{"id":326,"date":"2008-08-25T05:42:40","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T10:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/2008\/08\/25\/oh-my-masters-lotus-feet-are-bittersweet\/"},"modified":"2008-08-25T05:42:40","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T10:42:40","slug":"oh-my-masters-lotus-feet-are-bittersweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/2008\/08\/25\/oh-my-masters-lotus-feet-are-bittersweet\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, My Master’s Lotus Feet Are Bittersweet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prabhupada<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the lunar calendar, the day after Sri Krishna Janmastami marks the celebration of the birth of Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami<\/a> (September 1, 1896\u2013November 14, 1977), the Vaishnava monk, global proponent of Krishna bhakti and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.<\/p>\n

To honor the day I\u2019ll share a poem penned for the occasion in 1986 by one of Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami\u2019s disciples, Tamal Krishna Goswami. It\u2019s a poem I find particularly edifying in understanding the nature of the relationship between guru and disciple as well as the tension between the pains and joys of renunciation. It’s entitled “<\/strong>Oh, My Master’s Lotus Feet Are Bittersweet”.<\/p>\n

Kaustubha das<\/p>\n

\n

Oh, My Master’s Lotus Feet Are Bittersweet<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Tamal Krishna Goswami<\/p>\n

God’s greatest gift, service to my master,
\nExorcist of the ghost of past desire,
\nSweet purgative, bittersweet oil of castor.<\/p>\n

I’ve found my master’s service does inspire
\nDesirelessness of all but pleasing him;
\nWithout remorse, I watch life’s joys expire.<\/p>\n

Let lust retire, that most acidic sin,
\nBy guru’s grace, its misery alkalize
\nMy soured life, rescued by his discipline.<\/p>\n

I hide my sin in shame lest he recognize
\nMy faults and condemn what I enjoyed;
\nBetter than praise: chastisement satisfies.<\/p>\n

My futile lies, God’s servant to avoid,
\nFearing his virtues would smash my vain conceit,
\nForced by his love into service unalloyed.<\/p>\n

How can I avoid the shelter of his feet,
\nWhen the feelings of my heart are overjoyed?
\nOh, my master’s lotus feet are bittersweet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the lunar calendar, the day after Sri Krishna Janmastami marks the celebration of the birth of Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami (September 1, 1896\u2013November 14, 1977), the Vaishnava monk, global proponent of Krishna bhakti and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. To honor the day I\u2019ll share a poem penned for the occasion in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18,30],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weblog","tag-bhaktivedanta-swami","tag-kaustubha-das"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhakticollective.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}