Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). As soon as you become a pure devotee of the Lord, all the good qualities of the demigods, surāḥ . . . there are two classes of men: sura and asura. Sura means devotees, and asura means nondevotees. So good qualities can be found in the suras. Ahiṁsā amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam (BG 13.8). There are many instances that the devotees are all qualified.
Just like Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was only five-years-old boy, and his father was always chastising him, because his only fault was he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So the world is so made, full of demons, that simply for your fault of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra you'll have so many enemies, even your father. This is the position. Simply for this fault, that because we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, we have got so many enemies. This is the world. Sura and asura. Because the more asuras . . . they'll never tolerate. The glorifying the Lord, they cannot tolerate. It is very difficult for them. So there are two classes of men, suras and asuras. Sura means viṣṇu-bhakto bhaved daivaḥ. Sura means devatā, or the demigods, and asura means—viṣṇu-bhakto bhaved daiva asuras tad-viparyayaḥ—and asuras means just the opposite number of viṣṇu-bhakta. They are asuras.
So if you develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if you develop love for Kṛṣṇa, then automatically the qualities of the suras, or the demigods, will develop. You haven't got to endeavor separately for becoming qualified in good qualities. Automatically. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ, harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ (SB 5.18.12). But if one is nondevotee, he cannot have any good quality. Why? Now, mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. Because he is on the mental platform. Devotee means one who is acting on the spiritual platform, and nondevotee means those who are acting on the material platform, either bodily platform or mental platform. These are material platform.
Bodily platform, they are called karmīs. They are working for their personal benefit. Generally, everyone in the Bombay city, they are working very hard, but what is the aim? For their personal profit. That is called karmī. Either in this life . . . even those who are performing yajñas for being elevated to the heavenly planet, that is also karma, karma-kāṇḍīya. They are also karmīs. Either for becoming happy in this life or becoming happy . . . happy nobody can become; it is illusion. But by sense gratification we think that we are happy. That is the karmī life, on the bodily platform. And the mental platform is little subtle—the philosophers, the poets, the scientists, like that.
So both the bodily platform and mental platform, they are material. Because the body is also matter and mind is also matter. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, apareyam, prakṛtir me bhinnā aṣṭadhā (BG 7.4). This body is made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, sky; and mind is there, subtle body, mind, intelligence and egotism. So both platform are material platform. Therefore it is said, harāv abhaktasya. Those who are devotees of the Lord, they are not acting on the mental or the gross material platform. They are not working on that platform. They are working on the spiritual platform.
So good qualities can be attained automatically when you work on spiritual platform. But if you work on material platform, means the gross body and the mind, then good qualities cannot be attained. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā mano-rathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). Therefore we find that educated persons, so-called educated . . . they are not educated, because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said the so-called educated persons are bereft of real knowledge, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). Apahṛta-jñānāḥ. Why? Āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ. Because they have taken the position of becoming an atheist, no faith in God. They are asura. So any asura, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ . . . he may be M.A., Ph.D., from academic career, but his real knowledge is taken away. Therefore he is atheist. Actual knowledge is to know God. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is explaining what is knowledge, jñeyam. Because as soon as you become actually wise, then you become liberated. But if you are not liberated, that means your knowledge is imperfect. Your knowledge is imperfect.
So Kṛṣṇa says jñeyam. Jñeyam means mat-paraṁ brahma. In a previous verse it has been explained, anādi mat-paraṁ brahma (BG 13.13). Brahman means bṛhatya bṛhanatyād iti brahma.(?) Nothing is great than Brahman. That is being explained, how Brahman, what is the meaning of Brahman. Brahman means sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat: "Brahman has got His hands and legs everywhere." Just like I have got my hands and legs, this is limited. I have got my hands. Why I cannot stretch five feet, only three feet? That is also with great difficulty. But the Brahman's hand, sarvataḥ, sarvataḥ, everywhere.