Real Taste for the Truth
Until and unless we find in our heart a real taste for the Truth, we are not safe. First, over the surface, spiritual life begins with sraddha, faith, and underground with sukrti, or special merit. Next is sadhu-sanga, our company with the sadhu. Within that is our surrender to Guru. Then bhajana , our serving life in various forms such as sravana, kirtana, prasada-sevana or hearing, chanting, respecting the Lord's Remnants, etc., begins. Then anartha-nivrtti - our attraction for objects other than Krsna, objects other than God, diminishes. Then nistha - continued attempt for the Service, and not for otherwise. Then ruci, taste, will be created.
Real taste for the truth will be created, that is, awakened in our heart. We are safe then, but not before that. When spontaneous taste for the truth is awakened within us, we are safe. We can make fair progress from that time. Prior to that we must remain under the guardian. Taste will take me. "I have acquired the taste of sweetness, so automatically I shall run towards that which is very sweet." Until and unless we find that the Truth is sweet, Krsna is sweet, we are not safe in our approach towards Him. So many distractions may take us hither and thither.
Srila B.R Sridhar Maharaj - Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion - Vol.1
''To become Krsna conscious, one need not be a wise man, nor a very energetic man, he may not be a master of opulence and power - the only requirement that is demanded from him is that he must have an earnest hunger for the Lord. He must find some sweetness, some taste in His words and His affairs when he hears from a proper source - a genuine saint. That taste will take him gradually further and further into the highest domain. If they want to be successful in their search for the infinite, the seekers of knowledge and power, the jnanis and karmis, will ultimately have to cast out their attachments, break out of their circle, and come to this position. They will have to depend on taste. Taste is everything. A taste for His affairs is the all-important qualification for a devotee. It is all in all. Wherever one may be does not matter. Through his taste for Krsna, one will progress from ruci to the ultimate end of life.
So we are told, "Giving up everything, and even rejecting all conceptions of society and religion as external, exclusively surrender to Krsna." Without hesitation, one should take exclusive shelter of the Lord with full confidence, giving up bad association, and even neglecting the regulative principles governing society and religion. That is to say, one should abandon all material attachment. Saranagati:
Take shelter under His protection absolutely.''
Srila B.R Sridhar Maharaj - Loving Search for the lost servant
