Haṁsadūta: What is jāta?
Prabhupāda: Jāta is hair. Hair. Jāta. So no barber was available. (laughter) Because they knew that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, after arresting, he is suffering from fever. Whole family is lying down in fever. So nobody came forward to cut his jāta. So Bhaktivinoda, "All right, bring one scissor. I shall cut." So he personally cut, and personally cut, and that man became very thin immediately after cutting his jāta. He had some power in the jāta. And he ordered six months' imprisonment. And in the prison he managed to take some poison and die.
So devotees are so strong. They can know what is what. You see? He was not puzzled that, "He is Viṣṇu and this . . ." No. So we should learn from the Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's treatment that this jugglery or this so-called power is not . . . no good for advancement in spiritual life. You have to follow the regulative principles as enjoined in the śāstra. Yaḥ śāstra vidhim utsṛjya. If you do not follow the injunction of the śāstra, then there is no possibility of attaining perfection. Na siddhiṁ sāvapnoti.
So our business is to accept a bona fide spiritual master, being guided by him, to follow the rules and regulation. Then advancement is sure. There is no doubt about it. And if we become hodgepodge and mix with hodgepodge and do hodgepodge, there is no progress. Na siddhim. It is clearly said by Kṛṣṇa, "There is no question of perfection," na sukham, "neither happiness," na parāṁ gatim, "and what to speak of being promoted to the spiritual world? There is no . . ."
Therefore vaidhi-bhakti, as it is enunciated in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Nectar of Devotion, by the Gosvāmīs, we shall try to follow as far as possible. Be sincere and hard-working. Then the success is sure. Not to be bewildered, misled by the so-called avatāra, incarnation. You see? The so-called avatāras, they are simply rascals. Especially in Bengal, every day there is an avatāra.