114 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 2
sun, the darkness cannot stand, and the relative truths that were hidden
within the dense darkness of ignorance become clearly manifested by the
mercy of Krsna, who is residing in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul.

In the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 10.11) the Lord says that in order to show
special favor to His pure devotees, He personally eradicates the dense
darkness of all misgivings by switching on the light of pure knowledge
within the heart of a devotee. Therefore, because of the Personality of
Godhead’s taking charge of illuminating the heart of His devotee, certainly
a devotee, engaged in His service in transcendental love, cannot remain in
darkness. He comes to know everything of the absolute and the relative
truths. The devotee cannot remain in darkness, and because a devotee is
enlightened by the Personality of Godhead, his knowledge is certainly
perfect. This is not the case for those who speculate on the Absolute
Truth by dint of their own limited power of approach. Such knowledge
is called parampard, or deductive knowledge coming down from the
authority to the submissive aural receiver bona fide by service and surren-
der. One cannot challenge the authority of the Supreme and know Him
also at the same time. He reserves the right of not being exposed to such a
challenging spirit of an insignificant spark of the whole subjected to the
control of illusory energy. The devotees are submissive, and therefore the
transcendental knowledge descends from the Personality of Godhead to
Brahma and from Brahma to his sons and disciples in succession. This
process is helped by the Supersoul within such devotees. That is the per-
fect way of learning transcendental knowledge.

This enlightenment perfectly enables the devotee to distinguish spirit
from matter because the knot of spirit and matter is untied by the Lord.
This knot is called ahankara, and it falsely obliges a living being to become
identified with matter. As soon as this knot is loosened, therefore, all the
clouds of doubt are at once cleared off. He sees his master and fully
engages himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, making a
full termination of the chain of fruitive action. In material existence, a
living being creates his own chain of fruitive work and enjoys the good and
bad effects of those actions life after life. But as soon as he engages himself
in the loving service of the Lord, he at once becomes free from the chain
of karma. All his actions no longer create any reaction.

TEXT 22
oat wae fred ala THAT BET |
TSAI WAT FIIRATATTAT UR
