Spiritual master is representative of God. Similarly, king is also representative of God. The father is also representative of God. These are the statements of the sastras. Because they will guide. The king will guide. The spiritual master will guide. The father will guide. What is that guidance? That guidance is how one can become Krishna Conscious by education, by culture.
The Lord in human society does what is the duty of everyone, but sometimes He does something extraordinary and not to be imitated by the living being. His acts of evening prayer as stated in Srimad Bhagavatam must be followed by the living being, but it is not possible to follow His mountain-lifting or dancing with the gopis. One cannot imitate the sun, which can exhaust water even from a filthy place; the most powerful can do something which is all good, but our imitation of such acts will put us into endless difficulty. Therefore, in all actions, the experienced guide, the spiritual master, who is manifested mercy of the Lord, should always be consulted, and the path of progress will be assured.
It is not possible for a conditioned soul to directly meet Krishna – the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if one becomes a sincere devotee and seriously engages in devotional service, Lord Krishna sends an instructing spiritual master to show him favour and invoke his dormant propensity for serving the Supreme. The preceptor appears before the external senses of the fortunate conditioned soul and at the same time the devotee is guided from within by the Caitya-Guru – Krishna who is seated as the spiritual master within the heart of the living entity.
When a pure devotee or spiritual master speaks, what he says should be accepted as having been directly spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Parampara system.
Our first duty is to satisfy the spiritual master, who can arrange for the Lord’s mercy. A common man must first begin to serve the spiritual master or the devotee. Then, through the mercy of the devotee, the Lord will be satisfied. Unless one receives the dust of a devotee’s lotus feet on one’s head, there is no possibility of advancement. Unless one approaches a pure devotee, he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
If one is not actually connected with a bona fide disciplic succession, whatever mantaras he chants will not bring the desired result.
The governing principle for our activity should be to do what is favourable for pleasing Krishna.
Any devotee who has developed genuine love for Krishna can also explain the truth about Krishna because Krishna helps such sincere devotee, being seated in his heart.
Krishna is within your heart. If you continue to hear about Him then Krishna will be very much pleased. “Oh, this person is now interested in me.” Because nobody is interested in Krishna, so Krishna is also silent to them. But as soon as you become interested, oh, Krishna becomes very active. “Oh, he is trying to do something. I shall help him.”
We follow all these regulative principles to get the mercy of the Lord, but it’s that mercy that carries us beyond material conceptions. There is no other way. Ultimately we are simply begging for mercy. If you are not begging, you are not going to get it.