To become the servant of the Lord means to accept a Spiritual Master. Without accepting somebody as master, how can one become an expert servant

Expressions researched:
"To become the servant of the Lord means to accept a Spiritual Master. Without accepting somebody as master, how can one become an expert servant"

Correspondence

1969 Correspondence

To become the servant of the Lord means to accept a Spiritual Master. Without accepting somebody as master, how can one become an expert servant? It is not that in every literature you will find the words that everyone has to accept a Spiritual Master, but we have to study things scrutinizingly.

690704 - Letter to Jayagovinda written from Los Angeles

Everyone wants to become the Lord of everything. Ultimately, the Mayavadi philosopher wants to become one with the Supreme Lord. This means that when one fails to become Lord of everything, he wants to mix up with the Supreme Lord and tries in that way to automatically become Lord of everything. What he can't perform by his own capacity he wants to have done by being merged into the Supreme Lord. That is the mentality of the general people. But if anyone becomes humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree, it is understood that he has accepted a Spiritual Master. Besides that, if we accept Sikshastak as authority given by Lord Chaitanya, this means we accept Lord Chaitanya as Spiritual Master. In the Bhagavad-gita it is openly mentioned that Arjuna accepted Krishna as the Spiritual Master. There is another mention in the Sikshastak, Lord Chaitanya says "I do not want any wealth of this world, I do not want any following, neither do I want a beautiful wife. Simply I want to become a servant of the Lord." To become the servant of the Lord means to accept a Spiritual Master. Without accepting somebody as master, how can one become an expert servant? It is not that in every literature you will find the words that everyone has to accept a Spiritual Master, but we have to study things scrutinizingly. In the Chaitanya Charitamrta there is mention guru krsna krpaya paya bhakti lata bija (CC Madhya 19.151). By the mercy of the Spiritual Master and Krishna one can get the seeds of bhakti lata, the plant of devotional service.