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The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater then the whole thing is spoiled

Expressions researched:
"The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled.

Prabhupāda: Because one gentleman resembles your features, you think that he is your brother, that is another thing. But here the process that if you want to know who is your father, the process is that it should be known through the mother. There is no other process. It is not that suggestion: because somebody resembles my face, he is my father. Not like that. It is the perfect process.

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I'm not . . . I agree with what you say. I am just adding another explanation.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And you cannot understand your father by any other process. This is the only process. That means things which are unknown, beyond our conception, you have to know it through the authority, just like you know your father through the authority of your mother.

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes, I agree. But . . .

Prabhupāda: But you cannot say that things which are beyond our imagination cannot be known. You cannot say that. Can be known—provided you have got the real process.

Mr. Wadell: I'm afraid I must make, so far as I am concerned, a clear division between what I know and what I believe. There are certain things . . . it is maybe, partly a use of words, but whereas I know that I am here and that I have people in . . . I am in the same room with other men . . .

Prabhupāda: Do you think that this process, as I have suggested, to know one's father through the authority of the mother is not perfect?

Mr. Wadell: Oh, well, I think it's as near perfect as you can get.

Prabhupāda: Why you say: "As near"? Why still doubt?

Mr. Wadell: Because it is not quite the same thing as my knowing that I am here. There's a famous French philosopher who began all his philosophy from the phrase, "I am conscious; therefore I know that I exist." And he deduced everything, you know, starting from here.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That's a fact. You are conscious, I am conscious, that's a fact. It is not the question of belief. It is not question of belief. Belief may be wrong, but fact is fact.

Mr. Wadell: Yes, agreed.

Prabhupāda: So when one's . . . I say that I am conscious, you say you are conscious. We are conscious. That's a fact. And that consciousness is the symptom of the presence of the soul. Because from the dead body . . . dead body means when the soul departs from the body, there is no more consciousness.

Mr. Wadell: This is something on which I think I am probably too young or too . . . I have not thought enough about it to be able to tell you very clearly or to define very clearly what I think. This is very difficult, I know. But I am conscious that I do not know about this. I can make certain . . . I mean, I am inclined to accept what you say, but I cannot say that I know it.

Prabhupāda: Therefore when we are in doubts, therefore we have to refer to the authority. Just like when you are diseased, so you go to the physician, "What is the cause of my this trouble?"

Mr. Wadell: True.

Prabhupāda: Similarly, when you are in doubts, you have to approach an authority to clear the doubts. Otherwise you will remain in doubts, ignorance.

Mr. Wadell: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore our Vedic injunction is, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). Tad-vijñānārtham: in order to clear the doubt, to be in perfect knowledge, one must approach the authorized bona fide spiritual master.

Mr. Wadell: Can we go back to the physician? It is possible for a physician to be wrong.

Prabhupāda: Yes, we are always in wrong, because we are born ignorant. Everything is wrong because ignorant, foolish. Madman's conception. This is all wrong, childish. Therefore we send our boys, children, to school, to correct the wrong ideas.

Mr. Wadell: But some of the teachers may not be correct.

Prabhupāda: No. The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled.

Mr. Wadell: But the human situation is often a sort of mixture of the two. Sometimes . . .

Prabhupāda: No, mixture of two, that may be, but the process is that we have to approach the real teacher. Just like I approach the mother. Mother is supposed to be not cheater. But if the mother happens to be a cheater, then I am cheated. I am cheated. I don't get the information of my real father. But it is expected the mother should not cheat.

Mr. Wadell: Yes, oh, I know that it is expected of the teachers.

Prabhupāda: So it is my misfortune; if I get a cheater mother, then my whole life is spoiled.

Mr. Wadell: But the teacher may be wrong without wishing to be wrong.

Prabhupāda: No, he is not teacher. If a teacher is wrong, he is cheater. That is our proposition

Page Title:The process is you have to go to the teacher. But if the teacher is a cheater, then the whole thing is spoiled. A teacher must be teacher, perfect teacher. But if he happens to be a cheater then the whole thing is spoiled
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-08-14, 13:21:00
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1