So Prahlāda Mahārāja said, tatra, uh, guru-śuśrūṣayā. So you have to begin your spiritual, your Kṛṣṇa consciousness by accepting a bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic succession. And your first business will be guru-śuśrūṣā. Ṣuśrūṣā means to please the Supreme, this is spiritual master, by service, sevayā. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). If you want to learn that transcendental science, then you have to adopt three processes in the beginning. You have to select one, a bona fide spiritual master. Then you have to surrender. The same surrender process. You have to select such a spiritual master that you can surrender there. If you think, "Oh, this, this swamijī or the spiritual master is less intelligent than me or less educated than me or less in so many ways," then you cannot select a spiritual master. You have to select another person where you will find that "Here is a mind, here is man where I can surrender. Yes, he is greater than me in so many respects. Therefore I can surrender." This is called praṇipāt. So selection of spiritual master means first of all you must agree that "Here is a personality where I can bow down my head, yes." Everyone is proud. Why shall he bow down before a person unless he understands that "Here is a personality who is greater than me"? So this is the first condition, praṇipāt. Praṇipāt means prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa nipāt. You have to become blank slate: "Now, sir, whatever I have learned, oh, I forget. It is now blank slate. Now you write whatever you like." This is the first condition. Praṇipātena, and sevayā. Sevayā means service. So because the service is wanting, so one has to serve the spiritual master. It is indicated that even if you are the greatest personality, you have to approach and serve the spiritual master just like ordinary menial servant. Menial servant. If the spiritual master says, "My dear boy, you just cleanse my shoes," or any, I mean to say, abominable, oh, he'll be ready. This is called sevayā. And praṇipātena, sevayā. Praṇipātena..., paripraśnena and sevayā. Paripraśna means when you cannot understand, you must place, "Sir, I cannot understand this portion." This is the process.
So this is called śuśrūṣayā. Prahlāda Mahārāja says, guru-śuśrūṣayā bhaktyā. And with devotion, with love and faith, not officially, "Because I have kept a pet spiritual master, so officially I have to..." No. With faith and devotion. And sarva-labdhārpaṇena ca. The brahmacārī system means he should live with the spiritual master and collect fund. Of course, in India still, the system is there that in the four kinds of social orders, the brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa... There are four divisions in the social order. First the righteous, pious students-students with purified life and a spiritual education. That is called brahmacārī. Then gṛhastha, family life, living with wife and children. Then vānaprastha, retired life. Then sannyāsa, renounced life. So these gṛhasthas are meant for maintaining three other āśramas. A gṛhastha, a householder, because he's given the license for sense enjoyment, therefore he has to compensate his sensual gratification by giving charities to other three āśramas. Brahmacārī, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. So the system is any brahmacārī or any sannyāsī goes to a householder, "Mother, give me some alms. I am brahmacārī," (s)he will at once give. At once give. So this is the system.
So... So brahmacārī, brahmacārī's business is that he will collect, he'll earn everything, but it is for his spiritual master. Everything given. "Sir, I have given you." He doesn't possess anything. This is brahmacārī. Even there is injunction that even if the spiritual master forgets to call the brahmacārī—"My dear boy, come and take prasādam,"—oḥ, he'll not touch by his own accord. Because Guru Mahārāja has forgotten to call him, oh, he'll fast on that day. There are so many restrictions. Of course, in the Vedic scripture... So brahmacārī means that he has no personal profit. And do you mean to say that the spiritual master will take from the brahmacārī everything and he'll, I mean to say, grab the whole thing for his personal sense enjoyment? No. He, whatever he receives, he offers to Kṛṣṇa. For Kṛṣṇa. So therefore Kṛṣṇa, offering is to Kṛṣṇa through the transparent via media of spiritual master. Because directly I do not know Kṛṣṇa. Directly I do not know how to offer Kṛṣṇa. Therefore my business is to offer it through the agent. Just like if you want to pay something to the government, you have to pay to the treasury, not directly to president. You have to pay through the treasury. Similarly, this is the process of understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Guru-śuśrūṣayā bhaktyā sarva-labdhārpaṇena ca, saṅgena sādhu-bhaktānām. And you have to live with society who are trying to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sādhu-saṅgena. Simply official offering will not help you. You have to contact. Therefore this association required. This Society is necessary to give chance to the people that they may come and live in the Society and they reform their character, their habits. So that is required. These are all recommended: saṅgena sādhu-bhaktānām. Sādhu-bhaktānām. Sādhu and bhakta. Not the karmīs. There are different classes of men. Some of them are called karmīs, some of them are called jñānīs, some of them are called yogis, and some of them are called bhaktas, or devotees. So here Prahlāda Mahārāja does not recommend that you have to make your association with karmīs or you have to make your association with jñānīs or you have to make your association with the yogis. But here it is clearly stated, saṅgena sādhu-bhaktānām. Sādhu means a devotee, and bhakta means who is actually engaged in devotional service. With their association you have to develop, not with the karmīs. Who are karmīs? Karmīs means those who are after sense gratification. They will work hard day and night like any animal and, when they get some result, they engage all the profits in sense gratification. That is called karmī. And jñānī means those who are still not in actual Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but they are trying to understand that this life is not good. This hard life, this working day and night simply for sense gratification, oh, it is not good. They are trying something else. So generally they come to enjoy mental speculation. Just like the karmīs, they are trying to satisfy their senses, similarly, the jñānīs, they want to satisfy their mind. Their mind It is a little more elevated. But still, they are on the material platform because these senses and mind and intelligence, up to intelligence, that is all matter. There is no question of spiritual understanding. Mental speculation, speculators, they are not on the spiritual platform. They are on the material platform. So here And the yogis. Yogis, still more further advanced from jñāna, from the mental speculative platform, when one comes to the platform of finding out the soul within by meditation, they are still elevated. So But the bhaktas, they are already engaged. They have not only found out the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but they are actually engaged in His service. They are called bhaktas, devotees.
