Śyāmasundara: How do we know when God is pleased, when we are pleasing God?
Prabhupāda: When you see Him. (pause) Then you'll understand. Just like when you eat you needn't require to ask anybody whether you are feeling strength or your hunger is satisfied. If you eat, you understand that you are satisfied, you are feeling strength, you're feeling energy. It doesn't require to inquire anybody. Similarly, if actually, if you serve God, then you'll understand that, "God is dictating me. God is . . . I am seeing God."
Brahmānanda: Or God's representative.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Brahmānanda: Or God's representative.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: Becomes easier.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore you have to go through the God's representative. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ. If you please God's representative, then automatically God becomes pleased. That is a . . . that you can directly see. Huh?
Indian man: How to please God's representative?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Indian man: How to please God's representative?
Prabhupāda: You have to carry out his order. That's all. God's representative is guru. So he's asking you to do this, to do that. If you do that, that is pleasing. Yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi. If you displease him, then you are nowhere. Therefore we worship guru. Sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ. A guru should be accepted as God. That is the injunction of all śāstras.
Bob: The guru should be accepted as representative of God?
Prabhupāda: Yes, guru is representative. Guru is the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa.
Bob: But different than . . . like the incarnations of Kṛṣṇa that come?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Bob: In what way is the external manifestation of the guru different than the external manifestation of, let us say, Kṛṣṇa or Caitanya when They come to earth.
Prabhupāda: Guru is one, representative of Kṛṣṇa. So there are symptoms who is guru. The general symptoms are described in the Vedas: tad-vijñānārthaṁ gurum evābhigacchet, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). The first symptom is śrotriyam. Guru is in disciplic succession: one who has thoroughly heard about the Vedas through his spiritual master. This is general description. So another description is in the Bhāgavatam:
- tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta
- jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam
- śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ
- brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam
- (SB 11.3.21)
Generally, the guru's symptom is that he's a perfect devotee. That's all. And he's serving Kṛṣṇa by preaching His message.