What is our conception of ultimate reality? Who is God? Who are the jīva souls, the living beings of the material world? What are the relationships between God, the soul and the world? In Sanskrit, knowledge of these things is called sambandha (relationship). These topics have been discussed in detail in the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, and all saints throughout history have spoken and expounded on their understanding of them.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu preached the doctrine of divine love based on the evidence of the Vedas. Kavirāja Gosvāmī explained this in a nutshell:

veda-śāstra kahe sambandha abhidheya prayojana
kṛṣṇa prāpya sambandha bhakti prāptyera sādhana
abhidheya nāma bhakti prema prayojana
(Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20.124-125)

What is the ultimate goal of life according to the Vedas? It is divine love for the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The etymological meaning of the name Kṛṣṇa is “one who attracts and gives happiness to all.” Kṛṣṇa is the all-attracting principle. He possesses infinite qualities to attract us and is therefore the Supreme Person. He is the embodiment of all existence, all knowledge and all bliss.

There is nothing equal to Him or superior to Him. There cannot be more than one Absolute or more than one infinite being. If there is something outside the infinite, infinity loses its meaning and the infinite becomes finite. Not even a particle of dust can be imagined outside the infinite or outside the Absolute. The Absolute is defined as that which exists in, for, and by itself. Everything is within Kṛṣṇa and everything is subservient to Him.

The infinite is one and it has a personal identity. God is the all-conscious substance. Consciousness implies three things: jñāna, kriyā and icchā—thinking, feeling and willing. When we look at the living beings of this world, we can see that a body is considered to be a person or a conscious unit for only as  long as spirit is present in it. That which exhibits no thinking, feeling or willing is only matter and nobody considers dead matter to be a person.

The highest aspect of the absolute conscious substance is called Bhagavān and He possesses the three qualities of consciousness in an absolute way. If we can accept that an individual spirit soul is a person, then what is the difficulty in accepting that absolute consciousness is personal? He is an unlimited person. Though He has a distinct individual form, He is unlimited and exhibits innumerable forms and pastimes.

When a person takes the role of a king and sits on his throne, he wears a certain kind of dress, but when he goes to the playground to amuse himself, he dresses differently. When he goes to bed, he will again change into a different kind of clothing. Throughout all these changes of dress, the person remains the same. The same principle applies to the Supreme Lord, who manifests different forms and pastimes for the sake of His loving devotees.

Even as a person, the Supreme Lord is infinite; His realms are infinite and an infinite numbers of souls emanate from Him. Human beings cannot fathom the Supreme Lord’s creation by means of their finite intellect, finite mental capacity, and limited sense organs. He is beyond all our attempts to know Him by our own power.

Nothing cannot be the cause of something. All created things must have their cause in something other than themselves. We are like the particles of the sun that come from the sun, the substance. Just as the sun shines, so do its particles. Likewise, the Supreme Lord is the possessor of all kinds of potencies and the souls that emanate from Him are aspects of one of these potencies, just like the rays that come from the sun. The souls exist in Him, exist by Him, and they should exist for Him. But they can never be considered to be identical with the Lord, any more than the rays of the sun can be considered identical with the sun substance.

In seventh chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā (“The Song of the Lord”) Kṛṣṇa says with great emphasis,

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

“There is nothing superior to Me. The whole universe is emerging from Me. I am beyond the comprehension of the conditioned souls, the finite beings, and I am supremely superior to the formless Brahman and the indwelling Paramātmā, the objects of worship of the jñānīs and yogīs.”

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so’rjuna.
(Bhagavad-gītā 4.9)

“My birth and My pastimes are transcendental. Unlike human beings who are compelled to take birth by their own previous actions, My birth is a pastime to satisfy My devotees. To give them parental service, I accept them as parents.”

ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā
bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi san
prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya
sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā.
(Bhagavad-gītā 4.6)

“I have no birth, but I engage in these pastimes to fulfill the desire of those devotees who want to serve Me as their son. Those who are enveloped by My illusory energy consisting of the three primary material qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, think My body to be that of an ordinary human being.”

We may think that Kṛṣṇa is born in the way we were, but this is a mistake. As with everything else, Kṛṣṇa’s birth has both a morphological and an ontological aspect. Whatever we can know about an entity by means of our material senses and material intellect is its external or morphological aspect. But there is also an ontological side which we cannot know through our finite instruments.

