Devotee: Mahārāja, you have told us that to understand tattva we must approach a tattva-guru and please him, then he will impart tattva to us. How can we please you so that you will impart that knowledge to us?
Śrīla Gaura Govinda Svāmī Mahārāja: You should develop simplicity. Give up crookedness, politics, and duplicity. The śāstras as well as all vaiṣṇava ācāryas have said, “Simplicity is vaiṣṇavism.” One who is simple by nature is a natural vaiṣṇava. I want all of you to become natural vaiṣṇavas, vaiṣṇavas in the true sense. Don’t be hypocrites — outward vaiṣṇava, but inward demon, inward politician. If you do that you will become a kali-celā, a follower of Kali. A sādhu-vaiṣṇava has many followers. They are known as celās. If you are just outwardly posing as a vaiṣṇava, with vaiṣṇava dress, śikhā, tilaka, japa-mālā, chanting hare kṛṣṇa, but inside you are crooked, duplicitous, pretentious — you have no simplicity — then you are a kali-celā. You cannot become a follower of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This is a most important thing. Develop simplicity — no crookedness, no duplicity, and no politics. This is the only thing required. Then you can become very dear to guru and Kṛṣṇa. Then you can very easily develop all the qualities of a vaiṣṇava. Then you can completely surrender, otherwise you cannot. Your surrender will never be complete, it will only be partial or conditional surrender. There must be nothing conditional and nothing partial. We want to be cent percent vaiṣṇavas, cent percent surrendered, not forty percent or fifty percent. One who develops kṛṣṇa-prema can surrender. Otherwise one cannot completely surrender. Unless you become simple you cannot develop kṛṣṇa-prema. I want that you become nice devotees, true vaiṣṇavas. A vaiṣṇava devotee does everything for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa and nothing for his own pleasure. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said,

nija-sukha lāgi’ kichu nāhi kori ār
bhakativinoda bole, tava sukha-sār

(Śaraṇāgati, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Āmāra Balite Prabhu)

I won’t do anything for my own pleasure, I’ll do everything for Your pleasure.

This is true vaiṣṇavism.

— Śrīla Gaura Govinda Svāmī Mahārāja The Process of Inquiry (Gopal Jiu Publications, Bhubaneswar India 1998)
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