Text 37] Prayers by the Demigods 189

Lord’s activities, either through authority or through history. The
Puranas are old, authentic histories, but nondevotees cannot understand
them, especially Srimad-Bhdgavatam, which is the essence of Vedic
knowledge. Nondevotees cannot understand even the preliminary study
of transcendental knowledge, Bhagavad-gita. They simply speculate and
present commentaries with absurd distortions. In conclusion, unless one
elevates himself to the transcendental platform by practicing bhakti-
yoga, one cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His
name, form, attributes or activities. But if by chance, by the association
of devotees, one can actually understand the Lord and His features, one
immediately becomes a liberated person. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-
gita (4.9):

Janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna

“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and ac-
tivities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this ma-
terial world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.”

Srila Ripa Gosvami has therefore said that by affection and love for
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, devotees can express their mind to
Him with their words. Others, however, cannot do this, as confirmed in
Bhagavad-gita (bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas cdsmi tattvatah).

TEXT 37

TAT WY Aaa Aaa
AMT TM I ARaT T |
Uae A WAM BeWd |30I1

Srnvan grnan samsmarayams ca cintayan
ndmani ripdni ca marngalani te
