श्रीमदानन्दतीर्थार्यमुखनिःसृतम्

shrImadAnandatIrthArya mukha nihsR^itaM

यदि तादृग् गुरुर्नास्ति निर्णीतश्रवणादिकम् ।

तत्सिद्धान्तानुसारेण निर्णयज्ञात् समाचरेत् ।।

yaditAdR^iggururnAsti nirNItashravaNAdikam.h|

tatsiddhantAnusAreNa nirNayaj~nAtsamAcharet.h ||

Purport:

One may argue - "It is not correct to say that one should undertake the study of scriptures from an all-knowing guru who knows the eligibility of the disciple, for, such guru's are very difficult to find. And even if such a guru is found, he is found by only those who have undertaken the study of scriptures for a long period of time and obtained the necessary qualification to meet such great gurus. So, to listen from the guru we need eligibility. We gain eligibility only by studying at the feet of the guru. This amounts to a mutual interdependency making it impossible for any person to get taught by such gurus". To this argument we reply - even when the main guru is unavailable due to the above said reasons, one should keep up the study of scriptures from other lesser gurus available to him.

There are two kinds of scriptures available to us. 1. One whose meaning is fixed such as the Brahma Sutras. 2. One whose meaning needs to be fixed such as the Vedas.  Even though the other lesser guru is unable to discourse the most difficult aspects that are in the Vedas whose meaning he might not be capable of fixing, he can teach those scriptures whose meaning is already fixed by all-knowledgeable gurus. Thus one can learn from such lesser gurus till the time they gain the eligibility to listen from the main guru. Therefore there is no question of mutual interdependency.