522
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 9]
quiries, but the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  gives answers to all of the various students of self-realization: this ultimate objective of life is not to be searched out without any great labor or perseverance. One who is imbued with such sincere inquiries must ask the bona fide spiritual master in the discipline succession from Brahmājī, and that is the direction given here. Because the mystery was disclosed before Brahmājī by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the mystery of all such inquiries regarding self-realization must be put before such a spiritual master who is directly the representative of the Lord, acknowledged in that discipline succession. Such a bona fide spiritual master is able to clear up the whole thing by evidences from the revealed scriptures, both directly and indirectly. Although everyone is free to consult the revealed scriptures in this connection, still one requires the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, and that is the direction in this verse. The bona fide spiritual master is the most confidential representative of the Lord, and one must receive direction from the spiritual master in the same spirit as Brahmājī received them from the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa. The bona fide spiritual master in that bona fide chain of discipline succession never claims to be the Lord Himself, although such a spiritual master is greater than the Lord in the sense that he can deliver the Lord by his personally realized experience. The Lord is not to be found simply by education or by a good fertile brain, but surely He can be found by the sincere student through the transparent medium of the bona fide spiritual master.
The revealed scriptures give direction directly to this end, but because the bewildered living entities are blinded by the glaring reflection in the darkness, they are unable to find out the truth of the revealed scriptures. For example, in the  Bhagavad-gītā  the whole direction is targetted toward the Personality of Godhead Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but for want of a bona fide spiritual master in the line of Brahmājī or the direct hearer, Arjuna, there are different distortions of the revealed knowledge by many unauthorized persons who just want to satisfy their own whims. Undoubtedly the  Bhagavad-gītā  is accepted as one of the most brilliant stars in the horizon of the spiritual sky, yet the interpretations of the great book of knowledge have so grossly been distorted that every student of the  Bhagavad-gītā  is still in the same darkness of glaring material reflection, and such students are hardly enlightened by the  Bhagavad-gītā . In the  Gītā  practically the same instruction is imparted as in the four prime verses of the  Bhāgavatam , but due to wrong and fashionable interpretations by unauthorized persons, one cannot reach the ultimate conclusion. In the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 18.61) it is clearly said,