Krishna says the One in Knowledge is Best
There are four types of pious persons who will surrender to Krishna:
- The distressed.
- Those who are in need of money.
- Those who are inquisitive,
- And those who are searching after knowledge of the Absolute Truth.
It is natural that a person who is pious, who believes in God, will surrender to Him in times of distress, when he needs money or is inquistive. In the next two verses Krishna describes of these four types the one in knowledge is best:
Of these, the wise one who is in full knowledge in union with Me through pure devotional service is the best. For I am very dear to him, and he is dear to Me. (Bhagavad-gita 7.17)
Free from all contaminations of material desires, the distressed, the inquisitive, the penniless, and the seeker after supreme knowledge can all become pure devotees. But out of them, he who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth and free from all material desires becomes a really pure devotee of the Lord. And of the four orders, the devotee who is in full knowledge and is at the same time engaged in devotional service is, the Lord says, the best.
By searching after knowledge one realizes that his self is different from his material body, and when further advanced he comes to the knowledge of impersonal Brahman and Paramatma. When one is fully purified, he realizes that his constitutional position is to be the eternal servant of God.
So by association with pure devotees, the inquisitive, the distressed, the seeker after material profits and the man in knowledge all become themselves pure. But in the preparatory stage, the man who is in full knowledge of the Supreme Lord and is at the same time executing devotional service is very dear to the Lord. He who is situated in pure knowledge of the transcendence of the Supreme Personality of God is so protected in devotional service that material contaminations cannot touch him.
All these devotees are undoubtedly magnanimous souls, but he who is situated in knowledge of Me I consider verily to dwell in Me.
Being engaged in My transcendental service, he attains Me. (Bhagavad-gita 7.18)
It is not that other devotees who are less complete in knowledge are not dear to the Lord. The Lord says that all are magnanimous because anyone who comes to the Lord for any purpose is called a mahatma or great soul.
The devotees who want some benefit out of devotional service are accepted by the Lord because there is an exchange of affection. Out of affection they ask the Lord for some material benefit, and when they get it they become so satisfied that they also advance in devotional service. But the devotee in full knowledge is considered to be very dear to the Lord because his only purpose is to serve the Supreme Lord with love and devotion. Such a devotee cannot live a second without contacting or serving the Supreme Lord. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is very fond of His devotee and cannot be separated from him.
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (9.4.68), the Lord says: “The devotees are always in My heart, and I am always in the heart of the devotees. The devotee does not know anything beyond Me, and I also cannot forget the devotee. There is a very intimate relationship between Me and the pure devotees.
Pure devotees in full knowledge are never out of spiritual touch, and therefore they are very much dear to Me.”
About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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I just wanted to thank you for sending me these teachings. I was recently released from prison, and no longer have access to many books . My connection now lies in the wonderful devotees who write me, the lecture podcast of Bhaktavikasa Swami, and these emails. Thank you so much, my dear prabhus. You are relished more than you know.
Your servant,
Bhakta joseph
PAMHO, All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I am trying to become Krishna Conscious, by reading Srila Prabhupada’s Books, and trying to follow the regulative principles. I would love to go to the Temple as often as I could, but my work schedule, and home obligations prevent me from going. Any suggestions on how I can make further advancement. Your Servant
yes. chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and instead of trying to follow the four regulative principles follow them. Krishna consciousness is only possible if we take it very seriously and make it the purpose of our lives. So do that. If not just keep chanting Hare Krishna and reading Prabhupada’s books. But you have to do something, some service. You have to actually follow the instructions you find Srila Prabhupada giving you as you read his books. There is no Krishna consciousness without service. It is all about surrender and service. Devotional service.
Please except my humble obeisances , All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you for the instruction. I remain your servant
hare krishna
dear lord, can i get a simple mantra to sooth my soul and get connected to lord and serve him and give meaning to this life
Of course you can. There is no secret. The mantra you are looking for is:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Sir, can we see lord krishna in reality not in imagination?
Yes. Become Krishna conscious and you will see Krishna.
hare krishna prabhu ji
as according to bhagwad geeta in chapter 7 lord krishna says that earth fire air water sky and mind ego intelligence are his apra shakti so in our case” jee vatma ” is mind ego and intelligence have different features why there is ego when this ego is lord energy why intelligence not accept that we are his eternal servant even it is lord energy and why mind not concentrated to serve lord. even we “jeevatma” are lord’s pra shakti and lord is self sufficient how we are created .
please show your mercy upon me .
hare krishna.
Hare Krishna Sushil
Jivatma is not mind, intelligence and false ego. Mind, intelligence and false ego are the subtle body and this subtle body is a covering of the spirit soul, it is the spirit soul that is the jivatma.
We are not created, we are eternal parts and parcels of Krishna. As Krishna has no beginning and no end, we also have no beginning and no end. We are not created…
Hare Krishna prabhu ji
May Lord Krishna bless you abundantly for your beautiful service driving and motivating people towards Lord..
Prabhu we as humans are full of bad qualities we tend to remember Krishna during extremes.. Let it be happiness let it be sorrow. It is very bad . krisna is our only real family, rest are all illusions.
How can we cultivate that love and belongingness for Krishna as a mother loves her child unconditionally.
By chanting:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Prabhu Madhuvisa Dasa,
I do work, because I am the supplier of two wonderful souls (are in this life my daughter and mom). On my way to work I use to chant mantras like Vishnu Sahasranamam, hear the Bhagavad Gita, and during my free time I translate Vedas, Samhitas or Puranas for my brother that does not speak enough English. We support each other by chat (because he lives far away from here)to fulfill ekadasi feasting and we exchange the few knowledge that we have.
I do have two questions for you, when I am menstruating and happens to be ekadasi how am I going to be able to break it if I am neither able to cook nor to make an offering to Krishna. So, if I cannot break my fasting with mahaprashadam what happens? (what I did last time was to mentally ask forgiveness to Krishna and eat some grains)
My second question is regarding association. Is it necessary to have a personal association with devotees?
Hare Krishna Mataji
Yes. Naturally we are always hankering after the association of devotees but we have to realize the only real devotee association that is very valuable is with pure devotees of Krishna. When we read Srila Prabhupada’s books he is always stressing the association of pure devotees of Krishan. And when Prabhupada established ISKCON he set it up so all the members were constantly 24 hours a day engaged in Krishna consciousness. They were actually chanting at lest 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day, they were following the four regulative principles, they were going out on the streets every day and performing sankirtan and selling Srila Prabhupada’s books and preaching to the fallen conditioned souls. These are the pure devotees who we want to associate with. The devotees who are in the fire of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement.
Mostly today the ‘devotees’ are sentimentalists who don’t strictly follow all the principles and don’t chant 16 rounds and maybe go on sankirtan once or twice a year and probably have no idea how to sell Prabhupada’s books.
So associating with such ‘devotees’ is useless.
The real association with devotees is the association with pure devotees and the best pure devotee is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and we can associate with him by reading his book, by listening to his lectures and other audio recordings, by hearing his bhajans and kirtans, etc.
There is so much opportunity to associate with Srila Prabhupada so we have to do it. And the more we chant Hare Krishna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books, which is personal association with a pure devotee of Krishna, the more our questions will be answered and we will know what to do. Srila Prabhupada guides us through his books and Krishna guides us from within our heart.
But the problem is we don’t seriously read Srila Prabhupada’s books and we don’t seriously chant Hare Krishna. So if we solve these two problems and strictly follow the regulative principles all our problems will be solved and all our questions will be answered.
As far as breaking the fast, etc. We just have to use common sense and be practical. Sometimes things need to be adjusted a little according to the time and the place. Krishna understands our intentions. That is not an excuse for not doing things properly. But if because of the situation we can not do everything 100% strictly according to the rules and we have to make some small adjustment Krishna understands and appreciates that we are doing the best we can in the situation we find ourselves in.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
HK prji..DP.
Prji please have your mercy on me to clear following doubts:
In shloka 7.16, Krishna speaks about distressed,inquisitive, wealth seeker and person searching fr knowledge.The purport says all these 4 kinds are not pure devotees. In 7.17 Krishna says that out of these, who is in full knowledge of me n serves me, is dearest to me. But in previous shloka, no one is satisfying this criteria of pure devotee, then how can these be most dear to Krishna? Does these 4 types of people do not include pure devotees who directly come to Krishna fr serving him, without any self motive? Plz explain these two shlokas n also explain that wht does knowledge seeker of absolute means? They r gyaani or pure devotees? On 7.29 purport also, they r defined as 4 types of “impure” devotees.
YS-Madhukar
Thanks for the explanations and making easy to download the proper portion of Srimath Bhagavat Geetha for making easy to understand the E-mail.
Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the daily emails. I look forward to reading it every day. Pranamam.
I really enjoy your emails. They really enlighten me.
Thank you ,Lord Krishna for helping me. Thank you
Love your posts!
