Dr. Copeland: (laughs) Even in Australia, too. To get back more to the origins of the movement, why do you follow the teachings of Caitanya rather than, say, Vallabha or Rāmānuja or Rāmānanda?
Prabhupāda: No, there is no difference. Rather, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is the summary of all Vaiṣṇava—Rāmānuja, Rāmānanda, Madhvācārya and Viṣṇu Svāmī, Nimbārka. There are four sampradāyas. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu follows everyone. There is no difference much.
Dr. Copeland: Oh, you found. How about Kabir?
Prabhupāda: Kabir is not in the sampradāya.
Dr. Copeland: No.
Prabhupāda: He is upstart. (Dr. Copeland laughs) He says mālāja pare śālā. He is abusing a person who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa. He is such a rascal. Mālāja pare śālā. Śālā is abusive language. But he said mālāja pare śālā. All the Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, they chant with beads, and he is speaking śālā, abusive language. How fallen he is. That is the difficulty, that our system is accepting the previous ācārya, authority. So anyone who does not follow this principle, he is outstart. He is not accepted as authority. So Kabir is not an authority.
Dr. Copeland: Does that mean you go back to Śaṅkarācārya?
Prabhupāda: No. Śaṅkarācārya is also not authority, because he does not follow the ācāryas. Of course, Māyāvāda philosophy was there always, but that was never taken very seriously. Vyāsadeva is the authority. So Vyāsadeva is not Māyāvādī. He is Vaiṣṇava. We belong to Vyāsadeva's sampradāya, Brahma-sampradāya. Therefore we worship our spiritual master as Vyāsadeva's representative, vyāsa-pūjā.