Let us expand on this idea further. Immanuel Kant of Germany was one of western philosophy’s most intelligent thinkers. In his critical philosophy, he named the above-mentioned aspects as “the thing as it appears” and “the thing in itself” or “the thing as it is.” According to Kant, human beings can understand a thing as it appears, but have no capacity to know it as it is. In his Ctitique of Pure Reason, Kant argued extensively to prove this contention.

Human beings, he says, can only know things as they appear to the senses and the understanding. Through the senses, human beings can the forms of things and through understanding they can conceive of them in terms of categories. This understanding is a special capacity called a priori. Inherent in the capacity of human understanding is the ability to know a thing as it appears. But a human cannot have knowledge of the thing in itself. This is the basis of Kant’s critical philosophy.

Another German philosopher, Hegel, tried to refute Kant’s contention. According to Hegel, we may indeed arrive at knowledge of the thing in itself through speculative reasoning. Bradley, a British philosopher, also dealt with this problem in detail. His claim was that we cannot come into contact with the thing in itself by reasoning alone, but we can acquire knowledge of it through immediate perception and feeling, by which the thing in itself will appear before us. Otherwise, we can not succeed in seeing things in their deeper quality through our capacity of reasoning alone. There will always be some barrier between the object of reason and the reasoning, and this prevents us from having contact with the thing in itself.

Now, these philosophers have tried to approach the ultimate reality with their intellectual arrogance. But what is the actual meaning of philosophy? Philo-sofia—love of knowledge. But what kind of knowledge do they pursue? They are only interested in empirical knowledge, that which is acquired by the sense organs, mind, and intelligence.

In the Bhagavad-gītā, the mind and intelligence are said to belong to the external potency of the Supreme Lord. According to the Gītā, that which is transcendental cannot be comprehended by the elements of matter, whether they be gross or subtle. But in this material world we are always trying to determine the ultimate reality through empirical processes.

In accordance with revealed scriptures like Bhagavad-gītā, the theistic aspect of Indian philosophy emphasizes the finite nature of human beings. Our intellect is finite; our mental capacity is finite, and anything produced by our mind and intellect must also be finite. Hence we cannot determine our ultimate cause because it is beyond the jurisdiction of these finite instruments. Anything a human being determines by his finite understanding will be a concoction. Therefore, we should not attempt to manufacture reality in our intellectual or mental factory. As conditioned souls, we are limited, as is our ability to gain knowledge through our own capacities. It is beyond the material intellect to determine the infinite.

The absolute truth exists always and it is our duty to find out how to see that reality through the deductive process. We cannot approach the absolute truth through the inductive process. So, how are we to see that truth? God is the cause of all causes; He is self-effulgent and self-luminous. We must therefore approach the truth of God through His grace.

When one is enlightened by the knowledge that destroys ignorance, all things are revealed in their absolute quality. The sun rises and lights up everything in the daytime. If you want to see the sun at night, is it possible? Even if you bring together all the lights of a great city like New York you will not meet with success. As the sun is self-luminous, your attempt to experience it will not work because your nature is intrinsically different from the sun’s. You have to wait for the rays of the sun before you can see it. Your ability to see the sun will not decrease if you have no artificial light at all, any more than it will increase if you have an enormous searchlight. The light of this world cannot help us in seeing the sun. The sun’s own rays alone can give us this capacity. Likewise, the Supreme Lord is self-effulgent, self-luminous, and by His grace alone will we be able to see Him.

In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa has described two kinds of potencies: parā and aparā. The parā is the superior potency and the aparā, the inferior. One is spiritual, the other material. In the material world we find the eight elements that belong to the aparā potency: earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and perverted ego. The gross material body is composed of the five gross elements and the subtle body is composed of mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi) and perverted ego (ahaṅkāra), which is not the real ego. When we think of our ego in reference to the Supreme Lord, then we understand Him to be our master and that we, therefore, are His eternal servants. But when we focus on worldly things and think of ourselves as the enjoyers—then this is the perverted ego.

We feel some sort of pleasure or joy when engaged in sensual enjoyment, but the consequence is suffering. Disease inevitably follows unrestricted enjoyment. Ultimately, all acts performed on the basis of the perverted ego lead to suffering. So, the question is: shall we remain in this world eternally, perpetually causing ourselves such suffering?

The body has its origin, it will remain for some time and eventually it will perish. Whether the body you have received is very healthy or weak, it is not eternal. If you have good health and the capacity to enjoy, you will become so attached to your body as a result of your enjoyments that you will not want to leave it at the time of death. But still you will have to go. You will be taken forcibly by the messengers of death and your attachments will cause you much suffering.

