So this higher nature has to be developed. This association, this transcendental association, is meant for developing that higher nature. Higher nature. We must understand that higher nature that as it is recommended in the Vedas, that tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12).
And again in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also it is said that tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). In all the scriptures this is said. Without approaching a person who can teach you of the higher nature, you cannot develop. It is not possible to acquire. You have got the higher nature, but to invoke that higher nature it requires the assistance of a person who is in the higher nature. That is recommended.
If somebody says that, "I don't require any help of any spiritual master," that is wrong. That is wrong. You will find all the great persons . . . and so far our Vedic culture is concerned, great learned scholars, just like Śaṅkarācārya . . . perhaps you have heard the name of Śaṅkarācārya. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Nimbārka, Lord Caitanya. In India there have been many, many great scholars.
Even Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He had a spiritual master, because He wanted to show the example. He did not require any circumstances to acquire knowledge from any other, but because He was playing just like a human being, so He set the example that He accepted a spiritual master. There are instances. So similarly, Lord Caitanya also, He accepted spiritual master. Śaṅkarācārya accepted spiritual master. That is the system. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ (BG 4.2).
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.