Prabhupāda: So Kṛṣṇa personally giving the most confidential knowledge. And here it is also mentioned that the saintly persons, the mahātmā, they simply spoke what was spoken by Kṛṣṇa Himself directly. That's all. Here it is stated, anvavocan gamiṣyantaḥ, guhyatamam yat tat sākṣād bhagavato . . . this is very important statement. Jñānaṁ guhyatamam, the most confidential part of knowledge, is that which is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly. Anyone who is interested in spiritual knowledge, they will benefit simply by accepting what Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā. This is jñānam. That is also stated by Kṛṣṇa. Etaj jñānam. Etad anyathā yad ajñānam. Anything beyond this knowledge, what is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, that is ajñāna, ignorance. That is not jñāna.
Unfortunately, it has become a fashion now to interpret Bhagavad-gītā in their own foolish way and mislead the public. This I have repeatedly spoken in many places, that in the Western countries so many svāmīs and yogīs, they went there. For the last, at least, one hundred years. One hundred years, from India many svāmīs and yogīs had been . . . still they are going. But they could not turn even a single person to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Not a single person. Throughout the whole history of these hundred years of svāmīs going to the Western country, but could not turn even a single soul to understand Kṛṣṇa. This is a fact. It is not that I am very proud. No. The truth must be spoken. Why they could not do so? The defect was that they did not say what Kṛṣṇa said directly. They said their own words. They manufactured their own philosophy.
Here the, I mean to . . . saintly persons, the mahātmās, gamiṣyantaḥ, when they were going, they confidentially said what was spoken by Kṛṣṇa directly. This is the secret of success. Try to understand. Anvavocan gamiṣyantaḥ kṛpayā dīna-vatsalāḥ. Guru, or mahātmā, they are very merciful. Merciful in this way—that they know how a person can be elevated to the topmost platform of knowledge, and they can give it. And this is not very difficult. It is said here that yat tat sākṣād bhagavatoditam. This is mercifulness.
A guru's business is to deliver the same message as Kṛṣṇa says. Then he's dīna-vatsala. Otherwise, if he says something else, he's a cheater; he's not guru. He must be, to the suffering humanity, being kind upon them, dīna-vatsala. Dīna means very poor, poor in knowledge. At the present moment, the—not only at the present moment; always—those who are in the material world, they are very, very poor. Very, very poor. Gṛhiṇāṁ dīna-cetasām. Because their mind is very crippled. They are thinking that this duration of life—say, fifty years or twenty years or utmost seventy or a hundred years—this is everything. That's all. Therefore they are very poor. Their expansion of knowledge is very, very meager. And it is the business of the saintly person to be kind upon them that, "This is not the life. You are thinking, making adjustment to live for fifty years or hundred years very comfortably, or even next life . . ." Karmīs, they also take consideration of the next life, to be promoted in the heavenly planet or other higher planetary system. But still, they are poor. Poor. Because they are lacking in the knowledge of eternal life, full of knowledge and blissfulness. That they do not know. Sac-cid-ānanda life.
So it is the business of the mahātmā to enlighten them to the real platform of life. Kṛṣṇa says personally:
- mām upetya punar janma
- duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
- nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
- saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
- (BG 8.15)
This is real life, to go back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Mām upetya. If you go back to home, back to Godhead, that is saṁsiddhiṁ paramām. That is the highest perfection of life. But generally . . . generally, almost . . . why generally? Almost everyone. Ninety-nine point nine percent people, they want to become happy within this material world. Therefore they are poor, very, very poor. And the mahātmās, they give the knowledge that "This is not life. This is a temporary platform." Aśāśvatam. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This is confidential knowledge. You are trying to be happy . . . suppose Brahmā. He lives for many millions of years. Still, it is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. That life is also temporary. What is millions of years' duration of life in comparison to the eternal life? So beginning from Brahmā down to the small ant, whoever is within this material world, it is to be understood their understanding is very poor. And the mahātmā, being kind upon these poor souls, they deliver the same knowledge as Kṛṣṇa gives. Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam . . . (BG 18.66). This is guru's business. Do not manufacture anything. There is no question of . . . there is no need of manufacturing anything. Simply you speak to the suffering humanity the same thing which Kṛṣṇa says. Sākṣād bhagavatā uditam. This is the business of guru. It is clearly said.
Nārada, he'll explain further in the next verses, how he became advanced. This verse is very important, that jñānaṁ guhyatamaṁ yat tat. Actually, perfect knowledge you can get from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and in paramparā system you get that knowledge. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2). Paramparā means they do not change the word of Kṛṣṇa. That is paramparā. Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), and the paramparā system says the same thing. No change. They never say that, "I have now become Kṛṣṇa, and you surrender unto me, think of me." There are many so-called incarnations who are preaching like that, "You think of me." Same, repeating the same word in his own favor, not in Kṛṣṇa's favor. That is not mahātmā; that is durātmā. Mahātmā means who always speaks in Kṛṣṇa's favor. That is mahātmā. This is the purport of this verse. Jñānaṁ guhyatamaṁ yat tat sākṣād bhagava . . . Bhagavān says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.