"What does it mean to have love for the spiritual master? What does love of the guru mean?"

Armarendra das: A devotee asked Prabhupada, "What does it mean to have love for the spiritual master? What does love of the guru mean?" So I was thinking Prabhupada would say you have all these feelings in your heart and you feel this and you feel that, and that's what I was expecting to hear.

And Prabhupada said, "Love for the guru means you have taken initiation, you have made vow to the spiritual master and taken fire sacrifice. You keep your vow, that is love." When I heard that, again that was one of those statements that Prabhupada would make where all the devotees were just taken completely by surprise. Prabhupada's definition of love, that it was not a feeling at all but keeping our vow that we made to him when we got initiated and that is how we show whether we really have love or not.