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Re: the Guru and you
This is an extended analogy from the material world that may be of
some use. Please pardon me if it is poorly stated.
The President of the US can do more or less whatever he wants. He isn't
bound by the same schedules as the rest of us are. So, if he wanted
to spend a lot of time in India, he very well could. However, he
doesn't want to. Nevertheless, he wants to have good relations with India,
so he sends an authorized ambassador. When the ambassador arrives in
India, the Indian government and people will accept him and treat him
as a direct representative of the President of the US and of the US
Government. The ambassador doesn't speak any opinions of his own; he
only repeats what are the President's interest. Therefore, although he
is given a great deal of respect in that far-away land, he always must
remember that he is just an agent of the President. Thus, any treaties
made through the ambassador are binding, and any statement the ambassador
makes is on behalf of the American people. Therefore, the ambassador will
only make treaties and statements that accurately reflect the President's
wishes.
However, from time to time, private citizens will try to conduct diplomacy
on their own. Ross Perot tried this in Vietnam, as an attempt to get
back lost POWs, and Jesse Jackson went to Syria to get some hostages
released. Both were showered with praise in the respective countries they
went to. Jackson was even listed as "Senator Jackson" in the Syrian
newspapers. However, neither one of them was acting as an authorized
agent of the Government, and neither of them stood for the President's
interests. They had their own political and economic motives as their
first priorities, and they were glad to be treated so nicely in a distant
place. However, treaties made with Jackson or Perot were meaningless, and
it was well-known that neither one of them represented the American
people, and that either of them could have been tried under a Congressional
Act that explicitly forbids private citizens from trying to conduct
diplomacy.
