guru like Srila Rupa Goswami who will point out our faults and help us achieve perfection as a shishya!

To know more about the goswamis and this incident, read here:

https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/sri-jiva-goswami/

https://www.vcm.org.in/blog/jivagosvami-a-brief-sketch/

https://www.brajrasik.org/articles/588e423558f4ac271a08b951/when-roop-goswami-personally-graced-jiva-goswami-control-his-anger-and-to-be-more-patient