Bona fide teacher
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 7 - 12
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Adi-lila
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
General Lectures
Philosophy Discussions
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is, that is, that is our... Teacher means... When I approach a teacher, he must be a bona fide teacher. He should not be cheater. If he has no sufficient knowledge, he should not pose himself as a teacher.
Mr. Wadell: Well, I am afraid I would be right out of court cause you see I have often to confess to my pupils that I do not know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is going on, but that is not the system. If you do not know, you should not become a teacher. That is our proposition.1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is not our life, to become an impostor. It must be real person. By training, yaḥ śāstra-vidhiṁ siddhiḥ, by training under the teaching of a bona fide spiritual master, the śāstra, and then you'll automatically, the more you become a sincere, I mean to say, servitor of the spiritual master, the more you become qualified to become a teacher in the future. Otherwise where is your qualification? You may cheat others that you are teacher, but you are not actually teacher. You have no lesson, no education. A cheating is another thing. But practically to become a teacher... Just like in a school, teacher... A teacher is appointed. When the certificate is there that he has passed M.A. examination, and he has undergone the training, B.T., Bachelor training, then he's appointed: "Yes, you can be a teacher." And then a bogus man, he can be... He cannot be accepted as teacher. So that is going on. A bogus man, they're becoming teachers. Therefore the world condition is so degraded. A cheater is taking the place of teacher. Therefore the whole world is degraded.
Woman devotee: If we have a desire to keep these promises, but we have a hard time to do it...
Prabhupāda: As soon as you fail to keep your promise, then you're fallen. You have to rectify yourself. Immediately you're fallen. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na sa siddhim [Bg. 16.23]. That means you'll never get perfection. You'll fall down. You can cheat others that "I am in dress of a devotee, so I am..." What is your character? What is your actual value? That has to be judged. That is call bona fide teacher.Prabhupāda:The original teacher is Kṛṣṇa and from Him the sun-god, Vivasvān, learned it. He spoke to his son, Manu. Manu spoke to his son, Ikṣvāku. In this way the paramparā system is coming. And that is bona fide. This is our philosophy, to accept knowledge from the perfect person or his bona fide representative.
Richard Webster: And Christians, how do you present this? Suppose if someone was a Christian.
Prabhupāda: Yes, Christian, if you take... Just like Lord Jesus Christ is a bona fide teacher, and he has given his teaching, his commandments. If you follow those commandments, then you are bona fide student. But if you don't follow then you are not bona fide.1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be. If it is being changed every year or every ten years, then what is the value of this opinion? There is no value.
Reporter: Well, but religious thought in India has changed over the years too.
Prabhupāda: No. Nothing. We do not change. Just like your Bhagav...
Reporter: Well, others ...
Prabhupāda: Bhagav...
Reporter: Others change.
Prabhupāda: Ah, others may deviate, that's another thing. But the system is not that. You cannot deviate from the Vedic injunction that if you have to follow the ācāryas, just like India is obeying. The mass population or the sane population, they are following the ācāryas. Ācāryas means great teachers, bona fide teachers—perhaps you have heard their name, just like Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Lord Caitanya. So they are followed, and they are of the same opinion. Millions of years ago, what was the opinion, and that opinion is still there. Ācchā, take for Bhagavad-gītā. And that is.... Not a single Indian who does not accept Bhagavad-gītā as authority. This is besides the foreigners who also take interest so much in Bhagavad-gītā. So far Indians are concerned, even some of the Muhammadans, so apart from Muhammadans, those who are claiming as Hindu, they all accept the authority of Bhagavad-gītā. So this Bhagavad-gītā, they might have changed, but that is not acceptable.Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
Page Title: | Bona fide teacher |
Compiler: | Sharmila, Haya |
Created: | 20 of Dec, 2008 |
Totals by Section: | BG=1, SB=0, CC=1, OB=0, Lec=6, Con=4, Let=1 |
No. of Quotes: | 13 |