Repaying An Unpayable Debt

What can we do to reciprocate  the receipt of life’s greatest gift?

By Jagannatha Gopala Dasa

I HAVE VIVID MEMORIES of attending ceremonies where my father offered sraddha) to my grandfather on his death anniversary each year, a tradition I continue to follow for my late father. As a child, I would look forward to the delicious multi-course meal after the ceremony. As I grew up, I would often ponder over the significance of the ritual. After speaking to the priests and friends, I gathered that I owe a debt (rina) to my father (and my forefathers) for bringing me up and giving me a comfortable life. That debt isn’t limited to the time when my father lived but extends beyond his death.

One of the ways to repay the debt is through the sraddha ceremony, where one offers prasadam (food offered to the Supreme Lord) to the forefathers for smoothening their journey in the nether worlds. Arjuna refers to the sraddha ceremony in the beginning of Bhagavad-gita while trying to justify his desire not to take part in the Kurukshetra war. He mentions that when the offering of oblations to forefathers will stop as a long-term consequence of the war, that will ruin the peace and well-being of the entire society.

According to Vedic scriptures, a spirit soul owes a debt not only to his or her parents, but also to relatives, friends, sages, demigods, and other living beings. Since they all facilitate the well-being of the spirit soul in a myriad of ways, the spirit soul has to reciprocate with them.

Usually when one borrows something, the debt becomes somewhat of a burden on the debtor, which the debtor has to work hard to repay. While the debt the spirit soul owes may also seem burdensome, its purpose is to take the spirit soul deeper into an important principle: gratitude.

Gratitude is a virtue that permeates Vedic thought. It is often misconstrued as a transactional ethic that governs a fruitive mentality – if one wants or already has something of value, one does the needful to please the particular deity responsible for bestowing that thing, thus getting rid of the debt. Gratitude, on the other hand, goes beyond just being in a state of netzero, where we do not owe anything to anyone, to genuinely appreciating the gifts we’ve received that make life worth living. Rather than a mere act of repayment, gratitude is a state of mind and heart that makes us conscious at every moment of what we have.

Srila Prabhupada writes, “As a rule, every human being is indebted to God, the demigods, great sages, other living entities, people in general, forefathers, etc., for various contributions received from them. Thus everyone is obliged to repay the debt of gratitude.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.3.26, Purport) He also writes, “When human society is grateful to the Lord for all His gifts for the maintenance of the living entities, then there is certainly no scarcity or want in society. But when men are unaware of the intrinsic value of such gifts from the Lord, surely they are in want.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.5.49, Purport)

Gratitude helps us stay grounded in reality about our own position in relation to everyone and everything around us. Even an act like the sraddha ceremony done to repay one’s karmic debt, when infused with gratitude, purifies the heart and makes us more open to appreciate the presence of higher powers in our lives. If we are fortunate to come in contact with a devotee of the Lord, then that awareness matures, and we receive the greatest gift there is – the gift of Krishna consciousness.

The Gift Of Krishna Conciousness

One of the six characteristics of bhakti, or Krishna consciousness, is sudurlabha, or rarity. Krishna mentions in the Gita (9.29) that He is equal to everyone (samo ’ham sarva-bhuteshu). Thus His mercy is readily available to one and all. If so, why is bhakti described as being very rare? Because it can be bestowed only by one who already has it and by no other means. Therefore it is said, “Bhakti comes only from bhakti” (bhaktya sanjataya bhaktya, Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.31).

In His instructions to Srila Rupa Gosvami, Lord Caitanya said,

brahmanda bhramite
kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krishna-prasade
paya bhakti-lata-bija

“According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krishna. By the mercy of both Krishna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.” (Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 19.151)

By the mercy of the spiritual master and Krishna, the spirit soul receives the gift of Krishna consciousness. It is likened to a seed the guru plants in the heart of a disciple that, after being watered by the disciple by sincerely following the instructions given by the guru, grows into a big tree. The fruit of that tree is pure, unalloyed love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, with byproducts like freedom from lower tendencies and eventual liberation from the pangs of material existence.

In this way the spiritual master bestows upon a jiva the greatest gift. That gift surpasses any amount of material pleasure and even the pleasure of liberation. How great then is the rina, or debt, the disciple owes to the spiritual master? There is absolutely nothing in the realm of material existence (wealth, comforts, etc.) that can match the grace the spiritual master bestows upon us. Thus, according to scriptures, a disciple should repay the debt to the spiritual master by sincerely attempting to follow the guru’s teachings and helping to spread those teachings to others.

