Gaudiya Gosthipati Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada
The following is an excerpt from a lecture given by Srila Saraswati Thakur on the occasion of sending his first sannyāsī preachers to the West. All persons of this world are superior to us in every way as far as this world is concerned. Such material matters are not commodities that are to be coveted by us. We are merely beggars carrying the triple staff of renunciation and devoted to the chanting of the words of Sri Chaitanya. We have no more, nor any higher desirable object than the pleasure of serving śrī-hari-guru-vai avas. We are not the operators of the instrument; we are only the instruments. We must always bear this in mind. The triple bhiksus, tridandi sannyāsīs, are the living mridanga drums of Sri Chaitanya. We must constantly give forth our music at the lotus feet of Sri Guru. We should practice the function of the peripatetic preacher, parivrājakācārya, of carrying aloft the victorious banner of the commands of the divine Sri Gaurasundar by constant submission to Sri Guru and the vaishnavas, fixing our eye on the pole-star of the heard transcendental voice. We must always bear in mind that we have been initiated in the vow of peripatetic preacher for the sole purpose of promulgating the heart’s desire of Sri Guru and Gauranga. If we are constantly inspired with the duty of discoursing about the truth under the guidance of Sri Guru, then no hankering after traveling, nor any veiled form of desire other than the chanting of hari-nāma will ever strike any terror in our hearts.
— Lecture given in Madras, 18 March 1933. From Shri Chaitanya’s Teachings, pages 383-384. Sree Gaudiya Math. Madras. 1989