The spiritual master's torch of knowledge alone can free the soul from ignorance and the endless cycle of birth and death.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture [partially recorded] — January 13, 1969, Los Angeles 690113LE-LOS ANGELES [13:09 Minutes] Lecture_690113LE-LOS ANGELES Prabhupāda: We are all in ignorance, in the darkness of ignorance. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya. So the disciple is praying that "I am... I was in the darkness of ignorance," but jñānāñjana-śalākayā, "but you have opened my eyes by the torture of knowledge..." Not...
What is called? "Torch," "torch of knowledge." Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā, cakṣur-unmīlitaṁ yena [Gautamīya-tantra]: ["I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who with the torchlight of knowledge has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance."] "One who has opened my eyes in that way," tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ, "I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master." So in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also it is stated that parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ [SB 5.5.5]. [As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmātmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body.] We are all born ignorant. Either in human society or in animal society, we are born all ignorant. Therefore, in the human society the system is that children are given education. Why?
Because it is supposed that the child is born ignorant. Similarly, as we give material education to the children, it is the duty of the parents to enlighten them with spiritual education. Śrīmad-Bhāgavata says that "Nobody should desire to become a father, nobody should desire to become a mother, unless one is able to save the child from the impending death." So that is also the duty of spiritual master. One should not become a spiritual master unless one is able to save the disciple from impending death. So what is that impending death? Impending death means...
Because we are spirit soul, we have no death. But impending death means of this body. So it is the duty of spiritual master, it is the duty of the parents, it is the duty of the state, it is the duty of kinsmen, friends, everyone, to save people from this impending birth and death. So how to save? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Lord Kṛṣṇa says, mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ [Bg. 8.15] [After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.] "Anyone who comes to Me, he has no more to go back to the miserable material existence." Therefore it is the duty of the spiritual master, it is the duty of the parents that they should enlighten their dependents to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If one becomes fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, the simple factor, then he is saved from this material existence, or accepting repeated birth and death. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate [Bg. 8.19]. [Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Pārtha, and they are helplessly dissolved.] Here, everything in the material world, everything is born, it remains for some time, it grows, then dwindles, then vanishes. So this is not very desirable. But unfortunately, the modern civilization, they do not know.
They are very much proud of advancement of knowledge, but they do not know that the cause of suffering is this body. They do not know. And they do not know how to make a solution of this material existence. Therefore parābhava.
Bhāgavata says all their so-called, nonsense advancement of civilization is defeat. Defeat. Lord Jesus Christ also said like that, that "If one gains everything and then loses his own soul, what does he gain?" Similarly, parābhavas tāvad abodha-jāto yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. A man's life is defeat only. However he may be very expert in driving motorcar day and night, this way and that way, very busy man, but if he does not inquire about his self—"What I am?