Hare Krsna!
This forum topic is timely. This month we are celebrating Gita Jayanti – the day when Lord Krsna spoke Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield. Arjuna was bereaved and confused due to his bodily relationships; he was lamenting about the possibility of killing his friends, relatives, and teachers. Unable to deal with this bereavement and confusion any longer, he surrendered to Krsna.
“Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.” (BG 2.7)
And thus Lord Krsna spoke the transcendental messages of Bhagavad Gita that ultimately got Arjuna out of his anxiety and confusion. This is one example of subduing bereavement with transcendental knowledge.
Another example comes from the 9th chapter of 2nd Canto. Lord Brahmā, the first spiritual master, supreme in the universe, could not trace out the source of his lotus seat, and while thinking of creating the material world, he could not understand the proper direction for such creative work, nor could he find out the process for such creation. (SB 2.9.5) After years of penance and finally obtaining vision of the Supreme Lord, Lord Brahma requested the Lord to instruct him by which he can generate living entities, without being conditioned by such activities. (SB 2.9.29) Thus, the Supreme Lord spoke the famous Catuh-sloki verses of Srimad Bhagavatam. After the Lord left, Brahma began to re-create the universe, full with living entities.
Therefore gaining transcendental knowledge is the goal of human life. Athato brahma jijnasa. One must inquire about the Absolute Truth. We struggle in this material world because we are driven by false ego. We think this material world is a place of real enjoyment and happiness. We do not know how to navigate the various sufferings in this material world. We have forgotten our eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord. Our memory is lost because we are now covered by His material energy.
The entire process of devotional service is to purify oneself of the contamination of material nature and put oneself on the spiritual platform, where he is qualitatively one with the Supreme Lord. The living entity is liberated. His material contamination is temporary, and his actual position is that he is liberated. This liberation is achieved by Krsna consciousness, which begins from the point of surrender to Krsna. This understanding is reached through the power of the transcendental knowledge and the mercy of Supreme Lord and His devotees.
When a conditioned soul is seriously anxious to get of the influence of the material clutches, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated with him as Paramatma, gives him this knowledge. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-Gita, “Give up all other engagement. Just surrender unto Me.” It is to be accepted that the source of knowledge is the Supreme Person. This transcendental knowledge cannot be imparted by anyone other than the Supreme Lord or His representative.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta Lord Caitanya instructs Rūpa Gosvāmī that the living entities wander in life after life, undergoing the miserable conditions of material existence. But when one is very anxious to get free from the material entanglement, he gets enlightenment through a spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. This means that Kṛṣṇa as the Supersoul is seated within the heart of the living entity, and when the living entity is serious, the Lord directs him to take shelter of His representative, a bona fide spiritual master. Directed from within and guided externally by the spiritual master, one attains the path of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is the way out of the material clutches.
As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, after many, many births the knowledge comes to the conditioned soul that Vasudeva is great, He is master, and He is Lord. The individual soul is servant, and therefore he surrenders unto Him. At that time he becomes a mahatma, a great soul. Therefore a fortunate living being who comes to this understanding, through the power of transcendental knowledge, has his liberation assured.
That’s why we should be eternally grateful and indebted to Srila Prabhupada, who appeared to give this transcendental knowledge to us. He reminded us who Krsna is, our relationship with Him, our actual position in this material world, and how we can go back home, back to Godhead.
cakhu-dan dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei | divya-jnan hrde prokasito | prema-bhakti jaha hoite | avidya vinasa jate | vede gay jahara carito
“He opens my darkened eyes and fills my heart with transcendental knowledge. He is my Lord birth after birth. From him ecstatic prema emanates; by him ignorance is destroyed. The Vedic scriptures sing of his character.” (Sri Guru-vandana 3)
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 