If you are studying Vedas, if you are Vedantist, then ultimate knowledge will depend how you have understood Krsna. If you do not understand Krsna, what is the use of your studying Vedanta and Vedas? It is useless

Expressions researched:
"f you are studying Vedas, if you are Vedāntist, then ultimate knowledge will depend how you have understood Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ" |"If you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, what is the use of your studying Vedānta and Vedas? It is useless"

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

If you are studying Vedas, if you are Vedāntist, then ultimate knowledge will depend how you have understood Kṛṣṇa. If you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, what is the use of your studying Vedānta and Vedas? It is useless. So don't try to understand Kṛṣṇa in that way. Generally, they understand Kṛṣṇa very easily—they are called sahajiyās—that "Kṛṣṇa was a young boy, and He was joking with the gopīs and dancing with the gopīs, and that is Kṛṣṇa. We can imitate also. We can do also." This kind of understanding means he's a rascal; he's a fool.

740809 - Lecture BG 07.03 - Vrndavana:

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu

kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ

kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

(BG 7.3)

They simply superficially study Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they cannot understand how great is Kṛṣṇa. In the Western world they say: "God is great." But one should understand how great He is. That is tattvataḥ. Otherwise, we shall be misled. We cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (BG 9.11). The rascals, fools, asses—mūḍhāḥ means asses—they deride Kṛṣṇa, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa I understand. What is that Kṛṣṇa?" Not like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu: "Out of many, many millions of persons . . ." First of all let him become siddha. Siddha means perfect. Everyone is imperfect. Everyone commits mistake. This is imperfection. Everyone commits mistake, everyone becomes illusioned, everyone's sense perception are all imperfect, and everyone is a cheater. These are the deficiency of the conditioned soul. One does not know what is Kṛṣṇa, and he wants to become Kṛṣṇa: "I am God. I am Kṛṣṇa."

So this is cheating. Bhrama, pramāda, vipralipsa, karaṇa-pāṭava. One should understand Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa. There are so many Vedic literatures to understand . . . Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). If you are studying Vedas, if you are Vedāntist, then ultimate knowledge will depend how you have understood Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). If you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, what is the use of your studying Vedānta and Vedas? It is useless. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). So don't try to understand Kṛṣṇa in that way. Generally, they understand Kṛṣṇa very easily—they are called sahajiyās—that "Kṛṣṇa was a young boy, and He was joking with the gopīs and dancing with the gopīs, and that is Kṛṣṇa. We can imitate also. We can do also." This kind of understanding means he's a rascal, he's a fool. That is, of course, Kṛṣṇa's one of the pastimes. But that is not this ordinary young boy and young girl's pastime. No. That is cinmaya. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. That is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa.

We have no understanding what is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. We are accustomed to taste this material ānanda, sense gratification. There are . . . yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45). Here, in this material world, the ānanda is sex gratification, sex intercourse. Maithuna. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham. This is the most abominable ānanda. This is not ānanda. Although the whole world is mohita . . . tribhir guṇamayair bhāvair mohitam. This is the ānanda. In the Western world we have seen even old men, seventy-five years old, eighty years old, they are going to the naked dance club, the sex ānanda. Because in the material world there is no ānanda except this. But in the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find, sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). What is real ānanda, that you have to taste by your transcendental senses, not these senses, blunt senses. This is blunt senses, covered senses. There is no question of tasting ānanda with these senses. There is no possibility. Ānanda is described. Just like it is said, ramante yoginaḥ anante (CC Madhya 9.29). Yoginaḥ, those who are transcendentalists, above this material world, they also seeking after ānanda or tasting ānanda. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. That is satyānanda. That is real ānanda. Ramante yoginaḥ anante. And there is no end of that ānanda. Nityaṁ-navāyamānam.