Student: Mahārāj, if prasādam is distributed to the mass of people, they benefit, yes?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: It depends upon who is the director, who is at the bottom. It depends on him: his connection with divinity.

Student: As to whether it is properly sanctified?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The current must be there. Only wiring has no value. Do you follow? It may be connecting wiring but have no current. So, Vaikuṇṭha-Nāma-grahanam, the Vaikuṇṭha connection, the transcendental connection, must be there. Otherwise, form is form; it is useless. The spirit must be within the form. The form is also necessary; wiring is also necessary to utilise the electric current, but mere wiring has no utility. The current must be there.

So, prasādam distribution and all such things may only be an external exhibition. If real connection with divinity is present, then they are not, but otherwise, they may all be trade. An ulterior motive may be there as a business. The jāti-goswāmīs read the Bhāgavata and take money as a class of trade. If the man who is at the back has sincere connection with the Lord, then that connection comes and pervades everywhere. Then, there is prasādam. Otherwise, there is only imitation, and imitation is not the real thing.

So, Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur said that in a congregation kīrtan, a saṅkīrtan, at least one man, the leader of the party, must be śuddha-bhakta, a pure devotee. When a kīrtan party is guided under a pure devotee, then we shall join. Otherwise, we all will be dancing and jumping in the mundane plane. The connection must be there, the electric connection.

Student: How can one perceive that connection?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: One who has the eye can see. We have to get the eye:

ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-salākayā

Our own realization will be the guarantee, our own knowledge. With that we will see, and that sort of eye is given by Gurudev.

chakṣur unmīlitaṁ

The cataract is removed by Gurudev. He gives the divya-darśan, the divine eye, divya-chakṣu, that is, dīkṣā. Dīkṣā means divyaṁ jñānaṁ yato dadyāt: transcendental knowledge is imparted, and as much as one has got that sort of knowledge, one can detect the divine connection.

It is the same in other fields and other cases. How you can know whether a stone is a gem? Whether a metal is gold or brass? How can you detect whether something is glass or diamond? Who can consider this things? Expert knowledge must be there, and one who has that knowledge can detect others who have it. Fools, ordinary persons, the ignorant—they cannot differentiate.

This point is applicable everywhere. Whenever we go to purchase anything, medicine or this or that, everything may be tampered with or be an imitation. How can we understand whether this is the case? Expert knowledge must be there. Similarly, what is mundane and what is transcendental? What is sincere sevā? What is meant for the service of the Lord and what is for some ulterior purpose? One who has the fine eye can detect this.

ye jana vaiṣṇava chiniyā la-iyā
ādara kariba yabe

Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur says we shall serve the Vaiṣṇavas, but before that we shall have to get the capacity to recognise who is Vaiṣṇava and who is not a Vaiṣṇava. Someone’s figure, tilak, mālā, and dress cannot be the criterion as to whether they are a sādhu.

All these things we are to understand, and that capacity of recognition is possible. That is dīkṣā, divya-jñān.

We are all expert in some stage or in some plane, and there we are to differentiate things everywhere and every time. In marketing, or in this, or in that, we are to discriminate. We must have knowledge of what we are seeking. Otherwise, we will be exploited by merchants. Everywhere in every stage of life such understanding must be with us. So, it is also in the case of divinity, transcendental truth. It is also possible to develop the transcendental eye, transcendental capacity and judgement. That must be with us.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaurahari.