SRI BRAHMA-SAMHITA

Verse 58

prabuddhe jnana-bhaktibhyam atmany ananda-chinmayi
udety anuttama bhaktir bhagavat-prema-laksana [58]

Translation: When transcendental experience awakens by means of knowledge and devotion, the highest devotion symptomized by love for the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna, the beloved of the soul, awakens in the devotee’s heart.

Purport: The meaning of actual ‘knowledge’, or jnana, is sambandha-jnana—perspective of the correlation of the transcendental, the material, and Krishna. Here, psychic, mental or intellectual knowledge or impersonal Brahman liberation is not indicated because such knowledge is opposed to devotion. Sambandha-jnana, or knowledge of the soul’s relativity in the Absolute, constitutes the teachings of the first seven of the ten fundamental divine principles known as Dasa-mula.

According to the scriptures that expound pure devotion, the principle of abhidheya, or means to the end, is the cultivation of divine service for Krishna’s transcendental pleasure by the practices of hearing, chanting, remembering, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, worshipping, praying, servitude, friendship and self-surrender. This is elaborately described in the holy book Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhuh.

By such knowledge and devotion, devotion in love divine is awakened and blooms in the heart of the devotee. This is the ultimate in devotion, and the objective of all spiritual endeavour for the jiva (prayojana).

• For Reader's Appreciation
• Feelings of Appreciation
• Prologue
• Translator's Note
• Illumination
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• Verse 58
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• Verse Contents

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