Teachers or Cheaters Date: 2005-08-17 Author: Tejasvi Krishna das Dear Granthraj devotees, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva! In Bhagavad Gita verse 2.54, Arjuna inquires to Lord Krishna, arjuna uvāca sthita-prajñasya kā bhāṣā samādhi-sthasya keśava sthita-dhīḥ kiṁ prabhāṣeta kim āsīta vrajeta kim Arjuna said: What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk? We have heard and seen again and again that this world is full of impostor transcendentalists. Why is Srila Prabhupada putting so much emphasis on this in his Bhaktivedanta purports? The reason is that unless the people of the world learn how to discern the real transcendentalist from impostor transcendentalist there is no chance of becoming free from entanglement in the material modes. If one follows a cheater, one is cheated. What is cheating? Cheating is make- show spiritual life for the sake of gratifying the senses. Typically such cheaters who pose as gurus may offer gullible persons some high-priced mantra that will make one realize within six months that one is God.There may be many variations in such cheating proposals, even ones that seem connected with bhakti-yoga, but the end goal for such impostors is to gratify their senses. The real issue is how one identifies the genuine transcendentalist. In this connection Srila Prabhupada states in the purport of the above verse that, "speech is the most important quality of any person, The immediate symptom of a Krishna conscious man is that he speaks only of Krishna and of matters relating to Him." Only by searching out such a topmost transcendentalist can one realize the highest interest of human life, and for this purpose one has to apply one's ears. Simply by hearing what a guru has to say, one can know what is his goal, and thus whether he is a cheater or a genuine teacher. In the next eighteen verses from Bhagvat gita 2.55-72 Krishna elaborates on the qualities of the transcendentalist. In our mission to awaken these qualities, we can refer to these particular verses to measure how far we have progressed in our spiritual life. The most important quality we have to develop is to speak only about Krishna or matters relating to Him, then the other qualities will automatically follow. This is the conclusion of Prabhupada's purport to verse 2.54. The most important practice for developing this quality is the regular chanting of the Holy names of the Lord. When Srila Prabhupada was asked what one gets from chanting 'Hare Krishna'? He replied - "More Chanting!" This shows that the whole idea with the practice of chanting the Holy names is to engage the tongue, and of course, the ears, cent percent in the service of the Lord, for that is the way for all to become eligible for spiritual enjoyment in association with the Lord. Namacharya Haridasa Thakur - by his speech was able to purify even a prostitute's mind. Whenever she approached him, he talked to her politely, asked her to wait till he completed his chanting. Then he continued his chanting all night. Every day the prostitute left the place during the day hoping that her desire would be fulfilled on the next day. But after listening to Haridasa Thakur's chanting for 3 nights, she realized her mistakes and asked for forgiveness and Haridasa Thakurji delivered her by accepting her as his disciple. Through his purity of speech and chanting, he was able to inspire a prostitute to chant the Lord's names 300,000 times daily. The glories and power of Holy Names are inconceivable. Let us pray at the lotus of feet of all Vaishnava acharyas, so that we also purify our existence by chanting the Holy Names with faith and use our ability of speech to the fullest extent for all matters related to Krishna. Hare Krishna. Your servant, Tejasvi Krishna das Denmark..