Text 37]
Prayers by the Demigods
189
Lord's activities, either through authority or through history. The  Purāṇas  are old, authentic histories, but nondevotees cannot understand them, especially  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , which is the essence of Vedic knowledge. Nondevotees cannot understand even the preliminary study of transcendental knowledge,  Bhagavad-gītā . They simply speculate and present commentaries with absurd distortions. In conclusion, unless one elevates himself to the transcendental platform by practicing  bhakti-yoga , one cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His name, form, attributes or activities. But if by chance, by the association of devotees, one can actually understand the Lord and His features, one immediately becomes a liberated person. As the Lord says in  Bhagavad-gītā  (4.9):
janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so 'rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.”
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has therefore said that by affection and love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, devotees can express their mind to Him with their words. Others, however, cannot do this, as confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā  ( bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ ).
TEXT 37
भृष्वन् गृणन् संस्मरयंश्च चिन्तयन् नामानि रूपाणि च मङ्गलानि ते । क्रियासु यस्त्वच्चरणारविन्दयो- राविष्टचेता न भवाय कल्पते ॥३७॥
śṛṇvan gṛṇan saṁsmarayaṁś ca cintayan nāmāni rūpāṇi ca maṅgalāni te