10 Raja-vidya: The King of Knowledge

by and large, attached to pious philanthropic activi-
ties. They believe that religion means yajiia (sacri-
fice), dana (charity) and tapas (penance). One who
engages in lapasya undertakes voluntarily very rigid
regulations, such as brahmacari students (celibates)
or sannyasis (renounced order) undertake. Charity
means voluntarily giving away one’s material posses-
sions. In the present age there is no sacrifice, but
from historical literatures like the Mahabharata we
get information that kings performed sacrifices by
distributing rubies, gold and silver. Yajria was pri-
marily for kings, and charity, on a much smaller
scale, was meant for householders. Those who
actually believed in scriptures usually adopted some
of these principles. But generally in this age people
simply say that they belong to a religion but in
actuality do nothing. Out of millions of such people,
a very small number actually perform charity, sacri-
fice and penance. Caitanya Mahaprabhu further
points out that out of millions who perform such
religious principles all over the universe, only a few
attain perfect knowledge and understand what they
are .

Just knowing “I am not this body but am spirit
soul” is not sufficient. We have to escape this en-
tanglement of material nature. This is called mukti,
liberation. Out of many thousands of persons who
are in self-knowledge as to what and who they are,
only one or two may be actually liberated. And out
of many thousands who are liberated, only one or
two may understand what and who Krsna is. So
understanding Krsna is not such an easy job. Thus in
