Text 36]
Answers by Citing the Lord's Version
531
philosopher, nor the great occultist, nor anyone else can achieve the desired result without being engaged in the service of the Lord.
5. Even if a place is more glorious than heaven, if there is no glorification of the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha nor His pure devotee, it should be at once quitted.
6. The pure devotee refuses to accept all the five different types of liberation in order to be engaged in the service of the Lord.
The final conclusion, therefore, is that the glories of the Lord must be always and everywhere proclaimed, one should hear about His glories, one should chant about His glories, and one should always remember His glories because that is the highest perfectional stage of life. As far as fruitive work is concerned, it is limited to an enjoyable body; as far as  yoga  is concerned, it is limited to the acquirement of mystic power; as far as empiric philosophy is concerned, it is limited to the attainment of transcendental knowledge; and as far as transcendental knowledge is concerned, it is limited to attainment of salvation. Even if they are adopted, there is every chance of discrepancies in discharging the particular type of functions. But adoptation of the transcendental devotional service of the Lord has no limit, nor is there fear of falling down. The process reaches automatically to the final stage by the grace of the Lord. In the preliminary stage of devotional service there is an apparent requisition of knowledge, but in the higher stage there is no necessity of such knowledge. The best and guaranteed path of progress is therefore engagement in  bhakti-yoga , pure devotional service.
The cream of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  in the foregoing four  ślokas  is sometimes squeezed out by the impersonalist for different interpretations in their favor, but it should be carefully noted that the four  ślokas  were first described by the Personality of Godhead Himself, and thus the impersonalist has no scope to enter into them because he has no conception of the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, the impersonalist may squeeze out any interpretations from them, but such interpretations will never be accepted by those who are taught in the discipline succession from Brahmā, as will be cleared up in the following verses. Besides that, the  Śruti  confirms that the Supreme Truth Absolute Personality of Godhead never reveals Himself to anyone who is falsely proud of his academic knowledge. The  Śruti mantra  clearly says:
nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahudhā śrutena yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanum svām