In our childhood we read one poetry that a boy has brought one bird, and the bird is talking with the boy. "My dear bird, you live with me. I shall give you very nice food. I shall talk with you," and so many things. But the bird says: "No, I want to go away. I want to go away." "No, I shall give you golden cage. You don't go away." So he says: "No, no. I don't like golden cage. I want freedom." So that was talk. So similarly, if a bird is kept in golden cage and if golden foodstuff is supplied to him, it is not happy. It is not possible.
Similarly, we are spirit soul. Any amount of material happiness will never make me happy. That is a fact. But due to our ill faith, we do not know what is happiness. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know what is the ultimate aim of life, what is the goal of life. They are trying to be happy with this matter, and the material happiness means sex life, and they are trying to squeeze the sex life in different ways. Yan maithunAdi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). That is not possible. That is not possible. Therefore this Bhagavad-gītā yoga system, which is very old . . . forty millions of years before, ago, it was spoken. And before that it was also spoken. That is not stated here. Because it is eternal. Avyaya, purātanaḥ, old.
So who is qualified to understand Bhagavad-gītā? You can understand. Those who are not bhaktas, they can also understand superficially. Just like one has got the bottle of honey. If one thinks that "I have got the bottle of honey. Let me lick up the bottle," so licking the bottle, what taste he will get?
The bottle has to be opened and see what is there. (laughter) And if a rascal thinks that "I am licking this bottle, I am eating honey, I am tasting honey," he's a rascal number one. Simply. So similarly, if one is not bhakta, if one is not Kṛṣṇa's devotee, that rascal cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. Plainly. Plainly it is stated here.
First of all, try to become the devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then try to understand what is Bhagavad-gītā—not by your scholarship or by your speculation. Then you'll never understand Bhagavad-gītā. If you have to understand Bhagavad-gītā, then you have to understand by the process as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, not by your own mental speculation. This is the process of understanding. Bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti (BG 4.3). Bhakta means . . . who is bhakta? Bhakta means one who has revived his eternal relationship with God. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam (CC Madhya 19.170).
Now in this body I am thinking, "I am American." But how long I am American? I am American so long this body is there. That's all. I am thinking, "I am Indian." I am thinking, "I am brahmin," "I am this or that," whatever I may think. How long? So long this body is there. And the next life? If you get a dog body, then you'll think "I am dog." If you get a cat's body, then you'll think "I am cat."
So bhakta means not that superficial relationship. My relationship with the society, family, country or humanity, they're all superficial because my body is superficial. The real relationship is with Kṛṣṇa. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). "All these living entities are My part and parcel," Kṛṣṇa claims. Sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ yāḥ (BG 14.4): "In each and every species of life, as many forms as there are, they're all My parts and parcels." Kṛṣṇa explaining like that.
So bhakta means when we revive our relationship how I am connected with Kṛṣṇa. Then he is bhakta. Then he is bhakta. That relationship is pervertedly reflected in this material world. That relationship. As somebody is related with Kṛṣṇa as master and servant, that is reflected here also. There is master and servant, but the both of them are cheating one another.
The master is trying to exploit the servant, and the servant is trying to exploit the master. They are also forming unions, how to exact money from the capitalist, and the capitalist trying to exact this labor from the laborers. So here, that master and servant is there, but both of them are cheaters and cheated. That's all.
So if we really want to be master and servant, the supreme master is Kṛṣṇa, and you engage yourself in His service, you'll never be cheated. You'll never be cheated. You want to love. You love Kṛṣṇa as your husband or lover, you'll never be cheated. You love children. You love Kṛṣṇa as your child—just like Yaśodāmāyi accepted Kṛṣṇa as his (her) child—you'll never be cheated.