The Wise Surrender To Kṛṣṇa

The conclusion of all this search is stated in the nineteenth verse, "After many, many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." This is the final vision. Nirmama. Nothing is mine; everything is Krsna's. Because everything is Krsna's, I am also Krsna's. Therefore let me render loving service to Krsna. Such a universal vision of the ultimate relationship of everything to Krsna precipitates one's final surrender and ultimate union with Krsna. "But those whose minds are still distorted by material desires," we are told in the next verse, "sometimes surrender unto demigods in order to achieve some temporary material result." Krsna asserts that as the Supersoul within everyone's heart, He helps to fulfill such a desire for the living entity, but Krsna does not advise that. He calls these men of small intelligence. Why? Because they desire fruits that are limited and temporary. And then He says, "Those who worship the demigods go to the various planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet." Some commentators say that one can worship anything-be it Kali, Indra or Siva or any other demigod-and will ultimately reach Krsna or the Supreme, but that is here flatly denied. If this were so, Krsna would not have called them men of small intelligence with perverted desires. He says outright: "Those who worship the demigods go to the various planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet."

Devotional service should never be confused with ritualistic worship. In the Caitanya-Caritamrta it is said that one who worships the Supreme Lord and at the same time desires material enjoyment is contradictory in his desires. Devotional service of the Supreme Lord and the worship of a demigod cannot be on the same platform because worship of a demigod is material and devotional service to the Supreme Lord is completely spiritual. Also it is clearly stated here that worship of the demigods is temporary. The results are also temporary. That means that it is completely material, for only the material world is temporary, but when one chants Hare Krsna and worships Krsna, that is spiritual. One is factually seated on the transcendental plane in one's eternal position to the Supreme Lord Krsna. As such, he is in a position to enjoy sac-cid-ananda-eternity, knowledge, and bliss eternally. At the end of this material body such a person seated in Krsna consciousness at once attains to the highest abode of Lord Krsna, Goloka Vrndavana. That is here promised: "My devotee reaches My supreme planet."

In the twenty-fourth verse the category of unintelligent men is expanded from those who simply worship the demigods to those who cannot conceive of the Lord with a form and personality. "Unintelligent men who know Me not think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to their small knowledge they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme." By philosophical speculation one may come to know something of Krsna, but due to depending on limited knowledge, on the factory of the tiny brain, one cannot know Krsna's higher nature, which is changeless and supreme, nor can one understand Krsna as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha in His full form of eternity, knowledge and bliss. Nor can one understand how Krsna and His body are nondifferent nor how Krsna can appear age after age in His same original body. Therefore it is stated in the Brahma-samhita that the Supreme Lord cannot be understood simply by studying the Vedanta literature, but only by the mercy of the Supreme Lord or the devotee of the Supreme Lord can the Supreme Lord be understood. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that the supreme realization begins from the impersonal Brahman and then rises to the localized Supersoul, but the ultimate and last word of the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead, Krsna.