View source for First of all you have to select who can be your spiritual master. That requires some knowledge. Or you have to behave with a person to understand, "Whether he is fit to become my spiritual master?" Then you should offer yourself to be a student

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"First of all you have to select who can be your spiritual master. That requires some knowledge. Or you have to behave with a person to understand"|"Then you should offer yourself to be a student"|"Whether he is fit to become my spiritual master"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|Visnu Murti}}
{{complete|ALL}}
{{first|09Sep14}}
{{last|09Sep14}}
{{totals_by_section|BG=0|SB=0|CC=0|OB=0|Lec=1|Con=0|Let=0}}
{{total|1}}
{{toc right}}
[[Category:First of All]]
[[Category:You Have To]]
[[Category:Select]]
[[Category:Who Can]]
[[Category:Can Be]]
[[Category:My Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:Require]]
[[Category:some]]
[[Category:knowledge]]
[[Category:Behavior]]
[[Category:person]]
[[Category:understand]]
[[Category:whether]]
[[Category:Fit]]
[[Category:Become a Spiritual Master]]
[[Category:You Should]]
[[Category:Offer]]
[[Category:Yourself]]
[[Category:student]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Videos for Timeline|3]]
</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Lectures" text="Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures"><h3>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div id="LectureonCCMadhyalila209799NewYorkNovember221966_0" class="quote" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta_Lectures" book="Lec" index="48" link="Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.97-99 -- New York, November 22, 1966" link_text="Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.97-99 -- New York, November 22, 1966">
<div class="heading">This mentality should be sacrificed first, before going to a spiritual master. First of all you have to select who can be your spiritual master. That requires some knowledge. Or you have to behave with a person to understand, "Whether he is fit to become my spiritual master?" Then you should offer yourself to be a student. That is the process, not that all of a sudden you shall go to a person, "Oh, please accept me as your..." No.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.97-99 -- New York, November 22, 1966|Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.97-99 -- New York, November 22, 1966]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Paṇḍita means learned. Learned scholar, he is called paṇḍita. Paṇḍita sama-darśinaḥ. You have read in the Bhagavad-gītā: a paṇḍita means he sees everything on equal eye. Why? Because he is brāhmaṇa, he has known what is Brahman and what are these living entities. He has got such knowledge. That is called paṇḍita. So Sanātana Gosvāmī has no such knowledge. At least, he is pretending like that. So he says that grāmya-vyavahāre kahaye paṇḍita: "By social etiquette I am addressed as 'paṇḍita,' but..." Tāi satya māni: "And I also accept that I am paṇḍita." If somebody falsely calls me that "Your Majesty," so it is an insult. It is not honoring him. I am an ordinary man. If somebody calls me, Your Majesty," so a man who has no qualification, if he is eulogized in that way, that is an insult. But we are so much fool that if somebody calls me "Your Majesty," I shall feel, "Oh, I am Majesty. Yes. I am His Majesty." That is our nature. If some false qualifications is awarded to me, I shall be very glad to accept it. I shall think, "Yes." So Sanātana Gosvāmī said that "Actually, I am not paṇḍita because I do not know what is my benefit, what is beneficial to me. I do not know the goal of my life. I simply wasted my time in sense gratification. I do not know. And still, people say, 'You are paṇḍita,' and I accept it. Just see my position." This is blank slate, admitting that "I am fool number one, but people say I am learned, and I accept it." This is our nature. This is called illusion. He will never think that "I am fool number one." He will always think, "Oh, who can be greater than me? I can think myself. Why? What is the necessity of a spiritual master? I can become a religious leader, I can become such and such, or..." This is our mentality.</p>
<p>So this mentality should be sacrificed first, before going to a spiritual master. First of all you have to select who can be your spiritual master. That requires some knowledge. Or you have to behave with a person to understand, "Whether he is fit to become my spiritual master?" Then you should offer yourself to be a student. That is the process, not that all of a sudden you shall go to a person, "Oh, please accept me as your..." No. You should first of all try to understand whether he is actually fit. Then offer yourself. So just like Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he first saw Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he did not offer himself, but when he heard from Caitanya Mahāprabhu and he understood, "Yes, it is very nice thing. So I should now retire from service, and I should wholly devote to Caitanya Mahāprabhu," so he left his very lucrative job, ministership, and just like a very poor man he approached to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he's placing, submitted himself as blank slate, that "These are my qualifications. Please accept me."</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>