In his commentary on Gita 2.41, Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura describes the mood of one who possesses such one-pointed intelligence: “The instructions my guru has given me about hearing and chanting about Sri Bhagavan, remembering Him, serving His lotus feet, etc., are my spiritual practice, my perfection, and my very life.”

Srila Prabhupada wrote:

A Vaisnava always feels himself incapable to repay his debt to his spiritual master; therefore he works very hard in order to try and repay that debt. He knows that without the mercy of the spiritual master one cannot preach this Krsna consciousness and therefore he always tries to act in such a way that he may please his guru. Please continue in this way and keep very strictly the regulative principles and chanting the prescribed number of rounds on the beads and you will clear the way for success in your preaching work. (Letter, August 9, 1976)

Our Debt To Srila Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada performed a historic feat when as a 69-year-old holy man he crossed the ocean and started a worldwide movement that transformed the hearts of millions and continues to do so. Srila Prabhupada made his humble beginnings for ISKCON at the storefront at 26 Second Avenue, New York City.

The storefront had been a curio shop named Matchless Gifts, and its sign remained after Prabhupada began his Gita classes there. Krishna consciousness is indeed a matchless gift.

Aware of the culture of gratitude that encompasses Vedic life, disciples often asked Srila Prabhupada how they could repay him. His standard reply was that they could do so by sharing the gift of Krishna consciousness with others – in other words, following the example of their guru by doing what he did.

Yet Prabhupada also emphasized time and again that the gift of Krishna consciousness is so great and precious that it is practically impossible to repay the spiritual master. He wrote:

Knowledge of Krishna is such a great gift that it is impossible to repay the benefactor. . . . A joker’s activities simply arouse laughter, and a person who tries to repay the spiritual master or teacher of the transcendental message of Krishna becomes a laughing stock just like a joker because it is not possible to repay such a debt. The best friend and benefactor of all people is one who awakens humanity to its original Krishna consciousness. (SrimadBhagavatam 4.22.47, Purport)

Once, when a disciple offered him 108 pounds sterling, Srila Prabhupada replied to her in a letter (July 29, 1976):

Actually you are correct; it is not possible for the disciple to repay the debt to the spiritual master. Therefore the disciple remains eternally indebted to the spiritual master and continually works in such a way that the spiritual master may become pleased upon him for such sincere services rendered. Always follow the four principles, take prasadam, and above all chant your sixteen rounds a day, and thus you will make steady advancement.

“Remain Always Obliged”

If we cannot repay the guru for the gift of bhakti we have received, what do we do? This is where the summit of the virtue of gratitude is seen: we eternally remain grateful to the spiritual master. During a lecture in Dallas (March 4, 1975), when asked how we can repay him, Prabhupada said: “You don’t require to repay. [chuckles] I am not giving you anything. It is Krishna’s property. You repay to Krishna. Chant Hare Krishna and He will be repaid. [break] Nobody can repay. Therefore it is better to remain always obliged. That’s all. Is that all right? Chant Hare Krishna.”

In a letter dated August 14, 1976, addressing his disciples at the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada wrote:

If you feel at all indebted to me then you should preach vigorously like me. That is the proper way to repay me. Of course, no one can repay the debt to the spiritual master, but the spiritual master is very much pleased by such an attitude by the disciple. In the Bhagavadgita it is said, vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru nandana, “Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one.” Our only business is to be fixed up in devotional service by pleasing the spiritual master.

So can we sadhakas (spiritual practitioners) repay Srila Prabhupada and – for disciples of his disciples – our own guru for giving us Krishna? No and yes. A sadhaka cannot repay the guru in the sense of getting rid of the debt. But what we can and must do is express our heartfelt gratitude in the form of following the guru’s instructions and inheriting the guru’s mission of spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world. That constant gratitude is itself the reciprocation that will please the spiritual master and take the practitioner closer to Krishna.

Jagannatha Gopala Dasa got connected to Krishna consciousness through ISKCON Pune’s youth forum. He holds a master’s degree in computer science. He lives in New Jersey and works in the technology division of Goldman Sachs.