86
The Nectar of Instruction
people who are wasting their time simply gratifying their senses, one may come to the platform of knowledge and understand higher values of life. Such a person is called a  jñānī . The  jñānī  knows that fruitive activities will bind him to material existence and cause him to transmigrate from one kind of body to another. As indicated in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  by the term  śarīra-bandha  (bound to bodily existence), as long as one maintains any conception of sense enjoyment, his mind will be absorbed in  karma , fruitive activity, and this will oblige him to transmigrate from one body to another.
Thus a  jñānī  is considered superior to a  karmī  because he at least refrains from the blind activities of sense enjoyment. This is the verdict of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. However, although a  jñānī  may be liberated from the ignorance of the  karmīs , unless he comes to the platform of devotional service he is still considered to be in ignorance ( avidyā ). Although one may be accepted as a  jñānī , or one advanced in knowledge, his knowledge is considered impure because he has no information of devotional service and thus neglects the direct worship of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
When a  jñānī  takes to devotional service, he rapidly becomes superior to an ordinary  jñānī . Such an advanced person is described as  jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-parama . How a  jñānī  takes to devotional service is mentioned in  Bhagavad-gītā  (7.19), wherein Kṛṣṇa says:
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate