212
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 4]
surrender unto Him only. The pure devotee, however, by following the ways of previous  ācāryas  or authorities, can see the Supreme Lord through the transparent medium of a bona fide spiritual master ( anupaśyanti ). The pure devotee never tries to see the Lord by mental speculation, but by following the footsteps of the  ācāryas  ( mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthā ). Therefore there is no difference of conclusions amongst the Vaiṣṇava  ācāryas  regarding the Lord and the devotees. Lord Caitanya asserts that the living entity ( jīva ) is eternally the servitor of the Lord and that he is simultaneously one and different from the Lord. This  tattva  of Lord Caitanya is shared by all the four  sampradāyas  of the Vaiṣṇava school (all accepting eternal servitude of the Lord even after salvation), and there is no authorized Vaiṣṇava  ācārya  who may think of the Lord and himself as one.
This humbleness of the pure devotee who is one hundred percent engaged in His service puts the devotee of the Lord in a trance to realize everything, because to the sincere devotee of the Lord, the Lord reveals Himself, as it is stated in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 10.10). The Lord, being the Lord of intelligence in everyone (even in the nondevotee), favors His devotee with proper intelligence so that automatically the pure devotee is enlightened with the factual truth about the Lord and His different energies. The Lord is revealed not by one's speculative power or by one's verbal jugglery over the Absolute Truth. Rather, He reveals Himself to a devotee when He is fully satisfied by his service attitude. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is not a mental speculator or compromiser of the theory of "as many ways, as many conclusions," but He prays to the Lord only, invoking His transcendental pleasure. That is the way of knowing the Lord.
TEXT 22
प्रचोदिता येन पुरा सरस्वती
वितन्वताजस्य सतीं स्मृतिं हृदि ।
स्वलक्षणा प्रादुरभूत् किलास्यतः
स मे ऋषीणामृषभः प्रसीदताम् ॥२२॥
pracoditā yena purā sarasvatī
vitanvatājasya satīm smṛtim hṛdi
sva-lakṣaṇā prādurabhūt kilāsyataḥ
sa me ṛṣīṇām ṛṣabhaḥ prasīdatām