Akṣayānanda: I was recently told by one devotee that the ācārya does not have to be a pure devotee.
Prabhupāda: What?
Akṣayānanda: That the ācārya does not have to be a pure devotee.
Prabhupāda: Who is that rascal?
Akṣayānanda: Well, he said it, who said it.
Prabhupāda: Who said? Who is that rascal? The ācārya does not require to be a pure devotee?
Akṣayānanda: He said it. Nitāi said it. He said it in this context: He said that Lord Brahmā is the ācārya in the Brahma-sampradāya, but yet he is sometimes afflicted by passion. So therefore he is saying that it appears that the ācārya does not have to be a pure devotee. So it does not seem right.
Prabhupāda: So who is that rascal? I want to know who has said.
Akṣayānanda: Nitāi. Nitāi dāsa.
Harikeśa: Nitāi said that? (laughs in disbelief)
Prabhupāda: Who is Nitāi dāsa?
Harikeśa: Our Nitāi.
Akṣayānanda: Nitāi.
Prabhupāda: Oh, our Nitāi? Oh.
Akṣayānanda: He said he couldn't understand it, but he thought . . . he said that he thought . . .
Prabhupāda: He manufactured his idea. Therefore he's a rascal. Therefore he's a rascal. Nitāi has become an authority?
Akṣayānanda: No, actually he said that he thought . . .
Prabhupāda: He thought something rascaldom, and he is expressing that. Therefore he is more rascal. These things are going on. As soon as he reads some books, he becomes an ācārya, whatever rascal he may be.