View source for If one is interested to understand things which is beyond this darkness, he requires a guru. To keep guru is not a fashion, just like you keep a dog or a cat as a fashion. So things should not be done like that

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[[Category:If One Is]]
[[Category:Interest]]
[[Category:Understand]]
[[Category:Thing]]
[[Category:Which Is]]
[[Category:Beyond]]
[[Category:Darkness]]
[[Category:Requiring a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Keeping a Guru As a Pet Dog]]
[[Category:Guru Is Not a Fashion]]
[[Category:Just Like]]
[[Category:Dog]]
[[Category:Cat]]
[[Category:Should Not Be]]
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[[Category:Like That]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - BHAV]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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Guru is required for whom? Just like Devahūti or Sanātana Gosvāmī. Those who are inqui . . . athāto brahma jijñāsā, those who are interested in the matter of Brahman. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). If one is interested to understand things which is beyond this darkness, he requires a guru. To keep guru is not a fashion, just like you keep a dog or a cat as a fashion. So things should not be done like that, that, "I have got a guru. I don't care for him. That's all. I give him some money; therefore he must be my servant." That kind of keeping guru is no use.
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[[Vanisource:741108 - Lecture SB 03.25.08 - Bombay|741108 - Lecture SB 03.25.08 - Bombay]]
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Sanātana Gosvāmī was a great learned scholar in Urdu, Farsi, Sanskrit. And he was a very rich man, minister. Everything honorable, coming of a very respectable, aristocratic family, Sārasvata brāhmaṇa. But still, he says to Caitanya Mahāprabhu that grāmya-vyavahāre kaha e paṇḍita satya kore māni. "These, my neighborhood men, they call me 'Paṇḍitajī', and I am very much satisfied that I am paṇḍita." "Why you are dissatisfied?" Now, he says, āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni: "I am such a paṇḍita that I do not know what is the goal of my life and what is real benefit for me. I am such a paṇḍita." That means "I am mūrkha. I do not know my own self-interest. I am simply being carried away by the sense gratificatory means." Therefore he came to Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He did not come to Caitanya Mahāprabhu to get some gold or some medicine for curing some disease, as people go, Bhagavān: "Bhagavān will give me some gold. Bhagavān will . . ." If you want to have gold, you can have. You can get a gold mine and get, as much as you like. Why you should go to a Bhagavān? So . . . but they do not know. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu's disciple, this Sanātana Gosvāmī, he had enough gold. But he was not satisfied. He went to Caitanya Mahāprabhu to take from Him that āpanāra hitāhita kichui nā jāni: "I do not know actually what is my self-interest. You please tell me." This is the real approach of guru. "So I have got You after many, many births. I have got Your contact. Kindly enlighten me, because I am thinking I am very learned, I am very rich, but actually I do not know my self-interest. I have therefore come to You."

So here also, Devahūti, the same principle. She says, tasya tvaṁ tamaso 'ndhasya duṣpārasyādya pāragam, sac-cakṣur janmanām ante: "My dear Kapila, You have come as my son, but You are my guru. You are guru because You can give me information how I can cross over the nescience of darkness of this material life." So one who is feeling the necessity of going across the dark nescience of material existence, he requires a guru. Not for curing some disease or getting a little portion of gold. That, that does not require that one should go to guru. Guru is required for whom? Just like Devahūti or Sanātana Gosvāmī. Those who are inqui . . . athāto brahma jijñāsā, those who are interested in the matter of Brahman. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.3.21|SB 11.3.21]]). If one is interested to understand things which is beyond this darkness, he requires a guru. To keep guru is not a fashion, just like you keep a dog or a cat as a fashion. So things should not be done like that, that, "I have got a guru. I don't care for him. That's all. I give him some money; therefore he must be my servant." That kind of keeping guru is no use. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. Uttamam. Here is called tamaḥ. Here is called tamaḥ. Tamaso, tamaso andhasya. Tamaḥ and uttama. Udgata tamam. If you can transcend this tamaḥ, this darkness, that is called uttama. We use this word, uttama . . . uttama means very good. Generally, we take. How it is very good? When it is transcendental, above this darkness, that is called uttama.

So one who is inquisitive to inquire about that portion of God's creation which is beyond this darkness—na tad sūryaḥ bhāsayate. There is description in the Upaniṣads and the Bhagavad-gītā. Uttama means there is another world, another nature. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 8.20 (1972)|BG 8.20]]).
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