Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.12

Prabhupāda:

tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā paśyanty ātmani cātmānaṁ bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā [SB 1.2.12]

[The seriously inquisitive student or sage, well equipped with knowledge and detachment, realizes that Absolute Truth by rendering devotional service in terms of what he has heard from the Vedānta-śruti.]

We have been discussing the instruction of Sūta Gosvāmī, what is the purpose of life. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. The only business of the human being is to inquire about the Absolute Truth, tattva-jijñāsā. And that tattva has been explained in the previous verse:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11]

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

So the Absolute Truth is one. There is no doubt about it. But according to our angle of vision, we appreciate the Absolute Truth in different ways, although the Absolute Truth is one. Somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as impersonal Brahman, and somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as localized Paramātmā, Supersoul, and somebody is realizing the Absolute Truth as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the last word, Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the matter of understanding the Absolute Truth.

So our Gosvāmī Bhavānanda has explained about the Absolute Truth, Kṛṣṅa: kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28].

[All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.]

Bhagavān iti. But who is Bhagavān? That has been also explained. Bhagavān means ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṅa, complete in six opulences. He is Bhagavān. Bhaga means opulence. Just like we say bhāgyavān. This bhāgyavān word comes from bhaga. Bhaga bhavārthe śrī-karṅa[?], bhāgya. And vān is vatup, asty arthe vatup[?]. If somebody possesses something, this affix vat or mat is used. So bhagavān means one who has got opulences.

So Bhagavān, Kṛṣṅa, when He was present on this planet, nobody could excel His opulences. That's a fact. Everyone knows. People want to enjoy—that is natural tendency—the association of woman. Here also we see that very, very rich men, they want to associate with nice, beautiful woman. In the Western countries I have seen. In Paris there are many clubs. So the club business is to go and enjoy the association of nice, beautiful woman. So everyone knows it. So tendency is there. That is also richness. So that richness I have already explained. Here in the material world the same thing is represented pervertedly, not in actual position. Therefore we are frustrated.

So there are two kinds of philosophers. The mental speculators, empiric philosophers, they therefore reject, that "This should be zero." Here the association of woman is so abominable that it should be rejected. But they have no information that this association of woman and man is so, I mean to say, opulent in the spiritual world. Otherwise how Kṛṣṅa is associating with the gopīs? Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī. Gosvāmīs, the six Gosvāmīs, about their life, they are described by Śrīnivāsa Ācārya: tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīṁ sadā tuccha-vat [Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭaka 4].

[I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvāmīs, namely Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, and Śrī Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, who kicked off all association of aristocracy as insignificant. In order to deliver the poor conditioned souls, they accepted loincloths, treating themselves as mendicants, but they are always merged in the ecstatic ocean of the gopīs' love for Kṛṣṅa and bathe always and repeatedly in the waves of that ocean.]

Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī were ministers in the government of Nawab Hussain Shah, most opulent. So naturally the minister must have association with big, big zamindars, lords, aristocratic family. But about them it is said, when they joined Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, resigning from their ministership, so that is described by Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīṁ.

Maṅḍala-pati means big, big zamindars, aristocrats. So tyaktvā, gave up their association. Just like we flatter here. If we can mix with a very big, rich man, we consider very fortunate. But these Gosvāmīs, they gave up, tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa, not only one, two. Because they were ministers, everyone is coming to flatter him, all big, big zamindars. But he gave up that association. Tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīṁ sadā tuccha-vat. Tuccha means very insignificant. Then what they became? Bhūtvā dīna-gaṅeśakau karuṅayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau. Dīna-gaṅeśakau, just to show favor to the poor souls, dīna-gaṅeśakau. Gaṅa. Gaṅa means people in general. So just to show them favor, accepted the life of a mendicant. Tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīṁ sadā tuccha-vat bhūtvā dīna-gaṅeśakau karuṅayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau. Kaupīna-kanthā. That is the last stage of sannyāsa, paramahaṁsa stage: a loincloth and an underwear, kaupīna-kanthāśritau.

So, but we have got practical experience that if somebody from very exalted post becomes a renouncer, he cannot tolerate that. We have seen it. In Calcutta there was a big man, you have heard, Mr. C. R. Das, Gandhi's lieutenant. He gave up his practice. In those days he was..., fifty years ago he was earning fifty thousand rupees. So that is not joke. So he became mendicant. All Gandhi's followers, they became mendicant. Without becoming mendicant, you cannot do any welfare activities. That is the Vedic process, sannyāsa. So, but he could not live. After giving up his job as a lawyer, he could not live for more than one year. Because he was living very opulently and all of a sudden he became a mendicant, he could not tolerate. That we have seen.

But here we see that the Gosvāmīs, they were also very big men, ministers, but how they lived? Tyaktvā tūrṅam aśeṣa-maṅḍala-pati-śreṅīṁ sadā tuccha-vat bhūtvā dīna-gaṅeśakau karuṅayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau, gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī [Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ Gosvāmy Aṣṭaka 4].

Gopī-bhāva. They were living simply by thinking of the ecstatic love of gopīs. Gopī-bhāvāmṛta. That is compared with an ocean. As the ocean is beautiful, constant flowing of waves, similarly, the ocean of bliss of the gopīs' relationship with Kṛṣṅa, these Gosvāmīs were always absorbed in that. Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhur vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau. So Kṛṣṅa's opulence, Kṛṣṅa's dealings with the gopīs, they are not ordinary things.

ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhis tābhir ya eva nija-rūpatayā kalābhiḥ goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūto govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.37]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.]

He got His pleasure potency, ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12].

[By nature, the Supreme Lord is blissful.]

The Supreme Absolute Truth is the reservoir of all pleasure. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt.

So Brahman realization, Paramātmā realization and Bhagavān realization. If you realize Bhagavān, then you realize Brahman and Paramātmā. Just like if you have got one lakh of rupees, ten rupees or fifty rupees are already there within. Similarly, if you understand Kṛṣṅa, Bhagavān, then you understand automatically what is Brahman and what is Paramātmā. But if you simply stick to Brahman realization or Paramātmā realization... The jñānīs, they are interested in Brahman realization, and the yogīs, they are interested in...

[break] ...realization cannot be continued if you do not realize the other two things, namely Paramātmā and Bhagavān. Cit and ānanda. Sac-cit-ānanda. Simply realization of sat, oṁ tat sat, will not satisfy you, because you are part and parcel of the sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1]. Vigraha means form.

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

So you are also form. Because you are part and parcel of the form, therefore you have got a form. The form may be different in the material world. Kṛṣṅa therefore claims all forms, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ [Bg 14.4].

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

Sarva-yoniṣu. There are different, 8,400,000's forms of living entities, and Kṛṣṅa claims, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ, "As many forms are there," tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā, Kṛṣṅa says, "I am the seed-giving father."

So Kṛṣṅa is father for all living entities. They are simply struggling here in this material world under different desires, and therefore they are getting transmigrating from one body to another, and in this way they are wandering within this material world. That is their real disadvantageous position. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says the real problem is, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

This is the real problem. Whole spiritual process should be executed to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is real problem.

So Kṛṣṅa therefore comes, that "Why you are rotting in this material world?" Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhāni indriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg 15.7]. "Why you are struggling so hard?" For ānanda. Everyone is struggling for ānanda, but he does not know whether ānanda is there. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt [Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12].

[By nature, the Supreme Lord is blissful.]

Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Absolute Truth, He is the reservoir of ānanda Therefore you will see Kṛṣṅa's picture always in ānanda. Wherever you see Kṛṣṅa... Kṛṣṅa is in the battlefield; still, He is smiling, ānanda. He is not morose. Arjuna is morose, but He is not morose, because He is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt.

So everything is there. The pleasure which we are hunting here within this material world, everything is there, full, full ānanda. You can enter into the ānandamaya-līlā. That He practically demonstrates in Vṛndāvana. He is playing with His cowherd boys friend, He is dancing with the gopīs, He is playing as a child to His father and mother, Yaśodā. He has got conjugal love with Rādhārāṅī. Everything is there. Therefore here it is said, tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā, paśyanti [SB 1.2.12].

You can see all this ānandamaya-līlā, ātmani, within yourself. How? Tac chradda, chraddadhānāḥ. Śraddhā. This śraddhā means... I have already explained many times; it is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya [Cc Madhya 22.62]. This is called śraddhā, when you firmly believe. Śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha. Without any shaking. Not shaking platform. Firmly. What is that? Kṛṣṅe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. If you become a devotee of Kṛṣṅa, then all perfection is there. This is called śraddhā. Because Kṛṣṅa says at the last stage of His instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

Śaraṅaṁ vraja: "Voluntarily you surrender unto Me. Then I take charge of you." Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ. "There is no question of considering. Do it immediately." That Kṛṣṅa says.

So if one accepts this principle, then that is called śraddhā. Here it is said... Because after Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavata was written. So one who accepts Kṛṣṅa the Supreme Personality of Godhead by understanding Bhagavad-gītā as it is, not by malinterpretation—as it is—then that is called śraddhā. Śraddadhānā munayaḥ. As soon as you become a surrendered soul, then you become one of the munis, great-minded, wide-minded, muni, mahātmā. Munayaḥ. And why kind of śraddhā? Now, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā. Two things must be there—jñāna and vairāgya.

I have already explained that actually our aim of life, human life, is to acquire knowledge and vairāgya. Simply talking of knowledge is useless. There must be vairāgya also. Therefore Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, he never liked simply talking. "First of all become a sannyāsī." That was his propaganda. "Then you talk." So jñāna-vairāgya. One who is actually jñānī, he must be vairāgī. Vairāgī means vigata-rāga. We are not rāgī. Rāga means attachment. We are materially attached, and when you become actually jñānī, then you should be materially detached. That is called jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā.

Tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā, paśyanty ātmani ātmānam [SB 1.2.12]. Ātmani, within his mind and within his self, he sees the Paramātmā. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ [SB 12.13.1].

[Sūta Gosvāmī said: Unto that personality whom Brahmā, Varuṅa, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise by chanting transcendental hymns and reciting the Vedas with all their corollaries, pada-kramas and Upaniṣads, to whom the chanters of the Sāma Veda always sing, whom the perfected yogīs see within their minds after fixing themselves in trance and becoming fully absorbed in thoughts of Him, and whose limit can never be found by any demigod or demon—unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead I offer my humble obeisances.]

Perfect yogī always sees the Supreme Personality of Godhead within himself. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti, yaṁ śyāmasundaram [Bs 5.38].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṅa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.]

The question was, "Why Kṛṣṅa is black?" But that black is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā, śyāmasundaram. Here, one who is black, nobody likes to see, naturally. But Kṛṣṅa is black, at the same time the most execusitively[?] beautiful. That we cannot adjust. In another place it is said, asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam. Asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam. His body is just like black cloud. Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya. Kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya. We understand Kandarpa, the Cupid, as very beautiful, but if you millions of Kandarpas act together to increase the beauty, that is also not comparable with Kṛṣṅa's beauty.

So these contradictory terms cannot be understood unless one has got the ointment of love of Godhead. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena. Añjana. Añjana we understand, a kind of ointment. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti [Bs 5.38]. So the first beginning is śraddhā, tac chraddadhānā munayaḥ. Ādau śraddhā. If you have got this faith... This is the... Bhagavad-gītā is just to create the preliminary faith to understand God. That is the only... That is Bhagavad-gītā.

Because we do not know. We cannot understand God with these blunt senses. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136].

[Therefore material senses cannot appreciate Kṛṣṅa’s holy name, form, qualities and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Kṛṣṅa really is.]

The present senses, they are simply after material gratification. So how they can understand Kṛṣṅa? That is not possible. Therefore it is said, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā [SB 1.2.12].

You can understand after jñāna. Jñāna means brahma-bhūta, one who understands ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this material body; I am spirit soul." So brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg 18.54].

[And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.]

Now we are designated by this bodily relationship: "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brāhmaṅa," "I am kṣatriya," "I am black," "I am white," "I am strong," "I am weak," "I am fatty," "I am thin," so many. These are all designation. So one has to become free from the designation. That is jñāna. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc Madhya 19.170].

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

Upādhi. This upādhi. The bodily conception of life is called upādhi.

So sarva upādhi, when you become completely freed, no more thinking like American, Indian, brāhmaṅa, śūdra. No. "I am eternal servant of Kṛṣṅa." Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ [Cc Madhya 13.80].

[I am not a brāhmaṅa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.’]

Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave His identification in this way: "I am not a brāhmaṅa, I am not a śūdra, neither I am a king, neither I am a vaiśya, neither I am a sannyāsī. I am nothing of this." Because this material designation, varṅa-āśrama. Four varṅas: brāhmaṅa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra; and four āśramas: brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. So anybody must be within these eight categories. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that "I don't belong to any of these categories." Nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir na ca yatir vā [Padyāvalī 63]. Then what you are? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ [Cc Madhya 13.80]. "Gopī-bhartuḥ, the maintainer of the gopīs, gopī-bhartuḥ, and the master of the gopīs, Kṛṣṅa, pada-kamalayoḥ, lotus feet—I am His servant, dāsa, and his servant, his servant, his servant, his servant, his servant, in this way servants' servant."

The more you become servants of servant, then you are liberated. Here this material world they want master. "He is master; I am his master, I am his master, I am his master." They are trying to become master. It is just the opposite—to become the servant. This is Vaiṣṅava philosophy, how to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, oh, hundred times servant [Cc Madhya 13.80].

Because this philosophy is understood by becoming a servant, not by becoming a master. That you will not. That is called jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā [SB 1.2.12]. Because so long wants to become a master, he is still in ajñāna, because he cannot be master. How he can be master? Real master is Kṛṣṅa. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram [Bg 5.29].

[The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.]

How you can be master? Can you become more than Kṛṣṅa? He is sarva-loka-maheśvaram.

So this is jñāna, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu enunciates: not to become master or God; to become servant of the God. Not only servant, but servant, servant, servant, servant, hundred times downward. Then you become perfect. That is the demand of Kṛṣṅa, that you first of all become servant. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅam [Bg 18.66].

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

Because that is your real position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirms it. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṅa-dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. This is our position. This is jñāna. Anyone who is claiming other that this is not in knowledge. He is ajñāna. That is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā—I have several times repeated—bahūnāṁ janmanām ante [Bg 7.19].

[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]

After many, many births trying to become the master, when actually he becomes jñānavān, then jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. This is the sign, when he surrenders to Kṛṣṅa. That is real knowledge. That knowledge is not sentiment. Because bahūnāṁ janmanām ante, after experiencing many, many births that "I am the master, I am God, I am this, I am that," so when he actually jñānavān, māṁ prapadyate, vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti... [Bg 7.19], when he understands, "Oh, Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṅa, is the origin of everything," that is real jñāna. That is real jñāna.

Therefore it is said, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā. Then you have to become vairāgī to your puffed-up consciousness that "I am master, I am God, I am this, I am that." No. That is called jñāna and vairāgya. Jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā. And again it is confirmed, bhaktyā. As soon as the bhakti word is used, there is no question of becoming master. Bhakti is used, via media between Bhagavān and bhakta. The dealings of Bhagavān and bhakta is called bhakti. Bhakti, bhaja-dhātu. Bhaja-dhātu sevāyām. Sevāyām. Sevā mean there is a sevaka and there is a master, sevya—one who is worshiped and one who serves. Then the process is called bhakti. Here it is also said, bhaktyā. What kind of bhakti? Bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā. Śruta, by hearing śruti, or Vedas. Completely on the basis of Vedic knowledge, that bhakti; not sentimental. Sentimental bhakti is also there, because the acceptance of Kṛṣṅa is there. Therefore there is some value. But real bhakti, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī has commented that bhakti based on understanding of Vedānta-sūtra is perfect, on the basis of jñāna and..., knowledge, and vairāgya. That is... And Kṛṣṅa has also said, brahma-sūtra-padaiś caiva hetumadbhir viniścitaiḥ [Bg 13.5]. Brahma-sūtra means Vedānta-sūtra.

So actually the Vedānta-sūtra, everything is bhakti. But unfortunately, people have taken Vedānta in a different way, after the Śārīraka-bhāṣya. But all the ācāryas, Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, they have all, they have commentated on Vedānta-sūtra. So Vedāntī does not mean simply the Māyāvādīs. Actually Vedāntists are the devotees. Because veda anta. Veda means knowledge, and anta means the last word. The last word is bhagavān. That is Vedānta. Here it is said, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate [SB 1.2.11].

[Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.]

If you understand by studying Vedānta simply Brahman realization, that is not perfect. If you understand Paramātmā realization by studying Vedānta, that is also not perfect. When you come to understand Bhagavān, that is perfect. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

By studying Vedānta or all Vedic literatures, if you do not understand Kṛṣṅa, then śrama eva hi kevalam [SB 1.2.8].

[The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.]

vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam [SB 1.2.7]

[By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṅa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.]

These things are required, jñāna and vairāgya. That is very easily achieved. Vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ. If bhakti-yoga is adopted unto the Supreme Personality of God, Vāsudeva, then very soon, janayaty āśu... Āśu means very soon. Jñāna-va irāgyam ahaitukam.

The example you can see. These European and American boys and girls, how they have become vairāgī? They have got immense opportunity for material enjoyment. Material enjoyment means money and woman. That is the standard of material enjoyment. So these boys, these girls, they have got enough. The money is thrown on the street. And woman is loitering on the street. You can pick up as many as you like. You see? That is the Western country. But they have left everything. That is vairāgya. Why? Jñānam. They have obtained the real knowledge, kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam [SB 1.3.28]

As Bhavānanda Mahārāja said. They are firmly fixed up. Kṛṣṅas tu bhagavān svayam, "Let us sacrifice our life for Kṛṣṅa." That is real jñāna and vairāgya. Bhaktyā.

This is to be understood, bhaktyā. Because without bhakti, there is no admission in the kingdom of God. That is not possible. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:

bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram [Bg 18.55]

[One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.]

Viśate means "enter." One is admitted in the spiritual world... Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ. There is spiritual world. There is another world. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ [Bg 8.20]. That sanātana-dhāma. That sanātana-dhāma you cannot enter without being a bhakta. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti [Bg 18.55]. Those who enter that spiritual world, Brahman, nirviśeṣa-brahman, because they are lacking in bhakti, they again falls down.

That is stated in the Bhāgavat: āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

[[Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.]

There are certain persons, they are thinking, "Now I have become liberated." Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. Vimukta-māninaḥ means "thinking that they have become liberated." But aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, their intelligence is not yet clear. So what is the result? Suppose one realizes Brahman realization. He is not mukta? Yes, he is mukta. That's all right. But the intelligence is not yet purified. Why? Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ [SB 10.2.32]. After undergoing severe austerities and penances, they rise up to the Brahmaloka, paraṁ padam. Patanty adhaḥ, again falls down. Again falls down. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Just like the impersonal sky. You can go in the sky with your speedy airplane, but if you don't get a shelter in any planet, you will have to come again. Just like these moon planet–goers, going and coming. Why don't they stay there? So it is doubtful whether they are going.

So anyway, this is the position of the nirviśeṣa-vāda. Because they do not enter in one of the Vaikuṅṭha planets... Because they are not bhaktas, they are not admitted. Without being bhakta, nobody is allowed to enter into the Vaikuṅṭha planets. Just like here in the sky there are millions and millions of planets, similarly, in the brahma-jyoti there are also millions and millions of planets. They are called Vaikuṅṭhaloka. But in those Vaikuṅṭhalokas only bhaktas are admitted, not the nondevotees. They can go to the Brahmaloka. Brahmaloka is combination of the spirit souls. But spirit soul means part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, who is ānandamaya. So they do not get that ānanda. They simply are elevated to the position of eternity—but eternity without ānanda. Just like you, just imagine: suppose you are given a very nice place. You are ordered that "You live here eternally, but don't allow nobody else. You can live alone." How long you will live? Because as a living entity, as part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa, you want ānanda. So ānanda is required society, friendship and love. That is ānanda. That is not impersonalism. That is personalism.

So unless you enter to the personal activities of Kṛṣṅa, there cannot be ānanda. There cannot be. Unless you are qualified to dance with Kṛṣṅa or to play with Kṛṣṅa, to become father of Kṛṣṅa, mother of Kṛṣṅa, and enjoy the ānandamayam, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ [Bs 5.37],

you cannot be happy. Therefore āruhya kṛcchreṅa. The brahma-pada, the Supreme, paraṁ padam, it is called paraṁ padam... Āruhya kṛcchreṅa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ [SB 10.2.32].

