Choosing a Spiritual Master 63
vasses somehow or other on behalf of God and tries to get everyone to
become a devotee of God, he is a genuine guru.

Reporter: What about a Christian priest?

Srila Prabhupada: Christian, Muhammadan, Hindu—it doesn’t matter.
If he is simply speaking on behalf of God, he is a guru. Lord Jesus Christ,
for instance. He canvassed people, saying, ‘‘Just try to love God.’’ Any-
one—it doesn’t matter who—be he Hindu, Muslim, or Christian, is a
guru if he convinces people to love God. That is the test. The guru never
says, ‘‘Iam God,”’ or ‘‘I will make you God.”’ The real guru says, ‘‘I ama
servant of God, and I will make you a servant of God also.”’ It doesn’t
matter how the guru is dressed. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu said,
““Whoever can impart knowledge about Krsna is a spiritual master.’ A
genuine spiritual master simply tries to get people to become devotees of
Krsna, or God. He has no other business.

Reporter: But the bad gurus...

Srila Prabhupada: And what is a ‘‘bad”’ guru?

Reporter: A bad guru just wants some money or some fame.

Srila Prabhupada: Well, if he is bad, how can he become a guru?
(Laughter.] How can iron become gold? Actually, a guru cannot be bad,
for if someone is bad, he cannot be a guru. You cannot say ‘‘bad guru.”
That is a contradiction. What you have to do is simply try to understand
what a genuine guru is. The definition of a genuine guru is that he is
simply talking about God—that’s all. If he’s talking about some other :
ponsense, then he is not a guru. A guru cannot be bad. There is no ques-
tion of a bad guru, any more than a red guru or a white guru. Guru means
“‘genuine guru.”’ All we have to know is that the genuine guru is simply
talking about God and trying to get people to become God’s devotees. If
he does this, he is genuine.

Reporter: If I wanted to be initiated into your society, what would I have
to do?

Srila Prabhupada: First of all, you’d have to give up illicit sex life.
Reporter: Does that include all sex life? What is illicit sex life?

Scila Prabhupada: Illicit sex is sex outside of marriage. Animals have
sex with no restrictions, but in human society there are restrictions. In
every country and in every religion, there is some system of restricting
sex life. You would also have to give up all intoxicants, including tea,
cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana—anything that intoxicates.

Reporter: Anything else?

Srila Prabhupada: You'd also have to give up eating meat, eggs, and
fish. And you’d have to give up gambling as well. Unless you gave up
