Hṛdayānanda: (translating) If our chanting is a form of prayer?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Chanting is a spiritual method for cleansing our heart. Because all dirty things are there in the heart, if the heart becomes cleansed, then we can understand things as they are. The first misunderstanding, that everyone is thinking that he is this body, this is due to ignorance. So when one is cleansed he can understand that he is not this body; he is separate from the body; he lives within this body. Therefore when the person leaves this body it is dead lump of matter. So people are giving more importance to the lump of matter than to the real person within the body. Just like a bird is within the cage, the cage is being washed very nicely and no food to the bird. Therefore the bird is in disturbed condition, and he's crying, khaa-khaa-khaa-khaa. This is going on. They're giving stress on the cage, not the bird within the cage. Neither do they know that the living being is within this material body.
Lady Psychologist: (Spanish)
Hṛdayānanda: (translating) Can someone achieve self-realization without a guru, or does he need a guru?
Prabhupāda: How do you think like that? Is there anything within this world which can be learned without guru? Even if you become an ordinary carpenter, you have to learn from an expert carpenter. So how you can imagine to learn the topmost subject matter without guru? This is. . . The Vedic injunction is, therefore, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham, samit-pāṇiḥ (MU 1.2.12), like that. We must have a bona fide guru to train us in the understanding of spiritual matter. Guru means who knows the thing, who can teach you. That is guru—not a humbug guru, but guru means one who knows. Tattva-darśinaḥ, one who has seen the truth, he can become guru.