Service to the Lord 97

attaining devotional service to the Lord, they are unable to award the desired
results. Therefore, in Srimad Bhagwatam, Sukadeva Goswami offered his
respectful obeisances to the Supreme Lord, Who is the only One Who can
award such success.

It is accepted by all classes of philosophers and transcendentalists that no
one who lacks knowledge can be liberated from the material entanglement.
Still, knowledge without being mixed with devotional service holds no pos-
sibility of awarding liberation. In other words, when Jnana, or the cultivation
of knowledge, opens the path of devotional service, then alone can it give
one liberation, and not otherwise.

In the Srimad Bhagwatam this is also stated by Brahma: “My dear Lord,
devotional service unto You is the best path for self-realization. If somebody
gives up that path and becomes engaged in the cultivation of knowledge, or
in speculation, he will undergo a troublesome process, without achieving
any desired results. Just as a person who beats the empty husk of the wheat
cannot get the grain, so those who are engaged simply in speculative knowledge
cannot achieve the desired result of self-realization. Their only gain is trouble.”

The Bhagavad Gita says, in the Seventh Chapter, 14th verse, that this
material Nature is very strong, and not surmountable by an ordinary living
entity. Only those who surrender unto the Lotus Feet of Krishna can cross
over the ocean of material existence. The self-forgetfulness of the living entity
—forgetting that he is eternally the servitor of Krishna—is the cause of his
bondage in conditional life, and the cause of his being attracted by the material
energy. That attraction is the shackle of material energy. It is very difficult
for a person to become free as long as he desires to lord it over the material
Nature. It is recommended, therefore, that one should approach a Spiritual
Master who can train him in devotional service, and thus he can get out of the
clutches of material Nature, and achieve the Lotus Feet of Krishna.

There are divisions of human society, like the Brahmins, or intellectuals; the
Kshatriyas, administrators; the Vaishyas, businessmen; and the Sudras, or labor-
ers; and there is the Brahmachary, or student, the Grihastha or householder, the
Vanaprasthas, retired; and the Sannyasis, renounced life. And, in every case,
if the individuals lack engagement in devotional service, Krishna Conscious-
ness, even though engaged in their prescribed duty, they cannot get release
because of their material consciousness. On the contrary, even by discharging
their prescribed duties, they glide down to hell. Therefore, all persons engaged
in their prescribed occupational duties must cultivate Krishna Consciousness
in devotional service, if they want liberation from the material clutches.