Because they are enveloped in the illusory energy of the Lord, some people misunderstood this world; they think it is ānanda, or blissful, and that they can thus achieve happiness here. The Lord is the cause of this world. When people become averse to the Lord due to their relative independence, His shadow comes to envelop them. This shadow appears to them to be sat-cit-ānanda, eternally conscious and blissful, but in fact it has no actual substance.

Whatever you see is like a dream. While you are dreaming, you think you are seeing reality, but when you awaken from the dream you realize its falsity. In this sense, the whole world is a dream. When we awaken, we will see that everything in it is false, or māyā. Māyā means mā-yā, “not that.” This world and the eight elements that comprise it are not eternal. However, the real self in contact with the world is something entirely different in substance.

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
(Bhagavad-gītā 7.5)

“There is another potency which is distinct from matter; it is known as the parā potency, the superior spiritual energy. The individual souls, the jīvas, are the outcome of the spiritual energy. They make up the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.”

In the Gītā Kṛṣṇa says that the jīvas are His parts, but what kind of parts? Not parts of the substance, but parts of His marginal potency. Likewise, a particle of the sun’s ray is not the substance of the sun.

This is the way we must understand the Supreme Lord’s infinite potencies, or śaktis. We can divide these potencies into three main categories—internal, marginal and external—but in reality, they are infinite.

All souls are manifested by the marginal potency (jīva-śakti). When we become averse to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the external potency (māyā-śakti, or aparā potency) envelops us and we come to this world of birth, death and the threefold afflictions.

When we submit to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He will come in the form of grace incarnate or the internal potency. And the concrete form of the internal potency (svarūpa-śakti) is the śuddha-bhakta, the sad-guru or the spiritual guide. By the grace of the śuddha-bhakta we can enter into the transcendental realm of infinite bliss.

So what should we do and what should we not do? The main criterion has been mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa:

smartavyaḥ satataṁ viṣṇur
vismartavyo na jātucit
sarve vidhi-niṣedhāḥ syur
etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ
(Bhaktirasāmṛta-sindhu  1.2.8)

“You have to remember Kṛṣṇa always. We have to do whatever is required in order to remember Him. For this reason the saints have prescribed many different forms of devotional practice. Outside of these principal devotional forms, other activities can be undertaken that will help us to remember Kṛṣṇa. The criterion is that we should always remember Kṛṣṇa and secondly that we should never forget Him.”

Nobody on earth, whether atheist or theist, can prove that the body is the person. We consider the body to be a person only as long as consciousness is present in it. In fact, the existence that makes one a person, his real identity, is called sat-cit-ānanda. In the Sanskrit language we use the words ātmā or jīvātmā. You may use the word “soul” to identify the eternally existing principle within the body.

When consciousness leaves this body, the body no longer exhibits personality. You can preserve it chemically for a long time, but nobody finds happiness on seeing it. The life has gone. As long as the spirit soul, which is sat-cit-ānanda, is present in that body, it is considered a person.

Every living being has a profound desire to live in this world eternally. Eternal life, which in Sanskrit is called sat, is the demand of every sentient being. We all desire knowledge, which indicates that we have a knowledge principle, or cit, for something devoid of knowledge cannot have the desire to know. Similarly, if one is devoid of bliss, then one cannot desire bliss or ānanda. We all have the desire to get ānanda, we have the desire for knowledge, and we have the desire to exist eternally. These desires are the indications of our identity as the ātmā or sat-cit-ānanda.

Nobody wants to die, but we are enveloped by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord that consists of three primeval qualities: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The material bodies of living beings are created by rajo-guṇa; once created, they are maintained and sustained by sattva-guṇa; ultimately, all are destroyed by tamo-guṇa.

When we are enveloped by this illusory energy, we get these temporary bodies. We take birth, we remain for some time, and then we die. We are not the non-eternal body but rather the eternal sentient being residing in the body, that is, the ātmā or soul. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā: (2.20)

na jāyate mriyate va kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato’ yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“This body is born, it will remain for sometime, and it will die. But the ātmā knows no birth and no death.”

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
(Bhagavad-gītā 2.13)

“After passing through childhood and youth, and after that, from old age to death, you will find that death is just another kind of transformation. When the body perishes, the ātmā will not perish. It is eternal. So we are eternal; nobody can kill us. We are sat-cit-ānanda, but we are running after asat, acit and nirānanda—that which is devoid of existence, devoid of knowledge, and devoid of bliss.”

How can we get peace by cultivating these material things? What is the value of this eye? I could destroy it in a second with a stick and in a moment the whole world of vision would become completely inaccessible to me. I could also pierce my eardrum and the whole world of sound would be beyond reach. Such is the nature of the material senses.

How real is our experience if we depend on our material senses alone? How real are our sensations? But if we recognize the indications of our real self, our sat-cit-ānanda nature, we live and feel the existence of the soul.

In one of the oldest holy scriptures of the world, the ‰g Veda, it is written:

oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padam sadā
paśyanti sūrayaḥ. divīva cakṣur-ātatam.
tad viprāso vipanyavo jāgāvāṁsaḥ
samindhate viṣṇor yat paramaṁ padam

“The lotus feet of the Supreme Lord are transcendental. He cannot be comprehended by the material senses, either subtle or gross. He is beyond the comprehension of mind and intellect. He is transcendental, atīndriya, beyond our sensual comprehension.”

The Sanskrit word “idam” means “this” in English. When we experience with our material senses, we are seeing “this.” But the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord are transcendental—“that.” The object of devotion is one—the Supreme Lord’s lotus feet. How do the devotees see Him? Is it through their own capacities? Divīva cakṣur ātatam. He is Self-effulgent; therefore, devotees who have His mercy can see Him. We cannot see Kṛṣṇa without His grace.

All the jīvas are eternally related to Kṛṣṇa as parts of His potency. He is absolute. There is nothing greater than Him or equal to Him. Without His will, nobody has the capacity to know Him.

Some people give the following analogy to explain their understanding of the route to Krsna. They say: There is a great city called Rome. Is there only one road leading to Rome? No, there are hundreds and thousands of roads. Bhagavān, the Supreme Lord, is infinite. So to say that there is only one path leading to Him seems to be a dogmatic position. As He is infinite, there must be an infinite number of ways to get to Him.

However, this analogy is flawed. Rome is made of the five material elements of earth, water, fire, air and sky. It is nothing more than a lump of matter. In the same way, the gross body of the human being is composed of these five elements and the subtle body, of mind, intelligence and perverted ego is also material. But the real self, as stated above, is the outcome of the parā potency of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. As long as the soul, the spiritual spark, resides in this world, it can dominate matter for it is superior to it. So a person can come to Rome in hundreds of ways because there is a spiritual spark inside the body. Even dogs can come, or ants because a spiritual spark is similarly present in those bodies. But Bhagavān, God, is not a lump of matter to be dominated. He is transcendental and we can not dominate Him. We cannot get to Kṛṣṇa without His grace.

In the scripture Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (1.2.11), it is mentioned:

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti
bhagavān iti śabdyate

“Tat means ‘it,’ the transcendental, ultimate reality. This absolute, undivided knowledge is referred to by different words, brahman, paramātmā, or bhagavān. Jñānīs or knowledge seekers see the absolute in its brahman or all-pervading aspect of the absolute. Yogīs see it as paramātmā, the Supersoul present in every living being. And the devotees or bhaktas see it as bhagavān.”

Bhagavān is the all-comprehensive idea. Bhagavān means one who possesses all kinds of opulences, namely wealth, power, fame, beauty, strength and renunciation. These are the six main opulences, but in reality they exist in infinite variety. You will not find an equivalent word for bhagavān in any other religion to describe the Lord in His fullness. Bhagavān is greatest of the great, the smallest of the small, and everything in between.

Bhagavān takes many different forms, of which the sweetest is that of Vrajendranandana Kṛṣṇa, the transcendental cowherd boy of Vraja. We can experience all varieties of bliss or ānanda by worshipping Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but without His will nobody can see Him. We are not even able to see the president of a country without his permission, so what makes us think that we can see Bhagavān at our whim? It is faulty reasoning to think that we can see Him by any path of our choosing. If I can see a person by my own capacity, then he becomes the object of my experience and, in that way, subordinate to me. Likewise, if anybody sees me by his own capacity, I become subordinate to him.

Without the will of the Supreme Lord nobody can see Him, and to fulfill that will is called bhakti. If you want to serve somebody, what must you do? You have to satisfy him, and that means you have to act according to his will. Similarly, if we want to attain the Supreme Lord, we have to act according to His will. Why would God come to someone who has no desire to see Him? On the other hand, if God is compelled to come, He loses His position as God. Karmīs desire material benefit in this life and the next. They don’t want Kṛṣṇa, so why should He come to them? Jñānīs desire emancipation. They make no effort for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, so why should He come to them? We can only get Kṛṣṇa through bhakti, exclusive devotion.

