Separating the Saints

From the Swindlers
Sila Prabhupada speaks out in an interview with the London Times: “If you
want to be cheated, you will find many cheating gurus. But if you are sincere,
you will find a sincere guru... . The genuine guru is God’s representative, and
he speaks about God and nothing else. ....A genuine guru is not a business-
man. He is a representative of God. Whatever God says, the guru repeats. He
does not speak otherwise.”
Reporter: Your Grace, it seems that more people than ever are seeking
some kind of spiritual life. I wonder if you could tell me why this is so.
Srila Prabhupada: The desire for spiritual life is an absolutely natural
hankering. Because we are spirit souls, we cannot be happy in the
material atmosphere. If you take a fish out of the water, it cannot be
happy on land. Similarly, if we are without spiritual consciousness, we
can never be happy. Today, so many people are after scientific advance-
ment and economic development, but they are not happy because these .
are not the actual goals of life. Many young people are realizing this, and
they are rejecting materialistic life and are trying to search for spiritual
life. Actually, this is the proper search. Krsna consciousness is the proper
goal of life. Unless you take to Krsna consciousness, you cannot be
happy. That is a fact. Therefore, we invite everyone to study and under-
stand this great movement.
Reporter: What frankly worries me is that since the arrival in Britain
some time ago of an Indian yogi, who was the first ‘‘guru’’ that most peo-
ple had ever heard of, a lot of ‘‘gurus’’ have suddenly appeared out of
nowhere. Sometimes I get the feeling that not all of them are as genuine
as they ought to be. Would it be right to warn people who are thinking of
taking up spiritual life that they should make sure that they have a
genuine guru to teach them?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Of course, to search out a guru is very nice, but
if you want a cheap guru, or if you want to be cheated, then you will find
many cheating gurus. But if you are sincere, you will find a sincere guru.
Because people want everything very cheaply, they are cheated. We ask

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