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Bali Mahārāja Surrenders the Universe
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of Śukrācārya, his spiritual master? It is the duty of such a sober personality as Bali Mahārāja to abide by the orders of his spiritual master immediately, as his spiritual master had advised. But Bali Mahārāja also considered that Śukrācārya was no longer to be accepted as a spiritual master, for he had deviated from the duty of a spiritual master. According to  śāstra , the duty of the  guru  is to take the disciple back home, back to Godhead. If he is unable to do so and instead hinders the disciple in going back to Godhead, he should not be a  guru .  Gurur na sa syāt  ( Bhāg.  5.5.18). One should not become a  guru  if he cannot enable his disciple to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The goal of life is to become a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa so that one may be freed from the bondage of material existence ( tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so 'rjuna ). The spiritual master helps the disciple attain this stage by developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now Śukrācārya had advised Bali Mahārāja to deny the promise to Vāmanadeva. Under the circumstances, therefore, Bali Mahārāja thought that there would be no fault if he disobeyed the order of his spiritual master. He deliberated on this point—should he refuse to accept the advice of his spiritual master, or should he independently do everything to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead? He took some time. Therefore it is said,  tūṣṇīṁ bhūtvā kṣaṇaṁ rājann uvācāvahito gurum . After deliberating on this point, he decided that Lord Viṣṇu should be pleased in all circumstances, even at the risk of ignoring the  guru 's advice to the contrary.
Anyone who is supposed to be a  guru  but who goes against the principle of  viṣṇu-bhakti  cannot be accepted as a  guru . If one has falsely accepted such a  guru , one should reject him. Such a  guru  is described as follows ( Mahābhārata, Udyoga  179.25):
guror apy avaliptasya kāryākāryam ajānataḥ utpatha-pratipannasya parityāgo vidhīyate
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has advised that such a useless  guru , a family priest acting as  guru , should be given up, and that the proper, bona fide  guru  should be accepted.