So long we are in the tama, tamasi mā: "Don't remain in tama, envious." Tamasi mā jyotir gama. So bhakti is uttama. When you are transcendental, above this darkness of material world, then you can accept the . . . If you are actually interested in the uttama, something beyond this darkness of ignorance, then you accept one guru. Don't keep a guru as a fashion to satisfy your senses: "My dear guru, can you make some gold?" "Yes." "Oh, first-class guru." No. That is not guru. That is your flattery. You want something according to your order—"Guru, cure my disease," "Guru, give me some gold," "Guru, give me this. Show me some wonderful mystic power"—that is order supplier. No, guru is not order supplier. Guru can give you the way how to have mercy of Kṛṣṇa. That is guru. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ. Bhagavat-prasāda. If you want mercy of Kṛṣṇa, then you have to satisfy the devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit (SB 11.17.27). "Never become envious of guru." Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā-deve tathā gurau (ŚU 6.23).
So this is the process. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). If you are actually interested something which is beyond this tama, this darkness of material world, then you require a guru. Otherwise it is not for you. So what is the . . . "Yes, I am prepared that 'What is that guru?' " Tasmād . . . Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam (SB 11.3.21), this is guru. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam: "He knows the Vedic conclusion." He knows the Vedic conclusion. Śābde pare. There are two kinds of sounds. Just like we are speaking. This is also sound, but this is para sound, uttama sound, para-prakṛti. Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is not ordinary sound; it is para-prakṛti. Golokera prema-dhana hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. Hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is not this material sound. If you think it is material sound, you are rascal. Therefore they are wonderful. The American people have become astonished how simply by chanting they becoming brainwashed. That is the actual fact. The rascals, they do not know how these people are giving up illicit sex, meat-eating—their life and soul, all these things. How they are giving up unless they have become mad, hearing? The hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana can do that.