Faith in Guru and Surrender to Krsna 79
of miseries. As a blazing fire burns firewood to
ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn
to ashes all the reactions to material activities.”
(Bg. 4.35-37)

The fire of knowledge is ignited by the spiritual
master, and when it is ablaze, all the reactions to our
works are turned to ashes. The reactions to our work,
or our karma, are the cause for our bondage. There
are good works and bad works, and in this verse the
word sarva-karmani indicates both. For one who
wants to be liberated from this material bondage,
the reactions of both good works and bad works are
detrimental. In this material world we are attached
to performing good works if we are situated in the
modes of goodness. If we are in the modes of passion
and ignorance, however, we do bad work in passion
and ignorance. But for those who are going to be
Krsna conscious, there is no need of good work or
bad work. By good work we may get a good birth in
an aristocratic or wealthy family, and by bad work
we may take birth even in the animal kingdom or in
degraded human families, but in any case birth means
bondage, and one who is striving for Krsna conscious-
ness is striving for liberation from the bondage of
transmigration. What is the advantage of being born
in a wealthy or aristocratic family if one does not get
rid of his material miseries? Whether we enjoy the
reactions of good work or suffer the reactions of
bad, we have to take on the material body and
thereby undergo the material miseries.

By engaging in the transcendental service of Krsna,
we actually get out of the cycle of birth and death.
But because the fire of knowledge is not burning in
