Any saintly person is called a mahātmā. But according to Vedic description, a mahātmā is he who has reached to the point of understanding Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
In another place it is stated:
- mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes
- tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam...
- (SB 5.5.2)
There are two ways. Our life, they are going in two ways. One way is liberation, and the other way is bondage. Just like you have seen the reel. The reel is rolling. One way it is rolling to roll the thread, and another it is giving way to the thread. Similarly, we can lead in two ways, our life, either towards liberation or towards darkness of bondage. This, our human life, by gradual evolutionary process, we come to the human form of life. Now we can move it two ways, either towards liberation or towards bondage. We do not know, modern education. There is no such information what is called bondage and what is called liberation. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know. There is no such education, that students may understand what is Viṣṇu, what is God, what he is, what is his relationship with God, Viṣṇu. These things are unknown to the modern educationist.
The śāstra therefore says,
- andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās
- te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ
- (SB 7.5.31)
Uru-dāmni-baddhāḥ. Uru means very strong. Dāmni means rope. Just like if your hands and legs are tied very strongly, it is very difficult for you to move. Similarly, by the laws of nature, every living entity is bound up very strongly, īśa-tantryām, by the laws of the Supreme Lord. We are bound up. We cannot deviate. We cannot violate the laws of nature. Everyone can experience. A little violation, little deviation from the laws of nature, we accept some suffering. That is our daily experience. Suppose we are eating, but if we eat little more than we digest... The laws of nature is that you can eat as much as you can digest. But if you eat more than you can digest, immediately, by the laws of nature, you suffer from indigestion. You cannot violate. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). Nobody can violate the laws of nature.
So we have discussed how to get out of the laws of nature—mukta-saṅgasya jāyate. Mukta-saṅga means one who has become freed from the three modes of material nature. After being freed from the laws of material nature or by the three modes of material nature, then we can talk of vāsudeva-bhakti. But one can become free from this bondage of material nature simply by devotional service to Vāsudeva. That is being stressed in this chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the very beginning.
- vāsudeve bhagavati
- bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
- janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ
- jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam
- (SB 1.2.7)
If we simply learn how to render devotional service to Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ. This is actually translated into English as Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything for Kṛṣṇa. So that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then janayaty āśu vairāgyam. Āśu, very soon, one becomes detached from this material bondage. Janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca.