Spiritual master is . . . not that a particular man is spiritual master. Spiritual master is a truth. So what is that truth? The truth is saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam. The whole world is in the blaze of material pangs, threefold miseries. And a person who is authorized to deliver people from that material pangs, he is called spiritual master.
The example is given in this verse, saṁsāra-dāvānala. Dāvānala is the Sanskrit word. The English equivalent is forest fire. Just like in the forest in this part of the world there are sometimes forest fire, and government has arrangement to pour water from up. There are so many arrangement. But forest fire there is, a fact. And what is this forest fire? The forest fire . . . nobody has got any interest to set fire in the forest, but it takes place automatically.
And when the forest fire is there, all the animals within the forest, they become so much disturbed. They cannot escape. They die, especially the snakes. Because snakes are always envious, so they are first up to be burned into that forest fire. They cannot go very swiftly. Others, tigers and other beasts, they go away. But the snake, they crawl. They cannot get out. Mostly they burn.
So this example is given to this materialistic life as forest fire, because nobody wants any disturbance, but disturbance is created. Actually I am seeing, since I have come to this part of the world in 1965, so many boys are chased by the government draft board. You see? They belong to the independent nation, and formerly they are independent.
And what is this nonsense independence? You see? Simply nonsense. There is no independence. But we are thinking, "I am independent." "Oh, that nation has become independent. I shall become independent." Just like one of my students said he wanted to be independent and anarchist.
So these false notions, "isms," are going on. People are being misled. You see? Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Practical experience: In my country, India, I was also a student of Gandhi. In 1920 I joined the noncooperation movement and gave up my education, because Gandhi's program was to boycott the British educational institution. So most of the university students . . . I was also. I passed my final examination, B.A., but I gave up. I did not appear, and I joined this movement.
Fortunately, in 1922 I also met my Guru Mahārāja, and he, on my first visit, I do not know why, he told that, "You should preach this Caitanya philosophy to the outside world." I replied that "We are dependent nation. Who will hear us? In the world, nobody hears any person who is coming from dependent nation, so we must have first of all independence." A young man I was at that time, and I was also misled in so many ways. But my spiritual master saved me, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja.