God is great, and His devotee who expands up to the point of God, he is also called great. His ātmā is also great. Mahātmā. But He says, sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. That sort of mahātmā, or great soul, is very rare to be seen. Su-durlabhaḥ. Su-durlabhaḥ. Su means very, and durlabhaḥ means rare. Very rare.
So this is the definition we get from Bhagavad-gītā, that we are expanding our feelings of love, different types of love—love of the country, love of the nation, love of the society, love of the community, love of the family, or love of the cats and dogs and so on. Love is there. Love is there, but we are expanding it according to our expansion of perfect knowledge.
That perfect knowledge comes to exist when we come to the point of loving Kṛṣṇa. That is perfection. Sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ. But it is very difficult to find out such person who has developed love of Kṛṣṇa. But that is the aim of life. That is the aim of all activities.
Similarly, in the Bhāgavata, there is another verse. It is said that:
- dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
- viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
- notpādayed ratiṁ yadi
- śrama eva hi kevalam
- (SB 1.2.8)
It is said that you are doing your duty according to your position. Everyone is doing. Svanuṣṭhitaḥ dharmaḥ. Dharma means occupational duty. Everyone has got duty. A student has a duty, or a householder has got some duty, a sannyāsī has got some duty, a brahmacārī has got duty. So there are different types of duties according to different occupation or profession.
But Bhāgavata says that you can perform your duties very nicely, very accurately, but if by performing your duties you do not come to the understanding of Kṛṣṇa, or God, then whatever you have done very nicely, śrama eva hi kevalam: it is simply laboring. Simply laboring.
But if you want to perfection, come to the point of perfection, then that is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, as I said, that bahūnāṁ janmanām, after discharging duties very nicely, very accurately, very faithfully, if one comes to the point that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, then you should understand that your feelings of love or international feeling or national feeling has actually expanded. That is it. That is real national feeling.