The guru should be accepted as a representative of God

Continued from the book " Perfect Questions and Perfect Answers"

Bob: You must please God for Him to reveal Himself. Is that correct?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: How do we know when we are pleasing God?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: When we see Him. Then you will understand. Just as, when you eat, you do not require to ask anyone whether you are feeling strength or your hunger is satisfied. If you eat, you understand that you are feeling energy. You don't need to inquire from anyone. Similarly. if you actually serve God, then you will understand, "God is dictating to me. God is there. I am seeing God."

A devotee: Or God's representative.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Devotee: It comes easier.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: You have to go through God's representative.

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **

"By the mercy of the spiritual master one is benedicted by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa." If you please God's representative, then automatically God becomes pleased, and thus you can directly see Him.

An Indian gentleman: How to please God's representative?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: You have to carry out his orders, that's all. God's representative is the guru. He asks you to do this, to do that—if you do that, that is pleasing.

yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi

"Without the grace of the spiritual master one cannot make any advancement." If you displease him, then you are nowhere. Therefore we worship the guru.

sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair
uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ
kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam **

["The spiritual master is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord because of his being the most confidential servitor of the Lord. This is acknowledged by all revealed scriptures and is followed by all authorities. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is a bona fide representative of Lord Kṛṣṇa."] The guru should be accepted as God. That is the injunction of all śāstra.

Bob: The guru should be accepted as a representative of God?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, the guru is God's representative. The guru is the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa.

Bob: But different from the incarnations of Kṛṣṇa that come?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: In what way is the external manifestation of the guru different from the external manifestation of, let us say, Kṛṣṇa or Caitanya when They come to earth?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: The guru is the representative of Kṛṣṇa. So there are symptoms of who is a guru. The general symptoms are described in the Vedas.

tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet
samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham

A guru must come in a disciplic succession, and he must have heard thoroughly about the Vedas from his spiritual master. Generally a guru's symptom is that he is a perfect devotee, that's all. And he serves Kṛṣṇa by preaching His message.

To Be Continued....