Guest (2): You mentioned that one must not speculate about God and also you mentioned that one must try to be sinless. Wouldn't the idea of sinless be a speculation of God?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Wouldn't the idea of sinless...?
Guest (2): Be a speculation of God, if you say that God is...
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: You said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that one should not speculate about God and that one should be sinless. To be sinless, is that a speculation of God?
Indian man: Isn't the idea of sinless... We are... We live in sin. We do not know what sin is. So wouldn't the idea of living without sin be speculation? I don't know what sin is or not sin.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: We live in sin, so is it not speculation to consider a sinless state?
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you speculate, then also you will not be in position to understand what is sin and what is pious. Therefore you have to hear from the authority. Just like Kṛṣṇa says, yajña-dāna-tapaḥ kriya na tyājyam: "These four things should not be given up: performing sacrifices, giving in charity, and practicing tapasya." So you cannot speculate. You take the instruction from authority and try to do it. It is not speculation. It is receiving the instruction from the authority.
Guest (2): But because we do not know what sin is, wouldn't whatever the authority said be purely an idea to us?
Prabhupāda: So they do not know; therefore they must search out if he is serious.
Guest (2): But is there no way of finding out what is good and bad besides obeying guru, and the because to follow the guru would obviously be to create frustration.(?)
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: Is there some way to find out good without following the rules and regulations laid down by the authorities?
Prabhupāda: No, that is not possible. You cannot violate the rules and regulation. That is not possible.