The disciplic succession must be accepted. Now, just like we are trying to understand from Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, Arjuna is trying to understand. Arjuna also said to Kṛṣṇa, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam (BG 2.7); "Just I am surrendering unto You. Oh, accept me as Your disciple, śiṣya." Śiṣya means disciple. Śiṣya. Śiṣya, this is a grammatical word. Śās-dhātu. Śās-dhātu, it is a verb from which this word śiṣya comes. Śiṣya means one who accepts voluntarily the disciplinary measures from the higher authority. He is called a śiṣya.
So in order to acquire, in order to be situated in that higher nature, we have to approach a personality like Kṛṣṇa or His representative, and so the best thing is that . . . Arjuna. Arjuna, he got this instruction from Bhagavad-gītā, and he developed that higher nature. So we have to take from Arjuna as it is. So we have to keep ourself always in the higher nature. Then the result will be that at the time of death, at the end, tyaktvā deham.
Tyaktvā deham, that we have counting where, that day when we have to give up this body. Now, just like I am now seventy years old, so . . . I am now seventy years old. So my days are counted. So I have to give up this body. The warning is already there. So we have to prepare ourself. Just like when going some out of station, from New York to California, if you wanted to go, you have to make your preparation, say, fortnight before, reserving the seat and making all arrangement. Similarly, we must know that we have to leave this body, and we must prepare for that. Unless we don't prepare for that, all of a sudden, if death comes, then our whole life is spoiled. That is the whole system.
So we have to think of Kṛṣṇa. This is the very easiest process, that how . . . what are the activities, how Kṛṣṇa appears, how Kṛṣṇa disappears, what are the nature of Kṛṣṇa's activities. So we must try to understand these things. So janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9).
This inquisitiveness, the appearance and disappearance of Kṛṣṇa, and His activities, this inquisitiveness is transcendental enquiries. So we must know it from persons who are in the knowledge. And that way we shall be able to put ourself constantly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and the result will be that tyaktvā deham, by quitting this body, we shall be at once transferred to the transcendental world. This is the process. Now, in the next śloka Kṛṣṇa says that vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā.