152 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 pre-
pare 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 fore-
most 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 quali-
fied 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 symp-
toms of his activities.

This is confirmed in the Srimad Bhagwatam when Narada speaks of the dif-
ferent symptoms of the different divisions of social life, and when he sum-
marizes 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,
