The guru is responsible for taking all of his disciples back to Godhead.
Room Conversation – December 12, 1971, Delhi:
Devotee (5): Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Devotee (5): The spiritual master, his duty is to take all of his disciples back to home, back to Godhead, and I’ve heard it said that he doesn’t leave until he has taken all his disciples back. What is the position of Lord Jesus when so many people are following but not doing, not in a position to go back to home, back to Godhead? Is he responsible for all of these people, who are attempting to serve him?
Prabhupāda: That is nice question. What is that? Repeat it again.
Devotee (5): Because the guru is responsible for taking all of his disciples back to home, back to Godhead, I was wondering what was the position of Lord Jesus Christ because so many people for so many years have been attempting to follow his teachings, many of them sincere but not getting proper instructions. I was wondering if he is responsible for all of these people who are attempting to serve him.
Prabhupāda: But one thing is we sing daily, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo **. You have to please your spiritual master. But yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi, if you displease your spiritual master then you are nowhere. How do you adjust these things? It does not mean that because you have made somebody spiritual master, you displease him, at the same time he takes responsibility. Is it very nice?
Devotee (5): Many times…
Prabhupāda: If you please him, then he is responsible. Yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi. If you displease him then you are nowhere. So, if you take it in this way, that my spiritual master has taken responsibility so whatever nonsense I do, it doesn’t matter. The Christians are thinking like that.
Jesus Christ has taken contract for all our sinful activities, so we can do anything, whatever we like. But that is not the fact. If one takes responsibility for you, you must abide by his order. Otherwise how is that, that he simply takes responsibility and you don’t abide by his order? It is reciprocal.
But the Christians are thinking, “Because we have taken to Christian religion, now we are safe. We can do anything we like and Lord Jesus Christ will compensate. He’ll be every time crucified and we can go on doing all nonsense.” Is it not? Then? That’s not a very good idea.
This is, as Viśvanātha Cakravartī said, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo **. If you please your spiritual master, then God will be pleased. If you don’t please him, then you are nowhere. So first of all you please Jesus Christ, that is reasonable, then he takes the responsibility. If you disobey Jesus Christ in every step, what is his responsibility? That is a misconception.
Devotee (5): There are some Christians who are actually sincere and they feel as though they are doing the proper thing, but they are just misled by the fact that there is no paramparā system coming from Lord Jesus. The churches are teaching the wrong thing, but they are sincere. (indistinct) Kṛṣṇa will direct them (indistinct) the proper authority?
Prabhupāda: Yes. If they are actually following strictly the principles of Jesus Christ, then sometimes when he meets some pure devotee, he will accept. The groundwork will be nice for accepting farther advancement. Just like Jesus Christ says, “Thou shall not kill.” So if anyone follows this principle, “No, I shall not kill,” then he becomes purified. But who is that Christian who is not killing? So where is follow?
Amongst the Christians the more killing process is going on very strongly. So who is a Christian? In that, if you disobey the first principle of Christianity, then where is your Christianity? Why you falsely claim that you are a Christian? “Thou shalt not covet.” What is that next?
Devotee: “Thou shalt not kill.”
Devotee: Honor thy mother and father?
Devotee: There is one about no adulteration.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So adulteration is going on, killing is going on. So many disobedience to Christian principles. So where is the possibility of becoming a Christian?
Devotee: “Honor thy mother and father” is not being respected.
Prabhupāda: Not… So many things. So, if you do not follow the principles of Christianity, simply by stamping yourself as Christian, will that do? So why Jesus Christ will be responsible for you? Simply by stamping yourself that “I am Christian.” Is that very reasonable proposal?
Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Lord Jesus himself never claimed that he would be responsible. As a matter of fact, he would heal certain persons who by their karma were blind, or lame deaf, or some disease, even dead, he would bring them back to life, so many things. And then when he healed them, he invariably said after, he said, “Now go thou and sin no more lest the worst thing befall you.” And he has been saved by Jesus personally, yet Jesus is saying, “lest the worst thing befall you.” How can the worst thing befall you if everything he does then is all right? So that means Jesus does not take that responsibility.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Why he should be responsible? If you are not a Christian, why he should be responsible? Now, here he says that “Now you have sinned, full reaction I have washed, don’t do it again.”
Nara-Nārāyaṇa: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: But they are going to church, confessing every week, and doing the same thing. Who is a Christian, first of all find out, then Jesus Christ will take responsibility.
Devotee: They are gambling and eating flesh right in the churches, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: That’s all right, I mean to say, if you don’t follow the Christian principles, how you can claim yourself to become a Christian and how you can ask Jesus Christ to take responsibility for you? These are misleading, therefore people are coming disgusted. Otherwise Christian religion is all right. It teaches love of Godhead, teaches to become moral, it teaches to love people, that’s nice. These are good principles.