One who has understood Krsna perfectly – this is the qualification of guru. So that qualification, to attain, is not very difficult. But because we are rascals, we do not try to take the qualification. That qualification is very simple. Who can understand Krsna? Krsna is not so cheap thing. He has said already that yatatam api siddhanam kascin vetti mam tattvatah [Bg. 7.3]. [Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.] So it not very easy. But it is very easy if you take the process, easiest process. What is that easiest process? That easiest process: you don’t talk nonsense; you simply talk what Krsna has said. That’s all. And many times they give me very great credit that I have done wonderful. Yes, I have done wonderful. But what is the reason? Because I am not a rascal. I speak what Krsna has spoken, that’s all. Very easy. Everyone can do that. Not only I; any of you, you can do this. Simply speak what is…, what Krsna has said. That’s all. Don’t make addition, alteration. Then you become rascal. Immediately you become rascal.

So you don’t want to become a rascal – if you want to become a mahatma – then you accept what Krsna says and preach that. Krsna says, mattah parataram nanyat [Bg. 7.7]: “There is no more superior authority than Me.” You say that. You say, vasudevah sarvam iti. “Here is… Krsna is the cause.” You understand or don’t understand, if you simply pick up the words of Krsna and talk like that, then you become mahatma. There is no difficulty to become mahatma. But these duratmas, the rascals, they talk differently from Krsna. Therefore they are not mahatmas; they are all duratma. Therefore the process is that if you want to make progress in Krsna consciousness, then you have to find out a guru who is mahatma.

Srila Prabhupada /Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.29 – August 10, 1974, Vrndavana