Spiritual master of... (Conversations)

Expressions researched:
"acarya of" |"acaryas of" |"guru of" |"gurus of" |"spiritual master of" |"spiritual masters of"

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Now I just want to read one section here. I think you'll be able to... "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness began when Swami Bhaktivedanta arrived from India with $2 on his person, a metal suitcase full of ancient-looking books and a cotton cloth robe, colored yellow, as a sign of the renounced order of life. In India, men of his order are completely dedicated to propagating the spiritual life of a mendicant wanderer. He had wandered across the sea upon the order issued to him by his guru who told him he should prepare to go to America to teach the principles taught in the Bhagavad-gītā and to translate the sixty volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam into English." Now, are you a guru?

Prabhupāda: Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the society, they're supposed to be my disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are initiated by me spiritually. So therefore the spiritual master is called guru. That is Sanskrit language.

Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco:

Interviewer: Guru means teacher.

Prabhupāda: Guru means not exactly teacher. Guru, the word, means heavy. Heavy. H-e-a-v-y, heavy.

Interviewer: Is guru and swami the same thing?

Prabhupāda: Swami means practically the same idea. Swami means the master of the senses. One who has not control over senses, he cannot become guru. The renounced order means he's strictly away from all kinds of sense gratification, especially sex life. Therefore, he's called swami. Swami means the master. One who has become the master of the senses, he can become the spiritual master of the society. That is the idea.

Interview -- September 24, 1968, Seattle:

Interviewer: What are your teachers called, those who teach the members of the community of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Are they also gurus or anything similar to the gurus of the Hindu faith?

Prabhupāda: The original guru is Kṛṣṇa. And just like He taught first the Kṛṣṇa consciousness principle to Arjuna. And how Arjuna understood, that is also there. So anyone who follows the principle... Just like my great grandfather told something, "This is watch." Then my grandfather told, "This is watch." Then my father told, "This is watch." So I am also telling, "This is watch." So there is no difference of opinion between the old great grandfather and me because we are following the same principle. Similarly, whatever is spoken by Kṛṣṇa five thousand years or forty millions of years, it doesn't matter. If you are simply following the same principles, then you are spiritual master.

Interview with LA Times Reporter About Moon Trip -- December 26, 1968, Los Angeles:

Hayagrīva: I don't think Swami Bhaktivedanta's students would be swayed one way or the other because their faith is in Kṛṣṇa and in the spiritual master and it wouldn't be swayed by man going to the moon or not going to the moon. These are very incidental.

Reporter: No, but ...only if say a spiritual master of a faith made very definite statements about what man could or could not achieve, if a spiritual master were to say man cannot achieve this-period. And then man went ahead and achieved it, there would be a crisis.

Prabhupāda: The spiritual master does not say such nonsense things. Man can achieve in a suitable body. Why don't you say that? But that suitable body is not...

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Conversation Including Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.1-34 Recitation & Explanation -- April 1, 1969, San Francisco:

Prabhupāda: Karuṇayā means out of compassionate, compassion for the persons who are suffering continually birth and death. Taṁ vyāsa-sūnam upayāmi guruṁ munīnām. So "I offer my respect to that son of Vyasa who is spiritual master of many other saintly persons."

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

George Harrison: We've done meditation. Or I do my meditation. I have a mantra meditation.

Prabhupāda: This is also mantra.

John Lennon: It's not the song, though.

George Harrison: No, no. It's chanting.

John Lennon: We heard it from Maharishi. A mantra each.

Prabhupāda: His mantra is not public.

George Harrison: Not out loud. No.

John Lennon: No. It's a secret. (laughs)

Prabhupāda: There is a version by Rāmānujācārya. Rāmānujācārya, he was a great ācārya of this Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. His spiritual master gave him mantra: "My dear boy, you chant this mantra silently. Nobody can hear. It is very..." So then he asked, "What is the effect of this mantra?" He said, "By chanting this mantra, by meditation, you'll get liberation." So he immediately went out and in a public, big meeting he said that "You chant this mantra. You'll be all liberated." (laughter)