By following instructions (Lectures)

Expressions researched:
"by following My instruction" |"by following the instruction" |"by following the instruction"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

It is recommended by Nārada: "You try to understand the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by samādhi, by trance, meditation, by following the instruction of me, or predecessors, like that." This is the way.

Lecture on SB 1.5.12-13 -- New Vrindaban, June 11, 1969:

Therefore Arjuna says that "Kṛṣṇa, whatever You are speaking in the Bhagavad-gītā, I accept in toto." That is study of Bhagavad-gītā. I do not select, "Oh, this portion is nice. I accept." Ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya: (Cc. Ādi-līlā 5.176) "The back portion is nice. It is giving, the hen, daily, one egg. It is very nice. And the mouth portion is expensive. Cut it." The fool does not know if you cut this portion, that portion will be stopped also. So these, all these ordinary commentator... Just like Gandhi. He wanted to prove his nonviolence some way or other from Bhagavad-gītā. How he can prove? This is the same thing, that he was finding out, "If there is something, simply cutting the head, if I can get egg?" That is not possible. That is not... If we have to accept Bhagavad-gītā just like Arjuna says, that sarvam etad ṛtaṁ manye yad vadasi keśava: (BG 10.14) "My dear Kṛṣṇa, Keśava, whatever You are saying, I accept in toto. And this is confirmed by such authorities like Devala, Vyāsa, Asita. It is not that because we are friends, I am accepting You, but I know it is confirmed by such great authorities like Nārada, Asita, Vyāsa."

So we have to follow. This is called anu. Anu means following. Therefore it is recommended by Nārada that samādhinā anusmara: "You try to understand the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by samādhi, by trance, meditation, by following the instruction of me, or predecessors, like that." This is the way.

Don't become a so-called guru, manufactured guru. "You become guru by following My instruction." Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā.

Lecture on SB 3.25.32 -- Bombay, December 2, 1974:

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra

janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra

(CC Adi 9.41)

That is His mission. He is requesting every Indian, every Indian, because they have got the facility for understanding what is Bhagavad-gītā, what is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is Vedas. They have got this opportunity. Therefore He says, janma sārthaka kari': "You have taken your birth in India. You make your life successful by taking advantage of these scriptures and then assimilate the knowledge and preach all over the world." They are in darkness. That is being repeatedly said. But we are not taking advantage of. We are so misfortunate. We are misguided by the so-called leaders that we are neglecting this valuable literature which is spoken by Bhagavān. We are talking of some nonsense. That is our misfortune. So we have to take knowledge from Bhagavān and spread it all over the world. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's... So He says that "You become guru." He says, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā: (CC Madhya 7.128) "By My order." Don't become a so-called guru, manufactured guru. "You become guru by following My instruction." Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Then, by his advice, just like a patient is cured by following the instruction of a bona fide physician, similarly, this disease of being kicked up from one body to another, this could be stopped by the instruction of a bona fide sādhu, saintly person, or spiritual master or śāstra, scripture.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.14-20 -- New York, January 10, 1967:

So we, the conditioned soul, is just like being kicked up by the material energy from this way to that way. That is our position. And the kicking is by lust and anger. Icchā-dveṣa-samutthena sarge yānti parantapa (BG 7.27). We have got two things here in the conditioned life. We desire something, and if the desire is not fulfilled, then we become angry. So in this way we are traveling, or, I mean to say, transmigrating from one body to another. This can be stopped. This process can be stopped. How? Bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya. In this way we are being kicked up by māyā. But if by chance we get the shelter of a good physician... Good physician means a bona fide spiritual master. Then, by his advice, just like a patient is cured by following the instruction of a bona fide physician, similarly, this disease of being kicked up from one body to another, this could be stopped by the instruction of a bona fide sādhu, saintly person, or spiritual master or śāstra, scripture. So the scriptures and the saintly persons and the spiritual master, they are on the same level. Because a sādhu who is a saintly person, he would not place anything which is not sanctioned by the scripture. Similarly, a bona fide spiritual master means he is following the footprints of the previous ācāryas. Therefore he is bona fide. So scripture is the medium through which we have to get our experience and knowledge through the explanation of sādhu, saintly persons and spiritual master.

General Lectures

So if you want to be anxiety-less, without any anxiety, then you must take shelter of the guru, or the spiritual master, and the test is that by the instruction of guru, by following the instruction of guru, you will be anxiety-less. This is the test.

Lecture on Gurvastakam at Upsala University -- Stockholm, September 9, 1973:

Everyone has blazing fire within the heart. That is the proof of material existence. Nobody is without anxieties. That blazing fire means anxieties, always. Everyone has got anxieties. Even the small bird, he has got anxiety. You give the small bird some grains to eat, he'll eat it. But he's not very peacefully eating. He'll see this way, that way, "If somebody's coming to kill me?" Yes. This is material existence. Everyone... Even President Nixon, he's also full of anxieties, what to speak of others. Even Gandhi, in our country, he was full of anxieties. All politicians, they're full of anxiety; although they hold very exalted post, still the material disease, anxiety, is there. So if you want to be anxiety-less, without any anxiety, then you must take shelter of the guru, or the spiritual master, and the test is that by the instruction of guru, by following the instruction of guru, you will be anxiety-less. This is the test.

saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-

trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam

prāptasya kalyāṇa-guṇārṇavasya

vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam **

Don't make a cheap guru or a fashion guru, just like you keep sometimes a dog as a fashion. Similarly, if you want to keep a dog, or if you want to keep a guru as a fashion—"I have got a guru"—that will not help. You must accept a guru who can extinguish the blazing fire of anxiety within your heart. That is the first test of a guru.