Everything is done by the will of the Supreme Lord. Without His will, nobody can do anything. If a person says that he can do something independent of the Supreme Lord’s will, he diminishes the Supreme Lord’s absolute position. Even a leaf cannot move without the Lord’s approval. Furthermore, whatever is done by the will of the Supreme Lord is for the eternal benefit of all. He is all-good, omnipotent and omniscient.

Sometimes we think that what is happening to us is not just, but we do not really know how we are responsible for our own destiny. We do not know what we have done in the past and what reactions are now bearing fruit. Can anybody claim to have knowledge of their past activities? We even have difficulty recalling events from even two days earlier in our present life, what to speak of those from ten years ago. Can you remember everything you have done from morning to night? We forget everything. Such is our situation. We neither know what we have done in the past nor what will take place in the future.

When we do not see how to reconcile these things, we become worried, even unbalanced. But self-realized souls always reconcile themselves with even adverse circumstances. They are therefore always calm and serene. We, on the other hand, lack the proper vision and knowledge and cannot recognize the Lord’s will.

Now one may ask, if even a leaf cannot move without the will of God, then it seems we do not have true free will. And what is the purpose of our lives if we have no free will? The answer is that living beings possess consciousness, which intrinsically means they have the power of thought, feeling and can exercise their will. But though the conscious unit has independence of thought, it is only a relative independence. There are many people who want to become a movie star or a president but are unable to fulfill their desire. One person who wants and needs to become president may attain his goal, but most will not. Our independence is thus relative.

Not all of our wishes come true. God controls all affairs, but He does not interfere in the relative independence of the jīva, the individual souls. He can interfere if He wishes, for He is omnipotent. But if He did so, then the individual consciousness would become inert; it would become matter. The independent consciousness would be destroyed. So the Lord Himself appears and tries to persuade the souls who are averse to Him to accept His teachings willingly. He does not want to force them to accept devotion. He could do so, but if He did, then the individual consciousness would be destroyed. What would be the benefit of that? Consciousness is a great wealth, so, while still maintaining the jīvas’ relative independence, the Lord appears here in this world or  He sends His own associates to make the jīvas understand that they should willingly submit to Him.

Once, there was a magician. A friend told him that he was experience marital difficulties. He said, “I have everything I need, but my wife is not congenial. She is always doing something to displease me, so I am not happy. How can I control her? You are a magician. Can’t you help me? You must know a spell or something.” The magician gave him a magic wand and said, “Your wife will obey you, whatever you command.”

The man went back to his house with the wand and ordered his wife, “Come here!” and his wife came. “Go there!” he said, and his wife went. “Sit here!” he commanded, and his wife sat down. But after doing this for some time, he realized he was still not happy. Why? Because his wife had become like a dog! He realized that for them to have a joyful relationship, she must have her independence, the ability to think independently. Only if she served willingly could there be happiness. If consciousness is destroyed, there can be no happiness. In the same way, God is not so ignorant that He chooses to suppress the relative independence of the jīvas. He retains it and His counterpart, Gurudeva, does the same. But they make the jīvas understand that they are the eternal servants of the Supreme Lord and that by serving Him they will become happy. They try to change the jīvas’ mentality by showing them their own ideal character and example, and by explaining to and inspiring them.

God does not want to destroy the relative independence of His minute particles. With whom will He enjoy His pastimes? In order for service to exist, there must be both a servitor and a served. Only then does prema or divine love become a possibility. There can be no such love where there is only one person. The jīvas who are now here in this material world have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, but ultimately, when they experience the awakening of the eternal nature of the self, they will cry for the Lord with great earnestness and perturbation. And God will taste and relish their emotion. Why should we deprive God of that pleasure?

My Guru Mahārāja once went to a place where there was a huge gathering. Everyone of all religions was welcome and so it was that half of the participants were Muslim and half were Hindus. One Muslim from the audience asked Mahārāja a question. “Swāmījī, have you seen the ātmā and paramātmā, the soul and the Supersoul? Can anybody say he has seen them? think no one has ever seen the ātmā and paramātmā and that you are deceiving the world by speaking of them.” Both the organizers of the meeting and the people in the audience were displeased with this challenger, but Guru Mahārāja answered him respectfully. He said, “You are obviously a learned person. May I ask you a question? What is the name of the book you are holding?” The man stated the name of the book. Guru Mahārāja replied, “I cannot see it. I cannot see the name of the book. You are deceiving me.” Other Muslims came there and looked at the book’s cover and confirmed the first man’s statement. “Swāmījī, this man has told you the book’s right name.”

