I'm reading "Sri Guru and His Grace" for the second time. I came across something that baffled me the first time also, but now I have this wonderful forum to clarify and expand.:
One should not approach the spiritual master "cutting a return ticket." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada used to always say, "You have come here cutting a return ticket." We must not approach the spiritual master with that attitude. Rather, we should think that we have seen everything, that we have full experience of this mortal world, and that we have nothing to aspire after here. With this clear consciousness, we should approach the guru.
It seems to me that cutting the return ticket would mean to think we have seen the material world and there is nothing to aspire after here. I guess in some ways this is a semantic question, but I would like to understand the analogy because they often convey some nuance that is easier to understand through them then directly.
Here's how I understand this instruction: His idea is that when we approach the spiritual master, we should not do so with a plan to return to our previous life. That's the "return-trip" part. Just as Swami pointed out on Gaura-Purnima, accepting initiation means a willingness to change our lives. So when we approach the guru, it should be a one-way ticket, with no plan to get away and get back to our old life.
There's a story about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura that Swami has told a couple of times. He arranged a huge festival, and at the end he got up to speak. He asked those who attended the festival, "Don't go back to your homes. And if you say to me, 'But my home is on fire,' I reply, 'Don't go back to your home. Stay here and dedicate your life to Krishna.'" (Or something like that. I haven't heard that in a while.)
Here's how I understand this instruction: His idea is that when we approach the spiritual master, we should not do so with a plan to return to our previous life. That's the "return-trip" part. Just as Swami pointed out on Gaura-Purnima, accepting initiation means a willingness to change our lives. So when we approach the guru, it should be a one-way ticket, with no plan to get away and get back to our old life.
This is my understanding as well, but wouldn't we want to cut our return ticket then? Or are you saying to even have a return ticket to cut is going to far. ---kind of trivial I guess, the wording isn't the philosophical point, but darn-it I'm attached :Nail Biting:
Oh--I see the problem. It's an idiom, I guess. By "cutting a return ticket," I think he means that we shouldn't purchase a return ticket before going to the guru. In this sense, cut means "make out and issue," as in "write out a check" or "make out a check." So "cut a ticket" means something like "make out a ticket" back to our old life. You were probably reading it as something like "cutting up" or destroying the return ticket. Does this help?
Oh--I see the problem. It's an idiom, I guess. By "cutting a return ticket," I think he means that we shouldn't purchase a return ticket before going to the guru. In this sense, cut means "make out and issue," as in "write out a check" or "make out a check." So "cut a ticket" means something like "make out a ticket" back to our old life. You were probably reading it as something like "cutting up" or destroying the return ticket. Does this help?
--yup, "thats the ticket" :Nail Biting: . That scenario crossed my mind but, I thought, "No I've never heard that expression", as if I've heard all of them in 18 years