(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 05 September 2018, Radhadesh, Belgium, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.24.50)
Different countries are famous for their varieties of export. The Middle East exports, for instance, are known for oil and Holland is known for exporting flowers and cheese. Different countries export different things and India exports gurus. That has been a big thing for a long time.
Once there was a group of people doing a play and they needed someone to play the part of a guru. Somehow they asked an Indian devotee to play this part. This person sat on a raised seat and upon sitting he asked, “Where’s my garland?” It was very interesting how, somehow or other, that spirit of being a guru is so deeply ingrained in the Vedic culture. However, when a guru speculates, when a guru manufactures, when a guru comes up with his own ideas, then he is not a guru at all. At that point, he is a false guru, and being a false guru is a very serious offence.
The false guru receives the greatest reactions for his actions. Rather than being sura, a devotee of the Lord, he is asura. He is actually demoniac. He is actually a personality who is heading for hellish destinations and taking others down with him. So the followers of such gurus also attain hell. It is not that one accepts a guru just for fun, just so that one can also show himself in spiritual circles. No, a guru is meant to point us towards the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vāyu Purana says how an acarya is the one who knows the scriptures, who follows the scriptures and who teaches the scriptures to others. That is the point. Firstly, there must be a foundation of scripture. When there is no foundation of scripture, then such a self-manifested guru, who just suddenly became divine, can never be trusted.
Yesterday we were in Ljubljana, Slovenia with Krsna Ksetra Maharaj and he made a comment about Prabhupada during his speech which was very interesting. He said that Prabhupada did not become as famous as he deserved to be. What did this mean? It is obvious that Prabhupada did such amazing things that the whole world should know about Prabhupada. But Maharaj said that the reason for this is because Prabhupada always gave every bit of credit to Krsna. He always pointed to Krsna. Everyone knows the Hare Krsna movement but not everyone knows Prabhupada. Whereas in so many movements, everyone only knows the guru, the famous personality, but not having an idea about the philosophy or their teachings. However with Prabhupada, it is rather the other thing. Everyone knows about the Hare Krsnas, their way of life, how they chant the Hare Krsna mantra and so on. With this movement, it is Krsna that is in the foreground and Prabhupada sort of managed to put himself in the background in a way. Prabhupada would say that, “Just like the moon has no light of its own but rather borrows its effulgence from the sun. In the same way, if you see any good qualities in me, then know them to be the good qualities of my spiritual master.”