Rāja-vidvā:  The King of Knowledge
१९२८ - १९३२
this age of Kali, an age characterized by ignorance and chaos, liberation is out of the reach of practically everyone. One has to go through the whole ordeal of becoming civilized, then religious, and then one has to perform charities and sacrifices and come to the platform of knowledge, then to the stage of liberation, and finally, after liberation, to the understanding of what Kṛṣṇa is. This process is also indicated in  Bhagavad-gītā :
brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā  
 na śocati na kāṅkṣati  
 samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu  
 mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
“One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments or desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.” (Bg. 18.54)
These are the signs of liberation. The first symptom of one who is liberated is that he is very happy. It is not possible to find him morose. Nor does he have any anxiety. He never frets, “This thing I don’t have. Oh, I must secure this thing. Oh, this bill I have to pay. I have to go here, there.” One who is liberated has no anxieties at all. He may be the poorest man in the world, but he neither laments nor thinks that he is poor. Why should he think that he is poor? When we think that we are these material bodies and that we have possessions to go with them, then we think that we are poor or rich, but one who is liberated from the material conception of life has nothing to