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"Any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bonafide spiritual masters," declares Srimad-Bhagavatam (Verse 11.3.21).

The following incident (reproduced from the book “Prabhupada Nectar”) goes to prove how the Founder Acarya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, is one such bonafide spiritual masters.

During the 1966 days Umapati das and Hayagriva dasa stopped attending the temple for a while because they thought Srila Prabhupada wasn't "liberal" enough in his attitude towards some of the well-known Mayavadi monks and towards the Buddhists. One day they were sitting around their Mott Street apartment discussing this, when Kirtanananda walked in. Seeing their mood, Kirtanananda began to bait them.

"I have decided to leave the Swami," Kirtanananda said, "because I don't like what is going on."

"That's just what we have been talking about!" said Umapati.

"You fools," said Kirtanananda. Do you think I would ever leave the Swami? If there is a problem on your mind, then you have to go and see him."

"But he doesn't speak English well enough," said Umapati.

"No, that's not true," said Kirtanananda. "He will understand."

So Umapati and Hayagriva went to see Srila Prabhupada to reveal their minds.

"Why haven't you been coming?" Srila Prabhupada asked.

"We don't like all these things you have been saying," said Umapati, "about the Buddhist and Mayavadi monk."

Srila Prabhpada said that they should not have thought they could not ask him about their doubts. Then he explained, first about the Buddhists. Prabhupada said that he had never said anything bad about Lord Buddha. "I always call Him Lord Buddha," Prabhupada said. "But the Buddhists say that there is no soul, and God is never mentioned in Budhhists' writings."

Then Prabhupada explained about the Mayavadi monk. "I say and I have always said," said Prabhupada, "that he is nothing but a crazy priest." Prabhupada then exposed the monk's discrepancies. According to this Mayavadi, one can worship Kali and go to Krsna. But, Prabhupada said, this is a direct contradiction, beacuse in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that if you worship the demigods you will go to the demigods, and if you Worship Krsna you will go to Krsna. So, the Mayavadi is contradicting the Bhagavad-gita. To say that one can worship Kali and go to Krsna is like saying you can buy a ticket to Chicago and go to California.

Then Prabhupada told them the story how the Mayavadi monk met his chief disciple, and when he touched his disciple on the head both guru and the disciple felt electric shocks and fainted. Prabhupada said they had read the Bhagavad-gita where Arjuna saw the universal form but where does it say anything about electric shock? According to the Mayavadi monk, when he and his disciple woke up, the guru was crying. The disciple asked, "Why are you crying?" and the Mayavadi monk replied, " I have given you all my power now I have none left." Prabhupada scoffed at this and said, "Is spiritual knowledge something like money, that if you give it away you don't have any left? No. That is not the nature of spiritual knowledge."

These explanations convinced Umapati and Hayagriva. They were satisfied because Prabhupada have convinced them with logic and reason. Prabhupada then invited them to take prasadam in the next room and they happily accepted his offer, grateful to be back in the camp.