Prabhupāda: . . . sarva-śāstre kaya, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya (CC Madhya 22.54). For me, personally, I had the opportunity to talk with my spiritual master not more than ten times in my whole life. Not more. It may be less than that. But I tried to follow his instruction, that's all, although I was a gṛhastha.
Bali-mardana: You are a much better student than us.
Prabhupāda: So this is the process. That is the . . . you sing every day, guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya. That is the process. Wherever you live, if you follow strictly the instruction of guru, then you remain perfect. But if we create, concoct ideas against the instruction of guru, then we are gone, hell. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi (Gurv-astaka 8). There is no more shelter—finished. Yasya prasādāt. If guru thinks that "This person, I wanted to take him back to home, back to Godhead. Now he is going against me. He is not following," aprasādāt, he is displeased. Then everything is finished.
Bali-mardana: Vaiṣṇavāparādha.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, where does someone derive his authority . . .
Prabhupāda: The guru is authority.
Devotee (1): No, I know, but for his actions other than just following the four regulative principles and chanting sixteen rounds. He does so many other things during the day. Where does he derive his authority if he's not, let's say, living in the temple?
Prabhupāda: I do not follow. The authority is guru. You have accepted.
Bali-mardana: For everything.
Jayatīrtha: Say I have some outside job, I'm living outside, but I'm not giving 50% of my income. So then that work that I'm doing, is it actually under the authority of the guru?
Prabhupāda: Then you are not following the instruction of guru. That is plain fact.
Jayatīrtha: So that means that whole activity during the day, working, that means I am not following the instruction of the guru. It's unauthorized activity.
Prabhupāda: Yes. If you don't follow the instruction of guru, then you are fallen down, immediately. That is the way. Otherwise why you sing, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo? It is my duty to satisfy guru. Otherwise I am nowhere. So if you prefer to be nowhere, then you disobey as you like. But if you want to be steady in your position, then you have to follow strictly the instruction of guru.
Devotee (1): We can understand all of your instructions simply by reading your books.