Raja-vidya: The King of Knowledge 11
this age of Kali, an age characterized by ignorance and
chaos, liberation is out of the reach of practically
everyone. One has to go through the whole ordeal of
becoming civilized, then religious, and then one has
lo perform charities and sacrifices and come to the
platform of knowledge, then to the stage of libera-
tion, and finally, after liberation, to the under-
standing of what Krsna is. This process is also
indicated in Bhagavad-gita:

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na Socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param
“One who is thus transcendentally situated at once
realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments or
desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to
every living entity. In that state he attains pure devo-
tional service unto Me.” (Bg. 18.54)

These are the signs of liberation. The first symptom
of one who is liberated is that he is very happy. It is
not possible to find him morose. Nor does he have
any anxiety. He never frets, ““This thing I don’t have.
Oh, I must secure this thing. Oh, this bill I have to
pay. I have to go here, there.” One who is liberated
has no anxieties at all. He may be the poorest man in
the world, but he neither laments nor thinks that he
is poor. Why should he think that he is poor? When
we think that we are these material bodies and that
we have possessions to go with them, then we think
that we are poor or rich, but one who is liberated
from the material conception of life has nothing to
