Prabhupāda: Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can be spiritual master. And to show this example practically, although He was sannyāsī and brāhmaṇa and Rāmānanda Rāya was a śūdra and a gṛhastha, householder, still He became like a student and inquired Rāmānanda Rāya. Rāmānanda Rāya felt some, I mean to say, hesitation that "How can I take the position of a teacher to a sannyāsī?" Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied, "No, no. Don't hesitate." He stated that either one may be a sannyāsī or he may be householder or one may be a brāhmaṇa or śūdra, it doesn't matter. Anyone who knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he can take the place of teacher. So that was His, I mean to say, gift. Because in Indian society it is simply taken that the brāhmaṇas and the sannyāsī can be spiritual master. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "No. Anyone can become spiritual master provided he's conversant with the science." And the summary of the discussion was how to elevate oneself in the highest perfection of love of Godhead. And that love of Godhead was described, existed, I mean to say, superexcellently in Rādhārāṇī. So in the bhāva, in the feature of Rādhārāṇī. And Rāmānanda Rāya, in the feature of Rādhārāṇī's associates Lalitā-sakhī, both of them embraced and began to dance in ecstasy. That will be the end of the scene. Both of them began to dance in ecstasy.
Become a spiritual master (Conversations)
Expressions researched:
"become a pseudo spiritual master"
|"become a spiritual master"
|"become an imitative spiritual master"
|"become bona fide Spiritual Master"
|"become even a spiritual master"
|"become his supreme spiritual master"
|"become spiritual master"
|"become spiritual masters"
|"become the spiritual master"
|"becomes a spiritual master"
|"becomes his initiating spiritual master"
|"becomes spiritual master"
|"becomes the spiritual master"
|"becoming a spiritual master"
|"becoming spiritual master"
|"becoming spiritual master"
Conversations and Morning Walks
1967 Conversations and Morning Walks
1968 Conversations and Morning Walks
Interviewer: Is guru and swami the same thing?
Prabhupāda: Swami means practically the same idea. Swami means the master of the senses. One who has not control over senses, he cannot become guru. The renounced order means he's strictly away from all kinds of sense gratification, especially sex life. Therefore, he's called swami. Swami means the master. One who has become the master of the senses, he can become the spiritual master of the society. That is the idea.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So far we are concerned, we are sannyāsī, but you are a professor. If there is some emergency, you cannot go to beg. But I am a sannyāsī. I can tell you that I am in difficulty. That is the system. So we have got four orders. Just like he's brahmacārī, and he's gṛhastha. He has got his wife, children. So he's a gṛhastha. He's a brahmacārī. Similarly, there is sannyāsī. So that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. It doesn't matter whether one is a gṛhastha, householder, or renounced order or a brahmacārī or a brāhmaṇa or śūdra. It doesn't matter. If anyone understands the science of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes the spiritual master. The exact word is, in Bengali, kiba vipra kiba śūdra nyāsi kene nāya.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: If you are incapable of raising yourself to the standard of becoming spiritual master, that is not your spiritual master's fault, that is your fault. He wants, just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā (CC Madhya 7.128), By My order, every one of you become a guru. If one cannot carry out the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then how he can become a guru? The first qualification is that he must be able to carry out the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then he becomes guru. So that carrying out the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu depends on one's personal capacity. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā. Acceptance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu as Kṛṣṇa, that is there in the śāstra, in the Upaniṣads, in Mahābhārata, in Bhāgavata.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Samupeta-mṛtyum. So the idea is one should not become spiritual master. Gurur na sa syāt. Then?
Pradyumna: Sva-jano na sa syāt.
Prabhupāda: One should not become his kinsman. This is negative side, going on. One should not become a spiritual master, one should not pose himself as kinsman.
Ambassador: Oh. Kibā vipra kiba śūdra...
Prabhupāda: Kibā vipra kibā nyāsī śūdra kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, tattva-vettā, sei guru haya. He becomes spiritual master. It doesn't matter what he is. Śūdra, or vipra, it doesn't matter. The Rāmānanda Rāya, he was a śūdra. According to social position, he was a śūdra. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu took lessons from him.
Ambassador: Oh, I see.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is in the Eighth Chapter of the Madhya Khaṇḍa.
Ambassador: So I'll remember it, sir.
Prabhupāda: Thank you, sir.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Caitanya Mahāprabhu says frankly that... This is disciplic succession. Āmāra ājñāya: "Just carry out My order." Then you are in disciplic succession. If you do not keep yourself in the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then simply by becoming disciple, you are not in the disciplic succession. This is disciplic succession. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said this clearly, āmāra ājñāya guru haña tāra ei: "Wherever you live, you become a spiritual master." How? Yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa: (CC Madhya 7.128) "Whomever you meet, you only speak what Kṛṣṇa has instructed." Then you are disciplic succession. It doesn't matter what you are and where you are. It doesn't matter. This is disciplic succession. And if you think, "Now I am initiated. I am now liberated. I have no other business," then you are not in the disciplic succession. You must preach. That is disciplic succession.
Guest (1): This is the definition of a disciple.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Āmāra ājñāya guru haña tāra ei deśa (CC Madhya 7.128), yāre dekha... You have to... Anywhere, any friend, any businessman, "Are you Kṛṣṇa conscious? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." That's all. What is the loss in that? "My dear friend, I request you to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra." Where is the difficulty?
Prabhupāda: This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We don't say that "I have got eyes, I have got full knowledge." No, we don't say that. Kṛṣṇa says. That's all. This is our version. We request that "You take Kṛṣṇa. You will be benefited." And actually it is being done. We don't present a false person. We present the real person, Kṛṣṇa. Now, if you are misfortunate, you cannot take, that is your business. That is your business.
Indian Man (1): It is open, anybody can take.
Prabhupāda: Yes. (break) ...qualification is there. Yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). You speak only Kṛṣṇa's words. He doesn't say, "Your words, your interpretation." This is nonsense. Kṛṣṇa's words. What Kṛṣṇa has said, just speak it. Then you become spiritual master.
- āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa
- yāre dekha tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa
- (CC Madhya 7.128)
And because you have become guru, you manufacture some ways and means, that is rascaldom. If you are guru, then you have to speak what Kṛṣṇa has said. That is guru. A guru does not manufacture anything. He is not guru.
Prabhupāda: So in this confused state of the human society you cannot manufacture the solution. The only solution is that when there is rain from the cloud on the forest fire, then it is extinguished. That is not in your hand; that is mercy of God. So spiritual master means who has received the mercy of God and he can deliver to the confused man. Then the solution is there. This is very good verse, saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam, prāptasya **. One who has received mercy of God, he can become spiritual master. He can deliver the mercy of God.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, that you can think—your spiritual master is nice, others bogus—but they do not think like that. (laughter) They will think their spiritual master is good, your spiritual master is bogus. But there is standard who is spiritual master. Spiritual master means who is the best servant of God. One who does not agree the existence of God, he is bogus because he's not bona fide, mūḍhā. One who does not accept the existence of God, he is mūḍhā. He's a rascal. He cannot... A rascal cannot become spiritual master.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: The subject matter itself is difficult. Therefore ordinary persons or a little advanced person cannot understand. And unless one is fully aware of Kṛṣṇa, one cannot become spiritual master. The subject matter itself is difficult. Therefore you don't find many spiritual masters.
Prabhupāda: Formerly, there were big, big ācāryas like Vyāsadeva and others. Devala. Many, many ācāryas. And the recent, within, say, one thousand five hundred years there are, there were many ācāryas like Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, and within five hundred years Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They have also given us many literatures about this spiritual knowledge. But at the present moment this spiritual knowledge is neglected. So it is the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's message to the whole world that every one of you, you become guru, a spiritual master. So how everyone can become a spiritual master? To become a spiritual master is not easy job. One must be very learned scholar and must have full realization of the self and everything. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given us a little formula, that if you strictly follow the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā and if you preach the purpose of Bhagavad-gītā, then you become guru. The exact words used in Bengali, it is said, yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). To become guru is very difficult job, but if you simply carry the message of Bhagavad-gītā and try to convince anyone you meet, then you become a guru.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: It is not easy job to become a spiritual master. Yes. Then when it is overloaded, you'll suffer.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa transfers the sinful reaction unto the spiritual master from the disciple.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why? Is it because there will be such a heavy...?
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says... That is the principle. This is, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). "You have to take all the sinful reactions." This is the principle, that Kṛṣṇa is God. He can nullify everything. But I am not God. When it is overloaded, I have to suffer. This is the principle that the Christian idea that Christ takes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The trouble with the Christians is that they never relieved Christ. They go on sinning. That's not love.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The principle is that the spiritual master takes all the resultant sinful action, but the disciple also says that "Now, stop it. Otherwise my spiritual master..." That is gentleman.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Blowing?
Prabhupāda: Yes, blowing with mouth.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Blowing with mouth.
Prabhupāda: So they have got business, blowing with mouth in three ways.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The brāhmaṇas.
Prabhupāda: What is that? First of all, if they are third class, then blowing in the oven, fire.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Blowing in the...?
Prabhupāda: The oven. (laughter) He is third class. And the second class, blowing in the conchshell, pūjārī. And first class? Blowing in the ear and becoming spiritual master. (laughter)
| Page Title: | Become a spiritual master (Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Vraja-kumara |
| Created: | 26 of Jul, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=14, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 14 |