View source for My Guru Maharaja, my spiritual master, used to say that you have to select a spiritual master not by seeing but by your ear, by hearing

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{{terms|"Do not try to see a saintly person. You try to hear a saintly person"|"Don't try to see a sadhu by your eyes. You try to see a sadhu by ears"|"Don't try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear"|"My Guru Maharaja used to say"|"used to say that you have to select a spiritual master not by seeing but by your ear, but by hearing"}}
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG42434NewYorkAugust121966_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="190" link="Lecture on BG 4.24-34 -- New York, August 12, 1966" link_text="Lecture on BG 4.24-34 -- New York, August 12, 1966">
<div class="heading">My Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, used to say that you have to select a spiritual master not by seeing but by your ear, but by hearing.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 4.24-34 -- New York, August 12, 1966|Lecture on BG 4.24-34 -- New York, August 12, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Just like, "Oh, so many people, they have got a spiritual master. Let me have also some spiritual master." It is not like that. It is only jijñāsuḥ, one must be very much inquisitive of the transcendental subject matter. He requires a spiritual master. So here also, the Lord says that tad viddhi: "If you want to understand that transcendental subject matter, then you must approach a person, a bona fide spiritual master."</p>
<p>And the process is praṇipāta, praṇipātena. Praṇipāta means full surrender. Pra means prakṛṣṭa-rūpeṇa, fully, and nipāta means completely becoming a blank slate. Blank slate. Nobody should approach a bona fide spiritual master just to argue with him and just to, with a desire that "I shall see what kind of spiritual master." No. This is useless. You have to select a spiritual master...</p>
<p>My Guru Mahārāja, my spiritual master, used to say that you have to select a spiritual master not by seeing but by your ear, but by hearing. And you don't select a spiritual master who has got a very good hair or beard or some very beautiful feature, "Oh, he is a very good, nice looking." No. You must hear. Tad viddhi praṇipātena ([[Vanisource:BG 4.34|BG 4.34]]). Śruti. The whole process is śruti. The Vedas are called śruti. The ear has to aural reception.</p>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB2948TokyoApril231972_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="408" link="Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972" link_text="Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972">
<div class="heading">My Guru Mahārāja used to say that, "Do not try to see a saintly person. You try to hear a saintly person."
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972|Lecture on SB 2.9.4-8 -- Tokyo, April 23, 1972]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Śruti-pramāṇam. That is evidence, śruti-pramāṇam. Śruti means Veda. In the Vedas it is stated... Just like Brahmā. He is receiving Vedic knowledge from, directly from God, Kṛṣṇa. Brahmaṇe darśayan rūpam. This is the process of understanding. Brahmā, how Brahmā is receiving knowledge? Directly he sees there is nobody there, but he is receiving knowledge. Directly he could not see. Upāśṛṇot, upāśṛṇot. Upāśṛṇot: "He simply heard." Upāśṛṇot. Ear, not the eyes. So therefore knowledge has to be gathered by aural reception, not by the eyes. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that, "Do not try to see a saintly person. You try to hear a saintly person." If you see a long beard and very strong man, he is a great sādhu. Oh. That's it." No. You have to hear. What does he speak? Then you understand. Upāśṛṇot. Divyaṁ sahasrābdam.</p>
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<div id="LectureonSB6142LosAngelesJune81976_1" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="671" link="Lecture on SB 6.1.42 -- Los Angeles, June 8, 1976" link_text="Lecture on SB 6.1.42 -- Los Angeles, June 8, 1976">
<div class="heading">My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "Don't try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear." Because if you hear from the saintly person and if he is speaking from the experience which he has heard from the, another saintly person—this is called guru-paramparā—then the knowledge is perfect.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 6.1.42 -- Los Angeles, June 8, 1976|Lecture on SB 6.1.42 -- Los Angeles, June 8, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So these questions were never raised. We are now raising these questions. And they were passing on. No. This is not the process. The process is śāstra-cakṣuṣāt, śabda-pramāṇam. That is the Vedic injunction, śabda-pramāṇam. Just like you are sleeping, and somebody is coming to kill you with knife. So how you can take precaution? You are sleeping. But some of your friend or relative: "Get up! Get up! Get up! There is enemy! There is enemy!" Immediately you wake up. That means you see with the ear, not with the eyes. The real seeing is through the eyes, er, through the ears. Suppose one does not know who is your..., who is his father. So how he can see the father? Through the ear, not with the eyes. That is not possible. The mother says, "My dear child, here is your father," and you see through the eyes: "Here is my father." So therefore real eyes—the ear, not these eyes. Real eyes. That is real seeing. Therefore śāstra says, Vedic knowledge, that śāstra-cakṣuṣāt, paśyati jñāna-cakṣuṣāt: "One can see by the eyes of knowledge," not by these blunt eyes. This is useless. They cannot see. And how you can see through the śabda? Śāstra means śabda. Through the ear... My Guru Mahārāja used to say, "Don't try to see a saintly person by your eyes. You see a saintly person by the ear." Because if you hear from the saintly person and if he is speaking from the experience which he has heard from the, another saintly person—this is called guru-paramparā—then the knowledge is perfect. Yesterday we ... The Yamadūtas said that iti śuśruma. Never said, "I have seen it." Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt svayaṁbhūr iti śuśruma: "We have heard it." Vedo nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣā... He never says, "I have seen it." No. Iti ṣuṣruma. So this is experience, real experience, real knowledge.</p>
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1977_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="10" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1977 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1977 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="EveningDarsanaMay131977Hrishikesh_0" class="quote" parent="1977_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="169" link="Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh" link_text="Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh">
<div class="heading">My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "Don't try to see a sādhu by your eyes. You try to see a sādhu by ears."
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh|Evening Darsana -- May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Indian man (1): We are still attached to material side.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, but we are denying. Is it not? When... Suppose a big man. You do not know what he is. But if the man says, "You want to know me? All right, I shall disclose all my secrets to you. Try to understand." So why don't you..., do not take it? If you want to know the person, and the person is explaining himself, why don't you take it? Why theorize that "God is like this. God is like this"? What is the meaning? When the person has come to explain about himself... Asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ yathā jñāsyasi tac chṛṇu: ([[Vanisource:BG 7.1|BG 7.1]]) "Hear." Hearing is the process of knowledge. Therefore our Vedas are called śruti. The knowledge has to be acquired through ear. My Guru Mahārāja used to say that "Don't try to see a sādhu by your eyes. You try to see a sādhu by ears." Karṇe sādhu dekhi. (Hindi) Tāvac ca śobhate mūrkhaḥ yāvat kiñcin na bhāṣate. (Hindi) For real perfect knowledge, one has to hear. Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. That is guru. One who has heard perfectly from the authority, he is guru. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam ([[Vanisource:SB 11.3.21|SB 11.3.21]]). And who is guru? Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. Everything direction is there.</p>
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