Arjuna is a devotee. That has been explained in the previous . . . bhakto 'si. Bhakto 'si me sakhā ceti. Arjuna is not only a devotee, ordinary . . . not ordinary devotee, but personal friend. Arjuna is personal friend of Kṛṣṇa. Bhakto 'si, sakhā ceti. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says tāni. Bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna: "You are My bhakta and personal friend, so whenever I appear, you also appear with Me." Because he is bhakta. Bhakta and Bhagavān, they must be together. That is the advantage of bhakta. Although he has got the frailty . . . because the living entity is the minute particle of God, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7), therefore his intelligence, his power, is also very minute. But God's power is unlimited. By unlimited power Kṛṣṇa knows the past, future and present, everything, perfectly. But our limited knowledge, we cannot know that. Therefore we have to receive knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. This is our position. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12).
So we have to approach either Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa's representative. Then we can understand Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, simply by mental speculation, by so-called erudite scholarship, nobody can know.
- panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo
- vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām
- so 'py asti yat-prapada-sīmny-avicintya-tattve
- govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
- (Bs. 5.34)
Even . . . just like you go by airplane. This is air speed. There is another speed. Panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo, vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām. There is another speed, mind speed. We have experience of the light speed, of the air speed, but we do not know what is the mind speed. Mind speed is so strong that within a second you can go many millions of miles, within a second. And you can understand, if the mind speed is so strong, how much the spirit of speed . . . speed of spirit is so strong. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). If you become fully conversant with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the result will be, tyaktvā deham, just giving up this body, just immediately after death. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9).
Others, those who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, they will accept another material body. Immediately they will have to enter into the womb of a mother, particular mother. Daiva-netreṇa. As soon as decision is made by superior power that, "This living entity has done such and such thing. He should be promoted or degraded. He should enter into such mother's body through the semina of the father," so immediately he's given place in the material body of a mother. But those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, immediately they are transferred where Kṛṣṇa is there. This is the process. Immediately, by spiritual force . . . tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). Mām eti. "Immediately he comes to Me." Kṛṣṇa is there. Within this material world He's also there, in some of the universes. There are innumerable universes, I have already explained. Somewhere He is there. So a devotee, just after giving this body . . . giving up this body, immediately he is transferred to that universe where Kṛṣṇa is there. And when he's trained up, then he is, again, he's transferred to the Goloka Vṛndāvana, the spiritual sky. These are the description of Sanātana Gosvāmī in Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, how a living entity . . .
So in this way we are changing our body, but because we are minute particle of Kṛṣṇa . . . we have got qualities of Kṛṣṇa not cent percent; seventy-eight percent. When they are perfect, so minute quantity, then we can also become a little more advanced than at the present moment. But not like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is cent percent perfect. We can become minutely perfect, seventy-eight percent. These are all analyzed by the Gosvāmīs. So in the present stage, our conditioned stage, there is no comparison with Kṛṣṇa, what to speak of becoming Kṛṣṇa. The rascal foolish persons, they claim that they have become Kṛṣṇa. It is not possible. This is the defect, that we forget. They ask, the so . . . so many the incarnation of God, about his past life. They cannot speak.
So this is the qualification of God: He knows past, present and future. And those who are false God, they cannot say. That is not possible. This is the test. They are claiming, falsely claiming. But God means He knows. His body does not change. Past . . . He knows past, present, future means His body does not change. Why He does not change? That is described in the śāstra. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). Vigrahaḥ means body, form. This transcendental form is made of sac-cid-ānanda. Sac-cid-ānanda. Sat means eternal, eternity. Oṁ tat sat. So sat, cit. Cit means full of knowledge. Full of knowledge here, tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi. This is called cit. He knows everything—past, present and future. Sat, cit and ānanda. You see Kṛṣṇa's form here, ānanda. He's enjoying. This is real Kṛṣṇa's form. He is always enjoying. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt in the Vedānta-sūtra it is said. He's ānandamaya. Kṛṣṇa, real form . . . the Kṛṣṇa's form in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, that is not Kṛṣṇa's real form. That is Kṛṣṇa's Vāsudeva form. Kṛṣṇa expands Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Aniruddha, in that way.
So this is a great science, Kṛṣṇa science. If you are interested, there are books you can study and you can understand what is Kṛṣṇa. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). So everyone should try to understand Kṛṣṇa in truth. But people do not try to understand.