"Just like when you become diseased, you go to a physician and ask him 'What to do, sir? I am now suffering with this disease.' This is your duty. Similarly, when we are perplexed in our duties, or we forget our duties, it is very nice to go to the superior person and ask him what to do. So who can be superior person than Krishna? Therefore Arjuna says: prcchami tvam. 'I am asking you. Because it is my duty. I'm now falling in my duty, faulty. So this is not good. So I must ask somebody who is superior to me.' That is the duty. Tad vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet. This is the Vedic duty. Everyone is perplexed. Everyone is suffering in this material world, being perplexed. But he'll not search out a bona fide guru. No. That is karpanya-dosa. That is karpanya-dosa. Here, Arjuna is coming out of the karpanya-dosa. How? Now he's asking Krishna. Prcchami tvam. 'My dear Krishna, You are the most superior person. That I know. You are Krishna. So I am perplexed. Actually, I am forgetting my duty. Therefore, I am asking You.'
"So you have to approach the Supreme Person, means Krishna or His representative. All others are rascals and fools. If you approach a person, guru, who is not representative of Krishna, you are approaching a rascal. How you'll be enlightened? You must approach Krishna, or His representative. That is wanted. Tad vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet. So who is guru? Samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham. A guru is full Krishna conscious. Brahma-nistham. And srotriyam. Srotriyam means who has heard, who has received knowledge by the srotriyam patha. By hearing from superior authority. Evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayoh viduh. So here we have to learn from Arjuna that when we are perplexed, when we forget our real duty, and therefore we are puzzled, then our duty is to approach Krishna as Arjuna is doing. So if you say: 'Where is Krishna?' Krishna is not there, but Krishna's representative is there. You should approach him. That is the Vedic injunction. Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet. One must approach guru."
(Srila Prabhupada lecture, London, August 7, 1973)
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