Teachings to Rupa Goswami 25

many such persons who are engaged in good righteous activities for sense
gratification some of them come to know about the Absolute Truth, and they
are called Jnanins, meaning persons who are seeking after the Absolute Truth,
or philosophers—empiric philosophers. Out of many hundreds and thousands
of such empiric philosophers some actually become liberated. This liberation
means that theoretically one can understand that a living entity is not made of
any of the material elements; that he is spirit soul, different from matter.
Simply by understanding this doctrine, even theoretically, one may be called
mukta, or liberated; but actually a mukta, or liberated soul, is he who under-
stands his constitutional position as part and parcel eternal servitor of the
Lord. Such liberated souls, if they are engaged with faith and devotion in the
service of the Lord, are called Krishna-bhaktas, or Krishna conscious persons.

These Krishna conscious persons are free from all material desires. Those
who are liberated theoretically simply know that the living entity is not made
of any material element. Although they may be classified amongst the liberated
souls, they have desire. They have the desire to become one with the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. Such persons are very much attached to the ritual
performance of the Vedic injunctions, and to righteous activities, in order to
enjoy material welfare. And even when some of them are out of material
enjoyment, they want enjoyment in the spiritual world, to merge into the
existence of the Supreme Lord. And some of them are also desirous of getting
the perfection of mystic powers, known as the Yoga principles. So long as
all these desires are within the heart of a person, he cannot understand the
nature of pure devotional service, and on account of being agitated by such
desires, he is not peaceful. So long as there is any desire for material perfection,
he cannot be at peace. The devotees of Lord Krishna are not desirous of material
achievement, and as such they are the only peaceful persons within this material
world. This is confirmed in the Srimad Bhagwatam, Sixth Canto, Fourteenth
Chapter, 4th verse: It is said there as follows: “O great sage, out of many
millions of liberated persons, and persons who have achieved success in mystic
Yoga powers, one who is completely devoted to the Supreme Personality of
Godhead and is therefore very peaceful is very rarely to be found.”

The Lord continued to explain that in this way many thousands and
millions of living entities are wandering within this material world, and some
of them, by the grace of Lord Krishna and the Spiritual Master, can get the
seed of devotional service. The pious or religious man is generally inclined to
worship the deities in various temples and if by chance he offers obeisances
and worshipful respects to Lord Vishnu, even without his knowledge, and he
