So if one is not even on the stage of self-realization, how he can teach others? That is cheating. That is cheating. If one is not a graduate, if he becomes a teacher, he is not a teacher; he is a cheater. One must be first of all qualified. That qualification means one must be above the three qualities of material nature. Goodness... Even you have to go beyond the quality of goodness. In the material world we have made, concocted, "This is good, this is bad." So even taking it... Actually, everything in the material world is bad. Anything. It is simply mental concoction. We are creating, "This is good, this is bad." The... So long one is in the material world, everything is bad. Even the so-called religious practice, that is also bad, in the material world. So therefore, Bhagavad-gītā says, sa guṇān samatītya etān: "One has to transcend even the quality of goodness, the so-called goodness."
Actually there is no goodness, because here people dress like in the platform of goodness, but thinking just like animals. That kind of goodness has no value. Actually goodness, that goodness is sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26), when one transcends the qualities of material nature, above the brāhmaṇa quality. Brāhmaṇa quality is... Suppose... Suppose actually, in comparison to other qualities, that is the first-class quality. Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā ārjavam, eh? Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). When one is situated in these qualities—truthfulness, satyam; śamaḥ, controlling the senses; damaḥ, controlling the mind; śamo damas titikṣā, tolerant—in spite of all tribulation, tolerant—śamo damas titikṣā śaucam, cleanliness. Then jñānam, full knowledge. Full knowledge means "What I am, what is God, what is this material world, what is our relationship." That is called knowledge. And that knowledge, when practically applied in life, that is called vijñānam. Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam, āstikyam, full faith in the śāstras and in God. That is called āstikyam. If you have full faith in the revealed scriptures, then you are āstikya. Because you cannot manufacture your God, so-called incarnation God. No. You must have full knowledge of God through the authority of revealed scriptures. That is God consciousness. If you give up the injunction of the scripture, revealed scriptures, you consider something as God, that is not God. Or you consider something as religion, that is not religion. Yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na sa siddhim avāpnoti (BG 16.23). If you become aberrant to the injunction of the śāstras, then na sukhaṁ sāvāpnoti, you'll never get happiness. Na sukham, yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya vartate kāma-kārataḥ, na, na sa siddhim avāpnoti. There is no question of siddhi, perfection, neither there is question of happiness, na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim, and what to speak of going back home, back to Godhead. It is useless.
Therefore we must abide by the sādhu-śāstra-guru. (aside:) Ah, what is this sound, is going on now? You can ask somebody to stop. Sādhu means saintly person. Śāstra means revealed scriptures. Sādhu, śāstra and guru, spiritual master. So we must follow the footprints of saintly persons, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). That is the way. We have to follow great superior personalities, just like ṣaḍ-gosvāmī. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, ei chay gosāñi jāṅr mui tāṅr dāsa: "I become servant, servant or disciple, of such a person who follows the footprints of the six Gosvāmīs." Otherwise one becomes guru, anyone, just like nowadays they become. They are manufacturing guru. Guru is not manufactured. Guru is in the disciplic succession, one who is strictly follows the footsteps of the ṣaḍ-gosvāmīs. Ei chay gosāñi jāṅr. Anyone who is following the footsteps of the gosvāmīs, Rūpa Gosvāmī... Rūpa Gosvāmī gives his Upadeśāmṛta instruction:
- vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ
- jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
- etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ
- sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
- (NOI 1)
This is the injunction given by Rūpa Gosvāmī. Vāco vegam. Vāco vegam means the force of talking, vegam. What is the meaning, vegam?