- There are three types of physicians – superior, mediocre, and inferior. The physician who comes, feels the patient’s pulse, and then says to him, ‘Brother, please take this medicine,’ and leaves – he is an inferior physician. He doesn’t bother to find out if the patient has taken the medicine. The physician who persuades the patient in many ways to take the medicine, who says in a sweet voice, ‘Oh brother, how can you be cured unless you take the medicine? Dear brother, please take it. See, I myself am mixing it for you. Now take it,’ – he is a mediocre physician. And the physician who sees that a patient stubbornly refuses to take the medicine, puts his knee on the patient’s chest, and forces the medicine down his throat – he is a superior physician.
- The task of a religious teacher is very difficult. You can’t teach people without having a direct command from God. If you preach without receiving a direct command, people won’t listen. Such teaching carries no force.
- After receiving a command from God, one can be a religious teacher and give lectures anywhere. He who receives God’s authority also receives power from Him. Only then can he perform the difficult task of a religious preceptor.
- If one has received a commission from God, it is all right to teach others. When a person teaches after getting a commission, nobody can confound him.
- Some people eat, wipe their mouths with a hand towel, and sit down quietly lest others should know that they have eaten. Another, having got a mango, cuts it into pieces to share with others. Narada and such religious teachers lived for the welfare of others, even after attaining spiritual knowledge.