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You actually have to eat to be satisfied

Kurma das: At this time in Melbourne, there were two groups of devotees. There were those who were living in the temple, and there were those that were known as the outside devotees. I'm not even sure that we were that respectful as calling them devotees; but we felt that if they weren't living in the temple, they were not qualified to be devotees. We had a rather limited perspective of things. But amongst these devotees that were living outside, there were those who had broken away from ISKCON and they had concocted their own philosophy. 
 
And at the end of this evening class, some of their doubts were brought up at question time. Prabhupada very kindly allowed us to have some very lengthy question and answer periods at the end of these classes. One boy who was in this circle asked Prabhupada, "Can you take initiation by accepting the spiritual master in your heart without actually taking?" Prabhupada cut him off and said that these were all bogus propositions. He said, "It has no meaning. If you think in yourself that, I am eating, will you be satisfied?" He said, "You actually have to eat to be satisfied. If you just simply imagine that you have eaten, you will not satisfy your appetite," indicating that you have to physically take initiation from the spiritual master, not just take initiation in the heart. This he said was bogus.


Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Kurma Dasa