Devotion to Krishn

In his commentary on the Brahm Sutra, Shankaracharya wrote, “Liberation is attained after receiving that gyan which is attained with God’s Grace.  Liberation can’t happen through the gyan acquired through one’s own efforts, because no soul can eliminate maya.”  This happens when God Graces a soul. So when will God Grace?  When you surrender to Him. Again Shankaracharya said, “Oh [Krishn - http://jkpbd.org/live/tvasia.html ]! How can one receive Divine knowledge without Your Grace?"  It is impossible!  A gyani could go to the extent of terminating his ego through extreme effort in thousands of births. After thousands of births, even if he went beyond his ego, he still wouldn't be able to cross maya. That is why he has to surrender to God. Shankaracharya said one more very interesting thing. 

He said, “Oh, impersonal brahm, you are neutral.” Neutral means having neither love nor hate for anyone.  It means brahm can’t do anything.  He is a non-doer. “You can’t Grace or get angry. You can’t do anything!” He is just an existence.  He can’t perform any action. Then how will HeGrace?  Shankaracharya said, “Maharaj, at least come and reside in my heart.” If He can’t do anything, how will He reside in your heart?  “No! I disagree. I believe I am brahm.” Alright, go ahead and believe you are brahm. Is your brahm a non-doer? “Correct, He doesn’t do anything.” So how will He reside in your heart? Explain why you said, “Reside in my heart.” If you are brahm, who are you asking to reside in your heart?

So the path of gyan is meaningless for us because, first of all, we won’t be qualified. If we did qualify, our body isn’t suitable. It isn’t suitable for yog or gyan. For this reason, none of these practices are for the kaliyug. Can a gyani attain liberation without devotion to Lord Ram? Impossible!  No one can cross maya, no matter who he is. Then, [Krishn – http://www.jkp-barsana-dham.org/ ] says, “When I give My power to a surrendered soul, he will realize the true form of brahm and become a brahm Gyani. He will merge in Me. All these actions will happen with My Grace.” These actions don't happen by themselves.

If one receives the knowledge of brahm through bhakti, he is still deprived of Divine love. He will only merge into brahm. He will end being bereft of Divine happiness. He won’t receive Divine love because his experience of duality won’t remain. One could receive Divine love when these three remain: the devotee, devotion and God. The one who does devotion, the one whose devotion is to be done, Krishn, and the way devotion is done, bhakti. If these three are present, then Divine love could be received. But in gyan, not even one remains.The mind doesn’t remain. The mind is terminated and only the soul's existence remains, which merges into God.
But Shankaracharya said another very interesting thing. He said in his commentary of Nrisingh-tapniya Upnishad that for attaining liberation, first a gyani terminates his ego through gyan. Then he does devotion and his maya is completely destroyed.  He crosses maya. Then, after undergoing his karmic destiny, he merges into God. He is called mukt – liberated. Liberation happens with God’s Grace. After this, he comes from there, takes a body and does devotion. If even a liberated soul does bhakti then what to say of an ordinary gyani? He is just a practitioner. The Ved also says this.  A jeevan-mukt gyani absorbed in the Bliss of brahm also does devotion to the personal form of God. 

Furthermore, [Kripaluji Maharaj - http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.php?showtopic=361&st=15 ] says there is a difference between ‘jeevan-mukt’ and ‘mukt’.  Jeevan-mukt means the one who became a gyani while living. He didn’t do devotion so his maya isn’t terminated, yet he is a gyani.  He remains in samadhi (pious trance). When he comes out of samadhi, then he immediately comes under the influence of maya.  By not doing devotion to Krishn, he commits a spiritual transgression, and because of this, maya controls him.  This is the reason why maya has kept us under its control. We are facing away from Krishn. Now on our own strength we want to follow the path of gyan and remove maya? Impossible!

Liberation won’t be attained without bhakti. Even if uncountable fathers of gyanis came to help, nothing would happen. A gyani will repeatedly fall and he will still say, “ I am a gyani, I am brahm.” Only the one who does devotion to God will cross this powerful maya. Without surrendering to God through devotion, no one can know God, see God, or merge into God. Pay attention!

That is why the path of gyan is meaningless. It takes so much time, and even then maya won’t be eliminated, and eternal happiness won’t be attained. Now look at a bhakt. He rejects liberation, and it still happens automatically, even though he insults it. The goddess of a gyani is liberation. To attain liberation, a gyani practiced for thousands of lifetimes. But a bhakt rejects liberation and he still becomes liberated. How could maya come before the one who has a relationship with Krishn?

Maya doesn’t have the courage. How could she go there? In this way, the path of gyan is meaningless for us. If a person follows the path of gyan, and after suffering many difficulties, if he finds a true Saint, he will still have to come back and do bhakti. Otherwise, he will keep on wandering in 8.4 million life forms.

So on the path of gyan, the qualifications alone are so difficult that you should understand it is impossible in this age of kali.  I described the completely renounced person possessing four qualities who is qualified to enter the path of gyan, and such a qualified person is impossible to find in this age of kali. Imagine that even if such a qualified person were found, then following that path is very difficult.

Even if someone follows the path, he would fall again and again. Even if one reached the final stage of gyan, he wouldn’t be freed from maya or have attained God realization. He also wouldn’t have attained his worshipped form of God, impersonal brahm.  Whether one worships impersonal brahm or the personal form of God, freedom from maya and God realization happen only with God’s Grace. God’s Grace won’t be received without bhakti (devotion).  Without bhakti, without surrender, God’s Grace won’t happen. Without Grace, neither will maya leave nor will knowledge of brahm be attained. [Krishn - http://swami-kripalu-maharaj.org/ ] clearly said in Gita, “I give that knowledge to the one who does devotion to Me.  He will receive brahm gyan, knowledge of God, with My Grace.” Let’s explore this in more depth.

