804
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 15]
beings are responsible actors and enjoyers also. The sense of enjoyment in the Lord is real, but such sense in the living being is a sort of wishful desire only. This difference in consciousness is the distinction of the two identities, namely the Lord and the living being. Otherwise there is no difference between the Lord and the living being. The living being is therefore eternally one and different simultaneously. The whole instruction of the  Bhagavad-gītā  stands on this principle.
In the  Bhagavad-gītā  the Lord and the living beings are both described as  sanātana , or eternal, and the Lord's abode far beyond the material sky is also described as  sanātana . The living being is invited to live in the  sanātana  existence of the Lord, and the process which can help a living being to approach the Lord's abode, where the liberated activity of the soul is exhibited, is called  sanātana-dharma . One cannot, however, reach the eternal abode of the Lord without being free from the misconception of material identification, and the  Bhagavad-gītā  gives us the clue how to achieve this stage of perfection. The process of being liberated from the misconception of material identification is called, in different stages, fruitive activity, empiric philosophy and devotional service, up to transcendental realization. Such transcendental realization is made possible by dovetailing all the above items in relation with the Lord. Prescribed duties of the human being, as directed in the  Vedas , can gradually purify the sinful mind of the conditioned soul and raise him to the stage of knowledge. The purified stage of acquiring knowledge becomes the basis of devotional service of the Lord. As long as one is engaged in researching the solution of the problems of life, it is called  jñāna , or purified knowledge, but on realizing the actual solution of life, one becomes situated in the devotional service of the Lord. The  Bhagavad-gītā  begins with the problems of life by discriminating the soul from the elements of matter and proves by all reason and argument that the soul is indestructible in all circumstances and that the outer covering of matter, the body and the mind, change for another term of material existence which is full of miseries. The  Bhagavad-gītā  is therefore meant for terminating all different types of miseries, and Arjuna took shelter of this great knowledge which was imparted to him before, during the Kurukṣetra battle.
TEXT 28
सूत उवाच
एवं चिन्तयतो जिष्णोः कृष्णपादसरोरुहम् । सौहार्दनातिगाढेन शान्ताऽऽसीद्विमला मतिः॥२८॥