Srila Gurudeva:
bhaja govindam bhaja govindam
bhaja govindam mudha-mate
samprapte sannihite khalu marane
nahi nahi raksati dukrn-karane
Sankaracarya
[You fools and rascals, all your grammatical word jugglery of suffixes, prefixes and philosophical speculation will not save you at the time of death. Just worship Govinda! Worship Govinda! Worship Govinda!]
A devotee at the age of eighty, when his teeth and eyesight were almost all gone, he was reading Sanskrit grammar, anusvara and visarga. Sankaracarya himself came there and told him, nahi nahi raksati dukrn-karane. “Oh foolish man, don’t do this. You are at the end of your life. You should chant, ‘Govinda, Govinda.’ [Srila Gurudeva sings:] Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti. While brooming in front of the temple or your room or while supporting and nursing your children, don’t say, ‘Oh, sleep sleep,’ don’t say this. Instead chant, ‘Govinda Damodara Madhaveti, Govinda Damodara Madhaveti.’
Sankaracarya told him, “Don’t be involved with this grammar. Now you are in the last stages of death, you should not be absorbed in all these things.” That is why Caitanya Mahaprabhu said that, “Chant and remember Krsna.” If you are going to any pandita who is not realized, then he will mislead you and tell you, “Oh, where are the symptoms of devotion here? Your tilaka is not very good. There is some defect in your tilaka, so you are not a pure Vaisnava. You are blackish, so you are not pure, you are not a pure Vaisnava. You don’t know anusvara, ka, kha, and visarga, dots, so you cannot be a very real devotee. You should learn grammar first.”
I know that none of our acaryas like Haridasa Thakura or Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, they have never gone to read grammar. I will suggest that you first read Jaiva-dharma. You should hear Gurudeva and serve Gurudeva. Then automatically all of these things will come if your Gurudeva is bona fide. Who is Gurudeva? When Caitanya Mahaprabhu met with Raya Ramananda, he asked Him, “Who are You? At first I see You as a sannyasi, a very beautiful sannyasi. But now I see that You are Krsna. And now I am seeing that You are covered with any golden lady and now You are Rasa-raja mahabhava. Who are You?”
Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu told him, “You are really an uttama-maha-bhagavata. You can see your worshipable Yugala-kisora everywhere. You are seeing like this in Me. You are jagat-guru. You should be pleased with Me and help me. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya told Me, “I am not so qualified. You should go to Raya Ramananda and he will teach You all these things: Vaisnava etiquette, tattva, rasa, everything. So I have come to you and you are cheating Me? You are not telling me all these facts? I know that you are Guru because:
kiba vipra kiba nyasi sudra kene naya
yei krsna-tattva-vetta sei guru haya
Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 8.128
[Whether one is a brahmana, a sannyasi, a sudra or whatever, if he is fully conversant with krsna-tattva, he is eligible to become a Guru.]
This is the real definition of Guru. Who is Guru? He who is krsna-tattva-vetta, who knows all tattva, jiva-tattva, krsna-tattva, rasa-tattva, prema-tattva, he who is knowing everything about all these things, he is Guru. Whether he will be a sudra, or renounced, or whether he will be a grhastha, he may be anyone. He may be outside of varnasrama-dharma completely. He may be anyone, but if he knows all tattva, if he is krsna-tattva-vetta, then he is Guru.
tasmad gurum prapadyeta
jijnasuh sreya uttamam
sabde pare ca nisnatam
brahmany upasamasrayam
Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.21
[Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona-fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona-fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona-fide spiritual masters.]
Here, the definition of Gurudeva is the same. He should be krsna-tattva-vetta. Can anyone in this whole world say that Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja was not tattva-vetta? Has anyone dared to say this? If anyone will say so, then I must cut their tongue. The Guru of Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja was jagat-guru Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Do you know how renowned and how qualified and high, high class of a Vaisnava he was? Also Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura? Was he was not krsna-tattva-vetta? Can anyone in this world say such a thing and challenge this?
Only those who are mad and foolish, very foolish like an ass, like a donkey, only they will say such a thing. Otherwise anybody would never say such a thing. So if your Prabhupada is tattva-vetta, then why are you having so many doubts in him? I want that all your doubts should be washed away. If those clouds of so many doubts is there, then anyone, even Krsna Himself cannot do anything to help you. He will never be able to help you. So try to be very strong in all these things. If anyone has any doubt, don’t mix with them or else it will be like a very big dangerous poison. Don’t meet with them. Even if he is so much favorable to us.