The misguided conditioned soul also approaches so-called sādhus and svāmīs who preach against the principles of the Vedas. He does not receive benefit from them, either in the present or in the future.
PURPORT
Cheaters are always there to manufacture their own way of spiritual realization. To get some material benefit, the conditioned soul approaches these pseudo sannyāsīs and yogīs for cheap blessings, but he does not receive any benefit from them, either spiritual or material. In this age there are many cheaters who show some jugglery and magic.
They even create gold to amaze their followers, and their followers accept them as God. This type of cheating is very prominent in Kali-yuga. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes the real guru in this way.
saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka-
trāṇāya kāruṇya-ghanāghanatvam
prāptasya kalyāṇa-guṇārṇavasya
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam
One should approach a guru who can extinguish the blazing fire of this material world, the struggle for existence. people want to be cheated. and therefore they go to yogīs and svāmīs who play tricks, but tricks do not mitigate the miseries of material life. If being able to manufacture gold is a criterion for becoming God, then why not accept Kṛṣṇa, the proprietor of the entire universe, wherein there are countless tons of gold? As mentioned before, the color of gold is compared to the will-O’-the-wisp or yellow stool; therefore one should not be allured by gold-manufacturing gurus but should sincerely approach a devotee like Jaḍa Bharata. Jaḍa Bharata instructed Rahūgaṇa Mahārāja so well that the King was relieved from the bodily conception. One cannot become happy by accepting a false guru. A guru should be accepted as advised in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.3.21). Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: One should approach a bona fide guru to inquire about the highest benefit of life. Such a guru is described as follows: śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. Such a guru does not manufacture gold or juggle words. He is well versed in the conclusions of Vedic knowledge (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg. 15.15]). He is freed from all material contamination and is fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. If one is able to obtain the dust of the lotus feet of such a guru, his life becomes successful. Otherwise he is baffled both in this life and in the next.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeqMQLpcH4Y#t=3m01s
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHtG4tw2Wfc
Devotee: Swamiji, I think she means do you have to do any kind of breathing exercising besides chanting?
Prabhupada: No. There is no breathing exercise or gymnastic. No. Nothing. The breathing exercise is there. When you chant Hare Krishna there is breathing. Yes?
Lect., March 26, 1969, SF
O my Krsna. I wasn’t able to get through that last video. After a number of seconds of his ongoing “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” I couldn’t “stay tuned” to his channel.
Maybe he’s giving singing lessons…
Thank Krsna, Srila Prabhupada didn’t have us doing this… (Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Harinam Sankirtan process is much nicer all-around.)
We learn from Srimad Bhagavatam 3.29.8 ;
” In pure devotional service, the only motive should be to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is not actually a motive; that is the pure condition of the living entity. In the conditioned stage, when one engages in devotional service, he should follow the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master in full surrender. The spiritual master is the manifested representation of the Supreme Lord because he receives and presents the instructions of the Lord, as they are, by disciplic succession. It is described in Bhagavad-gītā that the teachings therein should be received by disciplic succession, otherwise there is adulteration.
To act under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master with a motive to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pure devotional service. But if one has a motive for personal sense gratification, his devotional service is manifested differently. Such a man may be violent, proud, envious and angry, and his interests are separate from the Lord’s. ”
So, through the eyes of the Scripture, one can see that who is bona fide and who is non-bona fide Guru.
Hare Krishna. AGTSP.
Srila Prabhupada’s Nov 5, 1972 letter to Sudama Prabhu:
My dear Sudama,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 27, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. So far the Road Show and this Yoga Village are concerned, these things should be stopped. Simply perform our kirtana. If we divert our attention in this way, the whole thing will gradually deteriorate. He is going far away. All these things are nonsense inventions. Such inventing spirit will ruin our this movement. People may come to see, some will become devotees, but such devotees will not stay because they are attracted by some show and not by the real thing or spiritual life according to the standard of Lord Caitanya. Our standard is to have kirtana, start temples. What is this “Road Show” and “Yoga Village?” It will be another hippie edition. Gradually the Krishna Consciousness idea will evaporate: another change, another change, every day another change. Stop all this. Simply have kirtana, nothing else. Don’t manufacture ideas.
Hoping this meets you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS/sda
Yes Maharaja, as Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Sudama Prabhu illustrates quite clearly….. so much ‘nonsense inventions’ causing the ruination of ISKCON which as a result is further complicated by the fact that this in turn only ‘attracts persons with ‘well bellow average’ intelligence’, sycophants and halfwits. Even when these rascal ”leaders” and ‘bogus gurus’ are EXPOSED as mayavadis, thieves, liars, murderers, and boy-buggerers they continue to sit on the ‘seat of Vyas’ as is the case with Prabhavisnu and others…………..business as usual!….. and their stupefied followers continue to ”worship” them.
This is why the ‘prison program’ is very popular (especially in Gaudiya Math) because they are interested in only the most stupid persons who are completely dependant on them when they are released and will not hesitate to “follow any instruction given” having a free reign to act as thugs and goondas for their ”masters” who make sure they themselves are ‘free from prosecution from the law of the land’
These ”disciples” are well below ‘even the average ‘Joe’ walking down the street because even in the general community if a politician or priest is ‘exposed’ as a paedophile of theif the community will rally together to have them ‘removed or jailed’ but in ISKCON and Gaudiya Math it is ‘business as usual’!