I am the spiritual master

Expressions researched:
"I am the spiritual master" |"I am a spiritual master"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

"All right, I am ready to go to a spiritual master to understand the transcendental science, but who is a guru?" Everyone will be ready: "Oh, I am your guru. I am a spiritual master." No. There are signs. What is that? Śrotriyam.

Lecture on SB 7.6.1 -- San Francisco, March 3, 1967: So spiritual master is the negotiator. He is the broker. Of course, without any brokerage, but he is supposed to be the broker or the transparent medium. My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "the transparent media, via media." Just like my eyes are not very perfect, so I am using this transparent via media to see, similarly, because we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God, so we have to see through the transparent via media of spiritual master. Otherwise it is very difficult. That is the process. That is the process. Therefore Bhāgavata, er, Vedic literature gives you injunction, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. Tad-vijñānārtham. Tat means spiritual or transcendental. If you want to understand about transcendental science, then tad-vijñānārtham, in order to understand that transcendental love, so gurum eva. Eva. Gurum means a spiritual master. Eva. Eva means must. And gacchet. Gacchet also, it is used in the obli..., or the imperative, "must." And who is a guru? Who is a spiritual master? That is also defined there. Otherwise he will be puzzled where to go. "All right, I am ready to go to a spiritual master to understand the transcendental science, but who is a guru?" Everyone will be ready: "Oh, I am your guru. I am a spiritual master." No. There are signs. What is that? Śrotriyam. Śrotriyam means one who has perfectly heard the science of God from authoritative sources in disciplic succession. That is the qualification. Śrotriyam, and brahma-niṣṭham means not that simply he has heard, but the result is that he is firmly fixed up in God consciousness. These two qualifications.

Sri Isopanisad Lectures

So this is a very risky civilization. I may feel very comfortable that "I am a spiritual master," or you may think very comfortable, "I am born of a very rich nation, American," but this status of my life is temporary.

Sri Isopanisad, Introduction: So this is a very risky civilization. I may feel very comfortable that "I am a spiritual master," or you may think very comfortable, "I am born of a very rich nation, American," but this status of my life is temporary. I will have to change. I'll have to change. So if I do not change for the better, then my life is very risky. Suppose a healthy man, if he is in the society of contamination, is it not his life is very risky? He may be contaminated and infected by disease any moment. So this ignorance should be dissipated. Here it is said that such a devotee can properly discharge his duty of human life. Those who do not do so are eating only sins.

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the society, they're supposed to be my disciples.

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.

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.

1972 Conversations and Morning Walks

Doesn't Kṛṣṇa say in the Bhagavad-gītā, "I am the spiritual master"?

Talk with Bob Cohen -- February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura:

Bob: Lord Caitanya, He was not a guru, He was different than guru?

Prabhupāda: He's guru.

Bob: Lord Caitanya, He was a different type of guru than you were?

Prabhupāda: No, no. Guru cannot be different types. All gurus are of one type.

Bob: But He was, was He also an incarnation at the same...?

Prabhupāda: Yes, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, but He is representing as guru.

Bob: I see.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Bob: And then.

Prabhupāda: Because Kṛṣṇa, as God, He demanded that sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66]. But people misunderstood Him. Therefore Kṛṣṇa again came as guru and taught people how to surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Śyāmasundara: Doesn't He say in the Bhagavad-gītā, "I am the spiritual master"?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Śyāmasundara: Doesn't Kṛṣṇa say "I am the spiritual master"? In Bhagavad-gītā it says...

Prabhupāda: Yes, He's the original spiritual master. Because He has accepted spiritual master of Arjuna. So what is the difficulty? Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam [Bg. 2.7]. "I am your disciple." So unless He's spiritual master, how Arjuna becomes His disciple? He's the original guru. Tene brahma hṛdā ādi-kavaye, in the Bhāgavata. That He gave instruction about Vedas in the heart of Brahmā. So He's guru.

Bob: Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes, He's the original guru. Then His disciple Brahmā is guru. Then his disciple Nārada is guru. Then his disciple Vyāsa is guru. In this way there is guru-paramparā. Evaṁ paramparā prāptam [Bg. 4.2], the transcendental knowledge is received through the disciplic succession.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Who has designated you as the spiritual master, because everyone is saying that: "I am the spiritual master," So how, how, how will one know who is the spiritual master?

Car Conversation after meeting with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Guest: (German)

Haṁsadūta: Who has designated you as the spiritual master, because everyone is saying that: "I am the spiritual master," So how, how, how will one know who is the spiritual master?

Guest: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Maharsi...

Prabhupāda: (To Śrutakīrti) Don't make this coming and going always. There is no other way for going down?

Śrutakīrti: No, we just had to find something. We... There was something in your bathroom we needed. This thing here... But we, we won't be using this at all.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Haṁsadūta: You want to know how can you tell... Guest: (German)

Prabhupāda: The spiritual master is the representative of God.

Haṁsadūta: (translates)

Prabhupāda: So if he speaks what God speaks, then he's spiritual master, otherwise, he's a bogus.

Haṁsadūta: (German conversation) What God has spoken in the scripture.

Guest: (German)

Prabhupāda: So Mahesh Yogi does not speak of God. Therefore he's bogus.

Guest: I understand.