Again Guru Mahārāja continued: “I have my eyes and my eyesight is good. Yet I do not see what you say you do. You are collectively deceiving me. To me, it looks as though a crow stepped in ink and then walked on paper to make all those marks. I see nothing but crow’s footprints.”

Hearing this, the Muslim was enraged, “Swāmījī, do you not know Urdu?”

“No, I do not.”

The Muslim replied, “Then how can you expect to understand? You have to go through the alphabet and then you will be able to read it and understand. You have to earn the ability!”

Then Guru Mahārāja said, “You have given the answer to your own question. We have many kinds of knowledge. We may easily learn other languages, but we do not have the qualifications to know ātmā and paramātmā. We shall be able to see them when we acquire the necessary qualifications. Until we do so, we shall not be able to understand. I see the footprints of a crow, but other people see form and meaning in those footprints, because they have knowledge of the Urdu language behind their sight. If I have no knowledge of Urdu, I cannot see what you do. Once I have that knowledge I too will be able to see. In the same way, special eligibility is necessary to see the soul. You have to go to those who have realized this and ask them to help you understand.”

When one is enlightened with the knowledge by which ignorance is destroyed, then that knowledge reveals everything just as the sun lights up everything in the daytime. This sort of knowledge is self-effulgent. You cannot see the sun at night because it is self-luminous; it cannot be seen with the help of other lights. When the sun rises and its light pours into your eyes, you can see the sun, you can see yourself, and you can see all the things of the world in their proper perspective.

In the same way when the self-luminous, self-effulgent Supreme Lord descends to a completely surrendered soul, then this soul will see his own self, he will see the other real selves of this world and all other things in their true perspective. All ignorance will be removed and everything will be illuminated by knowledge. But in order for this to happen, we will have to surrender to Him and take the help of the guru in every respect. We take the help of gurus, teachers, for even material knowledge, so why should it be different for the acquirement of spiritual knowledge? We have to go to a realized soul and take his instruction; then God will reveal Himself. We cannot know Him through our own ingenuity, nor with a challenging mood. God is an unchallengeable truth. He reveals Himself only to a completely surrendered soul.

The mind is the cause of bondage and the mind is also the cause of emancipation. This is stated by Kapila Bhagavān in the third canto of the sacred scripture, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Kapila Bhagavān was an incarnation of the Supreme Lord Himself who appeared as the son of Kardama Muni and Devahūti. One day Mother Devahūti asked her son, “How can a conditioned soul be rescued from the clutches of māyā, from all sorts of desires of this world? How can we rescue ourselves from the bondage of māyā?” To this Kapila Bhagavān replied:

cetaḥ khalv asya bandhāya
muktaye cātmano matam
guṇeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya
rataṁ vā  puṁsi muktaye
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.25.15)

“This mind is certainly the cause of bondage, and this mind is also the cause of emancipation. How? guṇeṣu saktaṁ bandhāya.When the mind of a person is attached to triguṇa, the three primary qualities of the external potency of the Supreme Lord (sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa), then he is in bondage. When the mind of a person is attached to nirguṇa, the transcendental Supreme Person, Śrī Hari, he will be delivered from the influence of māyā and will get salvation.”

What is triguṇa? The living beings are created by rajo-guṇa. My body is created by rajo-guṇa, it is maintained by sattva-guṇa, and it perishes by tamo-guṇa. By tamo-guṇa the living being dies. Our body is thus triguṇa, because it is born, remains for some time, and then perishes. Our body is triguṇa in concrete form, so someone who always thinks about his body, its necessities and its beautification, is in bondage. Such a persons only see the tabernacle, the outside covering of the soul, and never the real self.

Take the example of a magnet and iron. What is the nature of a magnet? The nature of a magnet is to attract iron whenever it comes near to it. And the nature of iron is that whenever it comes near a magnet, it is attracted by it. But sometimes we see that both iron and a magnet are present, but the magnet does not seem to be attracting the iron, nor is the iron being attracted by the magnet. Why?

