1.) Conversation 760530R1: HONOLULU 30 May 1976
“So all my disciples are expected to become śikṣā-guru on my order…”
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I am just trying to clarify—I don’t want to offend anyone—but no disciple of yours should call himself dīkṣā-guru or śikṣā-guru. Am I right?
Prabhupāda: Well, everyone is engaged to become śikṣā-guru, but one should become perfect. The attempt is—what is called?—probationer. When probationer period is finished, then he is naturally, automatically, bona fide guru. Not in the probationer period. That is immature attempt. That will failure. Āmāra ājsāya (CC Madhya 7.128), Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “By My order.” So all my disciples are expected to become śikṣā-guru on my order, not by his own order. That is meaning I am giving sannyāsa, I am sending you to different places, so this means that you have to carry out the order of the guru very strictly; then you become mature. Otherwise it will be artificial attempt, and that kind of guru will not help. Just like there are so many gurus and avatāras and yogīs are coming. For time being there is some culture(?), and what is the effect? Just like this… What is that?
Devotee: Guru Mahārāja?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Guru Mahārāja is later than that. Before that?
Devotees: Maharishi Yogi!
Prabhupāda: So what is the effect?
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: No one talks of him now.
Rāmeśvara: No. He is making big business.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Rāmeśvara: He has made his guru into guru business, big business. His men go to the college wearing tie and suit, and they initiate the students for one hundred dollars. He is making millions of dollars by cheating, and making it into a big business. He gets one hundred dollars, and he gives them a special mantra, which is just one line of…
Prabhupāda: That he was giving beginning by thirty-five dollars. Now he has made it one hundred?
Devotees: Inflation! (laughter)
Devotee: The cost of being a guru has gone up. (laughter)
2.) Room Conversation: Vṛndāvan 26 July 1977
“Simply to worship Deity is material platform. Gṛhasthas, we want, this preaching.”
If you simply worship the Deity in gorgeous way and do not preach, see to the interest of devotees and other common men, then you’ll remain in the prākṛta state, material stage. You should go further, see the interest of ordinary people, how they are understanding Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Tad-bhakteṣu. To give worship to the guru and honor them. Simply to worship Deity is material platform. Gṛhasthas, we want, this preaching.
3.) Path of Perfection book
How devotees should render service without payment
In Sanskrit, the word bhajate, with its root bhaj (bhaj-dhātu) means “to render service.” But who renders service to Kṛṣṇa unless he is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa?
In this Society of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotees are rendering service without payment, out of love for Kṛṣṇa. They can render service elsewhere and get paid hundreds of dollars a month, but this service rendered here is loving service (bhaj), based on love of Godhead. Devotees render service in many ways—gardening, typing, cooking, cleaning, etc. All activities are connected with Kṛṣṇa, and therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prevailing twenty-four hours a day. That is the highest type of yoga.
