Guru-krpa: What if sometimes disciple, he may go to preach, but he's not preaching in the exact same spirit of his spiritual master?

Prabhupada: Therefore he is not to be preached. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, janma sarthaka kari' kara para-upakara: [Cc. Adi 9.41] "Go to do good to others. First of all you do good to yourself." First of all you become really preacher. Then go to preach. Caitanya Mahaprabhu never sent neophyte to go to preach. For neophyte the preaching is not their business. For neophyte, one should stick to the worship of Deity in the temple. And those who have understood the philosophy, applied the philosophy in his life, he should go for preaching. Otherwise he'll preach wrongly, like Charan das Babaji. And it will stop. He wanted to preach, but he did not know how to preach, and therefore, after his life, it is finished.

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu does not say like that, that "You remain a rascal and go to preach." No. Janma sarthaka kari. "Your first business is that you make your life perfect. Then go to preach. Perfect means you learn how to obey My orders." That is perfection. Amara ajnaya. So if you are actually, perfectly carrying out the orders of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then you are preaching. Otherwise you will do wrongly, mislead. Don't do that. Andha yathandhair upaniyamanah [SB 7.5.31]. If you remain blind, don't try to lead other blind men. That is misleading. First of all open your eyes. Everything is there. Nobody can do anything whimsically. If you do whimsically, concoctedly, that will be failure. It will not be effective.

Guru-krpa: Even though one may get many followers, that is not…

The philosophy you present, it must be followed by everyone. That is wanted. You have got, say, ten thousand followers. That does not mean success. Everyone has got some followers. This Guruji Maharaja, he has got also so-called followers. The T.M., he has got also some followers. Everyone has got some followers. But what kind of followers they have?

Everything has quality. Simply quantity is not. There are many Christians. Even up to date, some Christian fair, many millions will come. What is the quality? Quality is all meat-eater. But Christian means he should not kill. Where is the Christian? So we have to test by the quality, followers.

Not many followers, the quality of the followers. My Guru Maharaja used to say like that, that "If I get at least one quality disciple, then all my labor will be success." He was saying like that: quality, not the quantity.

By quantity if one is amazed, then he is also goru [cow; as compared to guru]. By quality — what kind of followers? From the very beginning my strictures are there, that "You have to follow this" — quality. If I were…, "No, you can do like Vivekananda. Yes, what you can, whatever you like," then I think quantity would have been very, very big. But I don't say. I make him promise before the fire, before the Deity, before guru.

That one moon is taken into account. Who takes account of the millions of stars? Ekas candras tamo hanti na ca tara sahasrasah. Quality. So we should be quality devotee, not quantity devotee.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation — May 2, 1976, Fiji