The Supreme Lord is attracting all. So his name is Kṛṣṇa: one who attracts all and gives happiness to all. Kṛṣṇa is supreme in all respects: He is the greatest of the greatest, brahman, the smallest of the smallest, paramātmā. He is the all-attractive principle. Still someone might say, “Swāmījī, you say Kṛṣṇa attracts everyone, but He is not attracting me.” But I say, yes, he is also attracting you, but you cannot feel it. Why? The magnet and iron are both there, but they do not attract each other because rust is covering the iron. Similarly, rust is now covering your soul and for that reason you are not feeling His attraction. You have to remove that rust or dust from your heart. If you remove it, your natural function will be awakened.

Due to your aversion to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, you have been enveloped by His illusory energy and covered by the dirt of the world. You have to remove that dirt of ulterior desires. How can it be done? You have remain in the company of sādhus or saints. You have to attentively hear with firm faith from a śuddha-bhakta, a pure devotee whose life is dedicated to Śrī Kṛṣṇa and not from a professional speaker. There are many persons who say many things without acting on them. No speaker can bring about any effect in a listener without engaging in practical action, that is, without living according to his own teachings.

So you have to go to someone who is practicing, an awakened soul. Such a person can awaken many sleeping souls. If everyone is sleeping, who will arise? There must be someone to awaken others—an awakened soul. That awakened soul is the śuddha-bhakta. You have to hear from him attentively. The words that come from his mouth are a transcendental sound. You have to receive that sound through your ears and it will awaken the transcendental nature of your real self. That nature, love for Kṛṣṇa, is present within you, but it is enveloped by the illusory energy and has to be awakened.

Does a diseased person possess the capacity to treat himself? When we are ill, we consult an expert, an eye specialist, ear specialist or heart specialist. We have to go to the doctor. The doctor may say, “Why have you come to me?” And we will answer, “Well, I do not have any knowledge of medicine. You can tell me what the cause of my disease is. Please examine me and tell me what is making me ill. Then prescribe medicine and the appropriate diet so that I may be cured.”

If the doctor’s diagnosis is correct and we follow his prescription of medication and diet, we will recover. As a diseased person I cannot treat myself. In the same way, all of us in this world are diseased, suffering from the threefold afflictions—miseries arising from our own bodies and minds, those caused by other living beings in this world, and those caused by natural calamities such as earthquakes. We are traveling through cycles of birth and death. You see that many babies are born—you were also born. You were once in your mother’s womb like everyone else. And, like everyone else, one day you will also have to die. You have seen the types of affliction people are troubled by near the time of death—tremendous suffering—and your time of death is nearing.

As long as we live in this world, the threefold afflictions will exist. No happiness is permanent. The wheel of happiness and distress is always revolving. Sometimes you will enjoy material pleasures, then again you suffer. Suffering and pleasure follow each other regularly. When people desire for deliverance from these three-fold afflictions caused by the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord, they begin to inquire into their cause and search for a bona fide guru.

To take complete shelter of Kṛṣṇa is called śaraṇāgati. It is related in the Mahābhārata, that when Duḥśāsana wanted to denude Draupadī in front of the kings and others such as Droṇa and Bhīma, Draupadī cried out Kṛṣṇa’s name, calling to Him to rescue her. Kṛṣṇa did save her, but not immediately. Because He came to the rescue a little late, Draupadī complained to Him. She said, “Thank You very much for saving me, but You could surely have come a little earlier. Why did You wait so long? What is the reason You delayed?”

Kṛṣṇa replied: “You called out My name, I admit. But those words were not enough. You did not take shelter of Me. At first you took shelter of Bhīma and Arjuna thinking that they would come and kill Duḥśāsana and protect you. Why should I come if you think that Bhīma and Arjuna can protect you? You uttered My name, but you did not take My shelter. You took shelter of Bhīma and Arjuna.”

We cannot deceive Bhagavān. It is not possible. He is residing within us and sees everything.

Kṛṣṇa: “Is it not true that you took shelter of Bhīma and Arjuna?”

Draupadi: “Yes.”

Kṛṣṇa: “Then why should I have come?”

Draupadi: “Well, You should have come after that.”

Kṛṣṇa: “After that you took shelter of Droṇa, the teacher of the Kaurāvas and Paṇḍāvas. If Droṇa had intervened, no one would have had the power to stop him. So why should I come if Droṇa could come and rescue you? Am I not correct?”

Draupadi: “Yes, You are correct.”

Kṛṣṇa: “After that you took shelter of grandfather Bhīṣma, the formidable warrior, and most respected member of all the court. If he had intervened, no one could have done anything... You took shelter of him. Why should I come if Bhīṣma could rescue you? You did not take shelter of Me. Actually, you were crying, ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa,’ but you had not taken shelter of Me, but of those whom you could see before you. Why then should I have come? I thought, Let them protect you.

“After that, you took shelter of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and after that, all the other kings. After all that, you tried to rescue yourself by hold tightly onto your cloth—with one hand up you were trying to hold onto your cloth. But I do not appear where śaraṇāgati is only partial. I do not descend in such circumstances. When, you raised both your hands and called to Me, taking absolute shelter of Me, then I came immediately.”

Unless we take absolute shelter, we cannot have any kind of remedy for our miseries. As long as we do not submit to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa sincerely, completely, we shall have to suffer the distress of this world. We are trying to earn money and maintain our worldly relations so that we might have happiness. Yet we can see the consequences of our attachment to non-eternal things—severe miseries. Even so, due to our ignorance, our misconception of self, we keep on trying for this ephemeral happiness. We have lost our money and we have lost our near and dear ones, but again we keep trying to get those things back again. If no human being is available, we acquire a dog, a cat, a parrot or whatever, and become attached to that. Again and again we try for the non-eternal because the root cause of our affliction is not eliminated. This root cause is our misconception of self and the ignorance of thinking that by getting material benefits we will be truly benefited. As long as we do not surrender to the Lord, we will never be able to attain the ultimate goal of life. The Kaṭhopaniṣad (2.23) mentions:

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas
tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanuṁ svām

“God cannot be attained and realized by delivering lectures, by intellect, or by great erudition. The Supreme Lord will reveal His own eternal form only to a surrendered soul.”

And at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā (18.65-66) Kṛṣṇa has given His highest instruction to all conditioned souls of the world for their eternal welfare:

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo ’si me

“Devote your mind to Me. If it is difficult to devote your mind to Me, serve Me; engage your senses in My service. If this is also not possible, worship Me. If even that is not possible, take absolute shelter of Me. I promise you that you will surely get Me.”

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

“Relinquish all My previous spiritual instructions about dharma (the relative social-religious duties enjoined by the Vedas) and take absolute shelter of Me.”

The Bhagavad-gītā ends with śaraṇāgati, and that is where the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam begins. Without śaraṇāgati we cannot enter into the spiritual realm. So first we have to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. When one becomes a person who is of Kṛṣṇa and does only things for the satisfaction of Krsna, then that is called bhakti. Hearing about His name, form, attributes and pastimes is completely transcendental. But first we have to take shelter of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. We have to know that “I am of Kṛṣṇa.” That knowledge will be given by a realized soul, a śuddha-bhakta, or sad-guru. For that reason we have to go to a realized soul who is established in the eternal nature of the soul. He knows that he belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and he is always serving Kṛṣṇa. If we submissively approach such realized souls, inquire humbly from them and serve them, then they can awaken the nature of our eternal self. For that reason śaraṇāgati is necessary. And we can get actual śaraṇāgati by submitting to a śaraṇāgata-bhakta.

Śaraṇāgati has six aspects that are described as follows:

ānukūlasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam
rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā
ātma-nikṣepa-kārpaṇye ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ

“We should accept whatever is congenial for the service of Kṛṣṇa. We should give up what is unfavorable. He is the only protector, and nobody else can protect me. And He is the only sustainer and maintainer. We should take absolute shelter of Him. We should be humble and give up our mundane material ego. These are the six divisions of śaraṇāgati.”

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākur ends his song about surrender, with the words, rūpa sanātana-pade dante tāṛa kori, bhaktivinoda pore duhuṅ pada dhori.: “With straw between my teeth I fall down at the feet of Śrī Śrī Rūpa and Sanātana.” The point is that we have to go to a śuddha bhakta, a realized soul. He will impart knowledge of śaraṇāgati to us. If we do not submit to him, the process of surrender will never become manifest in us.

What then should we pray to Kṛṣṇa for? We should pray to Kṛṣṇa for the service of His lotus feet and that of His devotees. That is the highest prospect. “Please, kindly bless me so that I can get the association of Your true devotee. If I get the association of Your true devotee, I shall get You. Please give me this sort of blessing. Unless and until I get the dust of the lotus feet of a śuddha bhakta, I will never develop my love for Kṛṣṇa.” That should be our prayer.