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Teachings of Lord Chaitanya
have gone with Him. How can we find such principles after His departure?”
The reply was as follows: “After the departure of Krishna to His Abode with all religious principles, His representation, the  Srimad Bhagwatam , the  Maha Purana , stands as the blazing, illuminating sun.”
The Lord then said, “I am just like a madman, to describe this verse of  Atmarama  in so many ways; so you must not mind if I have said something mad. But if somebody becomes a madman like Me, he can understand the real meaning of  Srimad Bhagwatam  as I have explained it.”
Then Sanatan Goswami, with folded hands, fell down at the feet of Lord Chaitanya and prayed as follows: “My dear Lord, You have asked me to prepare the regulative principles of devotional service, but I belong to the lowest caste. I have no knowledge. I do not know how such an important task can be finished my me. If You will kindly give me some hints about the preparation of such a book on devotional service, then it may be that I shall be qualified to write such a book.”
The Lord then blessed him, saying, “Whatever you write, by the grace of Krishna, everything will come out of your heart to be accepted as you have asked. I’ll give you some notes that you can take down: The first and foremost thing is that one should accept a bona fide Spiritual Master. That is the beginning of spiritual life.”
After indicating that one should begin by accepting a Spiritual Master, He requested Sanatan Goswami to write the symptoms of a true  Guru , and the symptoms of a true devotee. The symptoms of a devotee are described in the  Padma Purana : A person who is a qualified Brahmin, and at the same time qualified with all the symptoms of a devotee, can become the Spiritual Master of all classes of men, and such a devotee and Spiritual Master must be respected as God Himself. But a person, even though he may be born of a very respectful Brahmin family, cannot become a bona fide Spiritual Master if he is not a devotee of the Lord. One should not, therefore, be misguided to think that a bona fide Spiritual Master is required to be born of a so-called Brahmin family. The idea is that a Spiritual Master must be a qualified Brahmin— by the symptoms of his activities .
This is confirmed in the  Srimad Bhagwatam  when Narada speaks of the different symptoms of the different divisions of social life, and when he summarizes that Brahmins and Kshatriyas and Sudras should be selected by their particular individual qualificational symptoms. And Sridhar Swami has noted, in his comment, that birth in the family of a Brahmin does not mean that one is a Brahmin—he must be qualified with the symptoms of a Brahmin,