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Let me offer my respectful obeisances again and again unto the all-auspicious Lord Sri Krsna. The highly intellectual, simply by surrendering unto His lotus feet, are relieved of all attachments to present and future existences and without difficulty progress toward spiritual existence.

Lord Sri Krsna has repeatedly instructed Arjuna, or for that matter everyone concerned with becoming His unalloyed devotee. In the last phase of His instruction in the Bhagavad-gita (18.64-66) He instructed most confidentially as follows:

sarva-guhyatamam bhuyah
srnu me paramam vacah
isto 'si me drdham iti
tato vaksyami te hitam

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
pratijane priyo 'si me
[Bg. 18.65]

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

"My dear Arjuna, you are very dear to Me, and therefore only for your good I will disclose the most secret part of My instructions. It is simply this: become a pure devotee of Mine and give yourself unto Me only, and I promise you full spiritual existence, by which you may gain the eternal right of transcendental loving service unto Me. Just give up all other ways of religiosity and exclusively surrender unto Me and believe that I will protect you from your sinful acts, and I shall deliver you. Do not worry any more."

Persons who are intelligent take serious notice of this last instruction of the Lord. Knowledge of the self is the first step in spiritual realization, which is called confidential knowledge, and a step further is God realization, which is called more confidential knowledge. The culmination of the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita is God realization, and when one attains this stage of God realization, he naturally, voluntarily becomes a devotee of the Lord to render Him loving transcendental service. This devotional service to the Lord is always based on love of God and is distinct from the nature of routine service as prescribed in karma-yoga, jnana-yoga or dhyana-yoga. In the Bhagavad-gita there are different instructions for such men of different categories, and there are various descriptions for varnasrama-dharma, sannyasa-dharma, yati-dharma, the renounced order of life, controlling the senses, meditation, perfection of mystic powers, etc., but one who fully surrenders unto the Lord to render service unto Him, out of spontaneous love for Him, factually assimilates the essence of all knowledge described in the Vedas. One who adopts this method very skillfully attains perfection of life at once. And this perfection of human life is called brahma-gati, or the progressive march in spiritual existence. As enunciated by Srila Jiva Gosvami on the basis of Vedic assurances, brahma-gati means to attain a spiritual form as good as that of the Lord, and in that form the liberated living being eternally lives on one of the spiritual planets situated in the spiritual sky. Attainment of this perfection of life is easily available to a pure devotee of the Lord without his undergoing any difficult method of perfection. Such a devotional life is full of kirtanam, smaranam, iksanam, etc., as mentioned in the previous verse. One must therefore adopt this simple way of devotional life in order to attain the highest perfection available in any category of the human form of life in any part of the world. When Lord Brahma met Lord Krsna as a playful child at Vrndavana, he offered his prayer in which he said:

sreyah-srtim bhaktim udasya te vibho
klisyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
tesam asau klesala eva sisyate
nanyad yatha sthula-tusavaghatinam
(SB 10.14.4)

Bhakti-yoga is the highest quality of perfection to be achieved by the intelligent person in lieu of performing a large quantity of spiritual activities. The example cited here is very appropriate. A handful of real paddy is more valuable than heaps of paddy skins without any substance within. Similarly, one should not be attracted by the jugglery of karma-kanda or jnana-kanda or even the gymnastic performances of yoga, but skillfully should take to the simple performances of kirtanam, smaranam, etc., under a bona fide spiritual master, and without any difficulty attain the highest perfection.