Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante. Bahūnām means after many, many births of culturing knowledge, when he comes to the real knowledge, real, I mean to say, summit knowledge. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān. Not the fools, but jñānavān. He especially mentions jñānavān. Jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. Jñānavān, the sign is that jñānavān surrenders unto the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest stage of knowledge.
Either you take it, grant it . . . just like Arjuna was advised by Kṛṣṇa, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66):
"You give up. Because you are My very confidential friend, therefore I say unto you that you don't bother with anything else. Just surrender unto Me." This is the most confidential. So in all points of view, if you make an analytical study of the Vedic literature, the ultimate summit knowledge is to surrender unto Kṛṣṇa.
- bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
- jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
- vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
- sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
- (BG 7.19)
And what kind of surrender? The surrender means full knowledge. After scrutinizingly studying all the process of self-realization or transcendental realization, when one comes to the perfectional point, he understands that vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti: "Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is everything." As it is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā that:
- īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
- sac-cid-ānanda-vigraḥaḥ
- anādir ādir govindaḥ
- sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
- (Bs 5.1)
Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam means the cause of all causes. Just like my existence. I have got this body. The cause was my father. And the father, his father was cause. You go on searching, father, father's father, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather . . . go on searching, searching, searching. Don't think that because you cannot see just now your great-grandfather, oh, there was no father of the grandfather. Don't think like that. There was. Although he is . . . don't think that "Anything which is out of my sight, because I cannot see, so there is no existence." No. This conclusion is not good. This is not very intelligent conclusion. Because I cannot see what is happening beyond this wall, oh, that does not mean there is nothing beyond this wall.
So everyone wants to see God immediately. God you can see when you are perfectly qualified. When you are in perfect knowledge, you can see God eye to eye, just like you are seeing me, I am seeing you. But that requires qualification. You have to wait. That qualification is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That qualification means Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness begins with śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23).
Śravaṇam, hearing. We have to hear about Kṛṣṇa. Just like the Śrīmad-Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary study of understanding or hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Hearing about Kṛṣṇa.