80 Elevation to Krsna Consciousness

Krsna says, “I am the Supreme,” and the spiritual
master says, “Krsna is the Supreme.” It is not that
to be a rep: entative of Krsna or to be a spiritual
master one has to have any extraordinary qualifica-
tion. He simply has to carry the message from the
authority as it is without any personal interpreta-
tion. As soon as there is some personal interpreta-
tion, the message is lost and the instructions become
offensive. A person who interprets the scriptures
according to his own whims should be immediately
rejected.

Once Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “‘You must
at least have enough sense to test to find out who is
a spiritual master and who is not.” For instance, if
we want to purchase something, we must at least
have some idea of what that thing is, otherwise we
will be cheated. If we want to purchase a mango
from the market, we must at least know what type
of food a mango is and what it looks like. Similarly,
we must have some preliminary knowledge of the
qualifications for a bona fide spiritual master.
Bhagavad-gita itself gives some information about
the succession of spiritual masters. Lord Sri Krsna
says:

imam vivasvate yogam
proktavan aham avyayam

vivasvan manave praha
manur iksvakave *bravit

evam parampara-praptam
imam rajarsayo viduh
