Ajñāna timirāndhasya. About jñāna, nothing has been said whether it is spiritual jñāna or material jñāna. So in order to understanding you and, through yourself, also Kṛṣṇa, all these so-called gurus, or, I may say, teachers, they have contributed towards understanding or developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Now, leaving aside these material teachers, I am taking the, taking one spiritual guru who gave me Kṛṣṇa consciousness first and who taught me to worship God, Kṛṣṇa, and to maintain a temple at my own house and to learn the ślokas from Gītā or the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata. And I have learned by rote the grandness of adhyāyas of Bhāgavatam and the Gītā. But, you see, I could not understand anything.
Now, after going through your literature, complete literatures, now the whole light has come to me, and I have been able to understand even that the guru who gave me such Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I don't challenge or question the other findings of their guru. Just like a boy who absent from class, not attending the class, there is no fault of the guru. Guru has been attending his lectures. But I am truant. I am not attending class. So, you see, I can't blame that guru. But now I have understood everything from Your Grace, and now that ajñāna has been removed. I have now become more Kṛṣṇa conscious than before.
So should I give credit to all those gurus who have helped me to understand? Or should I now select, or should I exercise any choice that I should accept this guru or that guru only? So that doubt should be cleared.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Guru is only one. Guru means, as you explained:
- ajñāna-timirāndhasya
- jñānāñjana-śalākayā
- cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
- tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
- (Garuḍa Purāṇa)
One who eradicates the ajñāna, andhakāra, darkness. In the darkness, if somebody brings lamp, ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā . . . the jñāna-rūpa, torchlight, he's guru. So maybe different degrees, but anyone who opens the spiritual eyes, he's guru. So . . .
But in the śāstra it is said, gurur api kāryākāryakam ajānataḥ. If I accept some guru, but if later on it appears that he did not know what is to be done, what is to be not to be done, then Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that such guru: parityāgo vidhīyate. Such guru should be rejected. But it doesn't matter that degree. Actually, if the guru teaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he may be in lesser degree, but he's accepted as guru. There is no question of rejection.
Because Kṛṣṇa is actually jñāna. One who teaches Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, "One has to know Kṛṣṇa, one has to surrender to Kṛṣṇa," this kind of teaching is required. And if the guru says that, "I am Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is Kṛṣṇa," then, "daridra-kṛṣṇa, daridra-nārāyaṇa," he is not a guru. He's not a guru. He's misguiding. Misguiding. Avaiṣṇavo gurur na syāt. This is the śāstric injunction.
Ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṇo vipro mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ. A . . . generally, a qualified brāhmin becomes guru. That is natural. brāhmin is the head of the society. So he is . . . and without becoming brāhmin, nobody can become guru. That is also fact. Because brāhmin means brahma jānātīti brāhmanaḥ, one who knows Brahman, Brahman. So guru must be a brāhmin, mean a qualified brāhmin, not born-brāhmin, so-called brāhmin. Qualified brāhmin.
So still, brāhmin's qualification, ṣaṭ-karma: paṭhana pāṭhana yajana yājana dāna pratigraha. So śāstra says that ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṇo vipraḥ. If one vipra is quite expert in executing the six kinds of business, and mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ, and very well known in the Vedic mantras and hymns and everything complete, but if he is avaiṣṇava, if he is not Vaiṣṇava, he does not know viṣṇu-tattva, or kṛṣṇa-tattva, then he cannot become spiritual master.
Avaiṣṇavo gurur na syād vaiṣṇavaḥ śva-paco guruḥ. But if a Vaiṣṇava, one who knows viṣṇu-tattva, kṛṣṇa-tattva, even if he's born in the family of śva-paca, the dog-eaters, caṇḍāla, he can be accepted as guru.