Mantra 7

RTW- The Highest use of intelligence

Once one is fixed in transcendental realization, all distress, lamentation, illusion, fear, and so on, are immediately eradicated. The soul is assailed by these miseries as long as he harbors the delusion that something exists outside of Kåñëa. Therefore when one is situated in transcendence, one feels happiness even in this world. The mundane conception of life is a product of the three modes of material nature, which affect the mind and senses. But when one's vision is transformed through buddhi-yoga, one sees everything as having a direct link with Kåñëa. The material elements, such as fire, water, ether, and mind, along with the directions, the soul, and time—everything material and spiritual, personal and impersonal—all reflect Kåñëa, the Supreme Being. When one reaches this state of realization, the dualities and illusion of sin and piety, happiness and distress, are dissolved by the ecstatic harmony of transcendence. In one Upaniñad there is a statement that once a person experiences the happiness derived from Brahman realization, he no longer has anything to fear. A verse from the Éçopaniñad (Éço. 7) conveys a similar mood:

yasmin sarväëi bhütäny

ätmaiväbhüd vijänataù

tatra ko mohaù kaù çoka

ekatvam anupaçyataù

One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for Him?

Self-realization leads to the understanding that everything is situated in the Supreme Lord. At that time there is no more illusion or lamentation, and everything is wonderfully harmonized. One sees the whole material universe as a manifestation of unity in diversity. On this platform everything is full of happiness, knowledge, and eternity. This is the platform of Brahman realization.

Mantra 11

Regarding the next verse, in which it is mentioned that jïäna-yajïena... yajanto mäm, the object of worship is Kåñëa, as indicated by mäm ["Me"]. The process is described in the Éçopaniñad, mantra 11:

Vidyäà cävidyäà ca yas

tad vedobhayaà saha

avidyayä måtyuà tértvä

Vidyayämåtam açnute

"Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality."

The culture of vidyä, or transcendental knowledge, is essential for the human being, otherwise the culture of avidyä, or nescience, binds him to conditional existence on the material platform.

Materialistic existence means the pursuit or culture of sense gratification, and this kind of knowledge of sense gratification (avidyä) means advancement of repeated birth and death. Those who are absorbed in such knowledge cannot learn any lesson from the laws of nature, and they do the same things over repeatedly, being enamored of the beauty of illusory things. Vidyä, or factual knowledge, on the other hand, means to know thoroughly the process of nescient activities while at the same time culturing transcendental science and thereby undeviatingly following the path of liberation.

Liberation is the enjoyment of the full blessings of immortality. This immortality is enjoyed in the eternal kingdom of God (sambhüty-amåtam açnute), the region of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and is the result obtained by worshiping the Supreme Lord, the cause of all causes, sambhavät. So in this way real knowledge, vidyä, means to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa; that is jïäna-yajïena, the worship of knowledge.

This jïäna-yajïena... yajanto mäm is the perfection of knowledge, as stated in the Bhagavad-gétä (7.19):

bahünäà janmanäm ante

jïänavän mäà prapadyate