Text 37] Answers by Citing the Lord's Version 333

deviated from the fixed conclusion the Lord taught him. The Lord was
the teacher of the nucleus four verses of Srimad-Bhdgavatam, and Brahma
was the receiver of the knowledge. Misinterpretation of the word aham
by the word jugglery of the impersonalist should not disturb the mind of
the strict followers of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the
text of the Personality of Godhead and His unalloyed devotees, who are
also known as the Bhdgavatas, and any outsider should have no access to
this confidential literature of devotional service. But unfortunately the
impersonalist, who has no relation with the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, sometime tries to interpret Srimad-Bhagavatam by his poor fund
of knowledge in grammar and dry speculation. Therefore, the Lord warns
Brahma (and, through Brahma, all future devotees of the Lord in the
disciplic succession of Brahma) that one should never be misled by the
conclusion of the so-called grammarians or by other men with a poor fund
of knowledge, but must always fix the mind properly, via the parampara
system. No one should try to give a new interpretation by dint of mundane
knowledge. And the first thing, therefore, in pursuance of the system of
knowledge received by Brahma is to approach a bona fide guru who is the
representative of the Lord following the parampard system. No one should
try to squeeze out his own meaning by imperfect mundane knowledge. The
guru, or the bona fide spiritual master, is competent to teach the disciple
in the right path with reference to the context of all authentic Vedic
literature. He does not attempt to juggle words to bewilder the student.
The bona fide spiritual master, by his personal activities, teaches the
disciple the principles of devotional service. Without personal service, like
the impersonalist and dry speculators, one would go on speculating life
after life and would be unable to reach the final conclusion. By following
the instructions of the bona fide spiritual master in conjunction with the
principles of revealed scriptures, the student will rise to the plane of com-
plete knowledge. which will be exhibited by development of detachment
from the world of sense gratification. The mundane wranglers are surprised
as to how one can detach himself from the world of sense gratification,
and thus any attempt to be fixed in God realization appears to them to be
mysticism. This detachment from the sensory world is called the brahma-
bhita stage of realization, the preliminary stage of transcendental devotion-
al life (para bhaktih). The brahma-bhita stage of life is also known as the
atmarama stage, in which one is fully self-satisfied and does not hanker for
the world of sense enjoyment. This stage of full satisfaction is the proper
situation for understanding the transcendental knowledge of the Person-
ality of Godhead. The Srimad-Bhagavatam affirms this:
