Allen Ginsberg: Do you understand your previous lives from the descriptions in authoritative texts, or from any introspective recollection . . .
Prabhupāda: No, we have to corroborate.
Allen Ginsberg: . . . of your own?
Prabhupāda: Corroborate. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). One who could not finish this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he gets birth in two places—either in very rich family or in a very pure Brahmin family, brahminical cultured family. So from my life I experience, when I was very little child, six or seven years old, I was very much fond of Kṛṣṇa. And I got the opportunity of this two things. Although my father was not very rich, but he was pure Vaiṣṇava. He was great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Allen Ginsberg: I assume in Calcutta.
Prabhupāda: In Calcutta. And accidentally, I was born in a very rich family. You have seen that picture in my Calcutta, dancing. In that, there is a Kashi Mullik's family.
Indian woman: Kashi Mulliker? Okhane gechhi.
Prabhupāda: They are very aristocratic family. I do . . . I did not belong to that family, but I was born in that family, you see? And from the very beginning the Kashi Mullik, they have got nice Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa temple. So I was standing before the Deity, and I was seeing, "Oh, He is Kṛṣṇa. Oh, people say He is dead. How He is dead?"
Like that I was thinking. And then my . . . I asked my father, "Oh, I shall worship Kṛṣṇa. Give me." So my father gave me Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, so I, whatever I was eating, I was offering Them. So the statement of the śāstra and my practical experience corroborates.
So we have to take instance like that, you see? Sādhu śāstra guru vākya. We have to test everything from three position: the spiritual master, scripture and holy man. Scripture means, just like Bible. What is Bible? Scripture. Why it is scripture? It is fully contains the instruction of sādhu, holy man, or spiritual master, Lord Jesus Christ; therefore is scripture.
The scripture means the statement of liberated holy man. That is sādhu. Therefore, scripture should be tested through the holy man and spiritual master. Spiritual master should be tested through scripture and holy man, and holy man should be tested through spiritual master and scripture.