Adhaḥ. They falls down. Therefore we see sometimes, big, big sannyāsīs, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, they give up this world, take sannyāsa, but after some times they come to politics, to sociology. Why? If the jagat is mithyā, why you are interested in politics and sociology and welfare acts? That means anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: he could not get ānanda without being in touch with the lotus feet of Kṛṣṅa; therefore they comes to this ānanda. Ānanda. Āruhya kṛcchreṅa. This is practical.

So simply Brahman realization is not perfect. Simply Paramātmā realization is also not perfect. When you realize Bhagavān, then you realize Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān simultaneously. That is ānanda. That is ānanda. That is available as it is. Paśyanty ātmani cātmānaṁ bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā. Śruta-gṛhītayā, hearing. Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī says,

śruti-smṛti-purāṅādi- pañcarātriki-vidhiṁ vinā aikāntikī harer bhaktir utpātāyaiva kalpate [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.101]

[Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upaniṣads, Purāṅas and Nārada-pañcarātra is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.]

One who does not understand the bhakti philosophy through śruti, through Veda, smṛti... Just like Bhagavad-gītā is smṛti. Śruti-smṛti-purāṅādi [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.101], and Nārada Pañcarātra. Without reference to these books of knowledge, if one becomes a so-called devotee, that is not accepted by Rūpa Gosvāmī. Here also it is said, bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā. Śruta-gṛhītayā, knowledge, full knowledge, through Vedas, bhaktyā, with devotion. Dry Vedic knowledge makes you impersonalist, only a partial realization. Therefore bhakti must be there. Bhakti means without any result of karma and jñāna. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.1.11].

[One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṅa favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.]

People are interested with dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa [SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90].

[Any person who desires the fruits of the four principles religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, at the end, liberation, should engage himself in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for worship of His lotus feet yields the fulfillment of all of these.]

But Bhāgavata says that above that, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra [SB 1.1.2].

[Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṅa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.]

Here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam... Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, they are cheating, because they are not giving directly the devotional service to the Lord. Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. Therefore Vyāsadeva says, dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣa, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṅāṁ vāstavaṁ vastu vedyam atra [SB 1.1.2].

So if we want to understand the real reality, vāstava-vastu, that is Kṛṣṅa, then this is the process. What is that?

tac chraddadhānā munayo jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayā paśyanty ātmani cātmānaṁ bhaktyā śruta-gṛhītayā [SB 1.2.12]

You have to receive through the channel of paramparā system, bhakti. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg 4.2].

[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.]

Paramparā. Ādau gurvāśrayam. Therefore we have to accept a guru who is coming in the paramparā. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna, he is paramparā. Because the paramparā was lost, Kṛṣṅa again said Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. So as Arjuna understood, if you understand Bhagavad-gītā, as Arjuna understood, if you understand Kṛṣṅa, then your understanding of Kṛṣṅa is perfect. And if you invent some imaginary meaning, then you are śrama eva hi kevalam, waste of time.

So don't do that. Try to understand Kṛṣṅa as He is, as He speaks Himself about Himself, that "I am like this." What is the difficulty? If Kṛṣṅa says, if God says, "I am like this," why you are manufacturing ways and means to understand God, uselessly wasting time? God is giving His name, God is giving His address, God is giving His activities. Everything is there. Why don't you understand God? Why you are researching? This is called śrama eva hi...

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ notpādayed ratiṁ yadi śrama eva hi kevalam [SB 1.2.8]

[The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.]

So don't waste time in searching out what is God. God is canvassing you, "I am God, here." Bhaktyā sa... Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru [Bg 18.65].

[Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.]

So this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is not a manufactured way. It is simply the standard. Kṛṣṅa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru. We are preaching this philosophy. It is not difficult. Anyone can do it. Anyone can do it. It is not that I am playing something wonderful. What wonderful? They talk about this, that I have done something wonderful.

I do not know any wonderful thing. I only know to present Kṛṣṅa as He is. That's all. This is the secret. So anyone can understand Kṛṣṅa as He is from Bhagavad-gītā or from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Why do they search out? Why they should invent some means? This is useless waste of time.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa. [end]

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.12

Referenced verses