There are two types of gyan: one is atm-gyan (realization of the soul) and the other is brahm gyan (realization of impersonal brahm). An atm-gyani is called a 'gyani' and a brahm gyani is also called a 'Gyani'.  Someone could receive atm-gyan, although not in kaliyug. It's not impossible to receive atm-gyan. It's very difficult, but it could happen.  An atm-gyani’s mind becomes detached from the world and established in the soul.  That experience is very blissful. One kind of happiness comes from the association of two lifeless things. Another comes from the association of a lifeless thing with something conscious. Another comes from the association of two conscious things. These are the three kinds of happiness that are experienced.

You are all experiencing one kind: the happiness that comes by the association of two lifeless things. In other words, the happiness that comes from material sense objects. Receiving happiness from looking at the material world, listening to material words, smelling material perfume, touching your mother, father, son, wife and husband, placing some material object on your tongue. These kinds of happiness are from the association of two lifeless things. You all know this very well. You experience this daily.

Higher than this is the happiness from the association of something lifeless with something conscious. What is this? The association of the mind and soul. This is also called‘satvik’ happiness. The Bhagwatam describes this experience. The Gita says that knowledge of the soul arises from the satvic (pious) quality of maya. It is a very great happiness. The highest celestial happiness of brahm-lok is negligible compared to it, and that is because the soul is a fraction of God. A gyani receives great happiness from this and goes into samadhi (pious trance). He attains so much happiness that the whole world becomes nothing for him.  But that is not Divine Bliss. At that stage, as long as a gyani is in samadhi, he experiences the bliss of his soul. When he comes out of samadhi, again problems start. For example, some bees are stinging a person on his head, hands, legs, etc. Wherever he runs, the bees chase him. What can this poor fellow do? The remedy is to immerse himself in water and then the bees will go away. But if he comes out of the water, the bees will again surround him.  Similarly, as long as a gyani remains absorbed in the bliss of his soul, he is safe from lust, anger, greed, and attachment. As soon as he comes out of samadhi, maya attacks him. This is one kind of gyani.

So, some gyani, somewhere, at sometime, could reach this stage through practices of gyan. After this, his progress stops. Now how could he receive knowledge of brahm?  Why?  Because he doesn’t have the right kind of mind to think about knowledge of brahm. Our mind is made of maya. This is one thing. And whatever meditation we do from this mind will also be mayic. No matter what kind of thinking one does, even if one is the greatest thinker, it could only be mayic (material). In other words, no gyani can think of brahm because his mind is material. "But, the mind of a bhakt is also material.  He also thinks about Krishn. So he isn't able to do it either.” Yes, the thinking that a bhakt does of Krishn is also material. But I told you earlier that through God’s swaroop shakti, the bhakt’s mind is made Divine. Then with that Divine mind, he thinks of Divine Krishn.  He sees Krishn with Divine eyes. Understand this simple formula – whose eyes do you need to see Krishn? Krishn’s eyes. From whose ears will His flute be heard? From Krishn’s ears. From Krishn’s nose, you will smell the perfume of His body. This means you could experience Krishn through Krishn’s senses. Krishn's remembrance will be attained through Krishn’s mind.  Krishn gives that Divine power to a surrendered bhakt. That's why he receives Krishn’s Divine vision. But who will give this to a gyani? His brahm is a non-doer. It doesn’t do anything, so how will it Grace? That is why a gyani’s thinking will always be only mayic. It is impossible for him to think of brahm. When he does bhakti and with God’s Grace he receives God's Divine power, only then he could experience brahm or think of Him – then whatever he wants, he can do.

[Kripaluji Maharaj - http://jkpbd.org/live/aastha.html ] says that there have been great Divine Gyanis in our history like Brahma, God Shiv, the Sankadiks, King Janak, Shukdev.  They experienced the Bliss of brahm. It is unlimited happiness. But, maya can’t go there.  It is attained with God's Grace, and brahm can’t Grace. Impersonal brahm is just an existence. It doesn’t have a body, hands, legs, mind, or actions – nothing. That is the brahm of the gyanis.

So because a gyani’s meditation is material, the Divine vision of brahm is impossible for him. To attain God realization he will have to surrender to the personal form of God.  This is surrender to personal God, not impersonal brahm’.  ‘God’ means Krishn.  Krishn Graces surrendered souls.  So in this way, after attaining knowledge of the soul, he attains knowledge of brahm. He attains the Bliss of brahm which is unlimited happiness. It's not limited happiness.  It's not material happiness. It is unlimited happiness. But look, there is ‘but’. Then what is the reason a Gyani like Brahma says, “I have churned the Vedas three times with my Divine mind, not with a material intellect! With a Divine intellect I churned them three times and extracted the following conclusion.  Oh, humans! You don’t have the capability to analyze the Vedas.” Bhagwatam, 2/2/34.  Apart from God, no one can understand the meaning of the Vedas.  Krishn gave His spiritual power to Brahma and made him understand the Vedas, and only then could Brahma analyze the Vedas. Ved Vyas concluded, “Oh humans! Do not get entangled in karm, gyan or anything else. Just do devotion to Krishn.”