Hare Krishna!
Dear Sir, the article was very inspiring and with each article sent on the mail, new frontiers of knowledge open up.
Sir, may I request you to please tell me what happens to the soul, the pranas, the mind, chitta, ahankara and other elements of the body after death? Where does the Soul goes after death? Why is there no consciousness after death?
With warm regards.
Hare Krishna Sanjay
The material body is a machine only. It is dead. It only appears to be alive because of the presence of the spirit soul with. When the machine of the material body deteriorates and is no longer a suitable place for the residence of the soul the soul is forced to leave that material body. The destination of the soul after death is determined by the consciousness of the soul at the time of death. So whatever one things about at the time of death determines his next birth.
So if the person is only interested in fulfilling the base animal instincts of eating, sleeping, mating and defending at the time of death the soul’s next body will be an animal body. If he is thinking of Krishna at the time of death he will go to Krishna’s planet in the spiritual world to serve Krishna there.
In this way the person determines his destination after death according to his actions during his life which all culminate as his consciousness at the time of death. It is this consciousness at the time of death which determines where the soul goes after death.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
how can we perform bhakti (if the person is a office going person)
Read Srila Prabhupada’s books. They are all about how to perform bhakti. It is a big science. If you want to know the science you have to study the books.
dear swamiji,
if god has a form or shape you says god have divya swaroopam but in all other concepts all christians including roman catholic except evangelism,islam,advaitam(sankaracharya),sikh,vallalar,zoroastrians,judaism,brama kumaris,kriya yoga,etc.said god is in the form of light please describe what is the truth
Hare Krishna Saravanan
There are three aspects of God. Which are all simultaneously present. Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. So Brahman is the ‘light’ you are talking of. It is real and is a real manifestation of God. But it is distant. Like seeing a mountain from a distant place. It is just a hazy thing in the distance. So you can not make out any details. So the people who see God as a light are seeing God from a great distance. So they are seeing God but because of the great distance they can not make out any details. They just see a light. Then there is the Paramatma which is the form of Visnu that is present within everyone’s heart. So the yogis by meditation can perceive this form of God, Paramatma in the heart. And then there is Bhagavan, Lord Sri Krishna. Krishna is a person. The Supreme Personality of Godhead. The light that the impersonalists see is just the shining effulgence of Krishna’s body. But because they are seeing Krishna from such a great distance they can only see the light. They can not see any details of Krishna. But the light they are seeing is actually Krishna.
And the Paramatma form that the yogis see in their hearts is simply an expansion of Krishna. So they are also seeing Krishna.
So everyone who has any vision of God at all is seeing Krishna. But some are far away so they can not see Krishna very clearly. Therefore they can only see a light. But this light is the brilliant bodily effulgence of Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
It\’s an eye opener article. Hare krishna Prabhu. I don\’t get devotee association, but I do arathI twice every day and remember krishna always prabhu. Do Services at home only. Is this enough Prabhu please guide me through the right path
Hare Krishna Radhika
Doing service to Krishna at home is very good. We need to chant the Hare Krishna mantra at least 16 rounds a day, follow the four regulative principles: no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication, and read Srila Prabhupada’s books 1-2 hours a day. And if we can stick to these things and as you are doing remembering Krishna all day and doing arathi then we will surely make good advancement in Krishna consciousness and as we read Srila Prabhupada’s books more and more Prabhupada will instruct us how to advance more and more in Krishna consciousness.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
What is the quote and explanation of the “satisfaction of all the angels will satisfy the Lord, and satisfying the Lord will cause the satisfaction of all the angels?”
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadanna-gatih kuto ‘pi
dhyayam stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyam
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Krishna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of the spiritual master.
Hare Krishna,Madhudvisa Das Prabhu, I want to express my gratitude to you for your kind and very spiritual messages. By this gesture you are filling up the lamp of krishna concousness and devotion with ghee to keep the lamp burning for ever within me. Wonderful gesture and indeed a great benevolent deed.. May be one day, I hope, I shall have your association in person – you are such a great vaishnava !
Dear Madhudvisa prabhu,
PAMHO, AGTP!
I have written a few comments the last couple of days. Does it take days to publish them or have you perhaps censored them?
Thanks for any reaction, Raja Gopala dasa
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Krishna.org is for questions that you want answered by me. So if you have any questions you want answered feel free to ask them and I will attempt to answer. If you want to preach yourself then I suggest you do it on http://www.KrishnaConnect.com I have made that site for that purpose. Krishna.org is for people to ask questions which I answer.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa