# Spiritual Guidance *On how to receive and follow spiritual knowledge* --- ### Repeat Like Parrot > I speak, therefore, to my disciples that "You simply repeat like parrot *Bhagavad-gītā* and follow. That's all. Your life will be perfect. Don't try to become very big scholar, do interpretation. Remain foolish and believe in Kṛṣṇa. Then life is perfect." — [[spoken/1977/770102r1.bom|Room Conversation, Bombay, January 2, 1977]] --- ### The Spiritual Master Must Receive Power > So the spiritual master is not self-made. It is not that if anyone comes before you and bluffs you that "I have attained spiritual perfection, and I have realized something by some method.'' No. The spiritual master, bona fide spiritual, means he has to receive the power from authority. Otherwise it is useless. — [[spoken/1969/690102pu.la|Purport to Śrī Gurvaṣṭaka, Los Angeles, January 2, 1969]] --- ### Nobody Can Preach Without Power > Nobody can preach, nobody can become a spiritual master, without obtaining power from the right source. Therefore the very word, it is stated here, *prāptasya. Prāptasya* means "one who has obtained." *Prāptasya kalyāṇa.* What he has obtained? *Kalyāṇa. Kalyāṇa* means auspicity. He has received something which is auspicious for all the humankind. — [[spoken/1969/690102pu.la|Purport to Śrī Gurvaṣṭaka, Los Angeles, January 2, 1969]] --- ### We Want Liberation in Spiritual Varieties > So we want liberation, but not liberation in the impersonal existence. That is... That is not very safe. We must enter into the spiritual varieties of life. That is Kṛṣṇaloka; that is Vaikuṇṭha-loka, especially Kṛṣṇaloka. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, *bhaktyā mām abhijānāti*. — [[spoken/1973/730102nd.bom|Nectar of Devotion Lecture, Bombay, January 2, 1973]] --- ### Not for Manufacturing Atom Bomb > *Tapo divyaṁ:* "My dear sons, accept *tapasya* for that transcendental realization." Not for manufacturing atom bomb. That is also *tapasya.* The scientists undergo severe penances how to find out, discover some... Not that kind. That Hiraṇyakaśipu... Hiraṇyakaśipu, he also underwent great *tapasya,* but what was the result of that *tapasya?* To tease his own son, because he was devotee. Not that kind of *tapasya.* That is demonic. *Tapo divyaṁ. Divyaṁ.* You just try to undergo austerities and penances for divine, transcendental realization. That is *tapasya.* — [[spoken/1975/750410sb.hyd|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.1, Hyderabad, April 10, 1975]] --- ### Giving the Real Idea of Life > On the whole, the whole human civilization is; and all the directors, they are not giving chance to know the value of life and how to conduct life. It is the first time, that we are giving the real idea of life. Otherwise whole world is in darkness. — [[spoken/1977/770102r2.bom|Conversation with Yogi Amrit Desai, Bombay, January 2, 1977]] --- *6 verified verbatim quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on spiritual guidance*