If you simply perfectly follow the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, then you become perfect. That is required. Don't adulterate. Then you'll never become perfect. Other processes—yoga, dhyāna, karma, jñāna . . . there are many processes to make oneself perfect, but even becoming perfect, you cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Yoginām . . . manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye (BG 7.3). Siddhaye means perfection. Yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ. Even you become perfect, still, it is doubtful whether you have understood Kṛṣṇa. This is the position.
Therefore the conclusion is that if you simply follow the perfect instruction of Kṛṣṇa, then automatically you become perfect, however imperfect you may be. That is our duty. It is not very difficult. Just like a child, a boy, a child, he's asking father, "My dear father, what is this?" An intelligent child questions like that. The father explains, "This is this," and the child accepts. Then his knowledge is perfect. Why the child should endeavor to understand little things as it is? It will take long, long years. And it may not be perfect. But if he accepts the instruction of the father or mother, immediately he becomes perfect.
There are many other examples. Just like a child wants to know who is father. The mother says: "My dear child, this gentleman is your father"—that is perfect knowledge. But if the child wants to research who is his father, it is impossible to find out. Similarly, if we want to know the supreme father, Kṛṣṇa, or God, we have to take instruction from the supreme father, not speculating, just like by speculating we cannot understand our ordinary father without the instruction of mother. If you go on speculating, "He may be my father. He may be my father. He may be father," go on speculating, but you will never understand who is your father. But you accept the authoritative statement of your mother that, "He is your father"—that is perfect knowledge.
That process should be accepted. Otherwise, our position is very precarious.
- ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi
- na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ
- sevonmukhe hi jihvādau
- svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ
- (CC Madhya 17.136)
These our present senses are very blunt, imperfect. It is to be purified by sevonmukha, being eager to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa. Then our senses will be purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). Nirmalam means without any contamination. At the present moment our senses are contaminated. I am thinking in so many different consciousness. I am thinking in consciousness of nationality, community, society, friendship—so many ways—but without Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore our consciousness is impure.
We have to be freed from all the designated consciousness. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: "I am not a brāhmiṇ. I am not a kṣatriya. I am not a sannyāsī. I am not a brahmacārī. I am not a gṛhastha." In this way He denied His identity to all these eight kinds of forms and stages, varṇāśrama. Then He said that gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ (CC Madhya 13.80): "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa, who is maintainer of the gopīs." This is the identification of Caitanya.
So we have to follow the mahājanas, great personalities, or a great devotee like Caitanya Mahā . . . that, "I am also the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa." That is our real identity. This is called mukti, liberation. As soon as we understand that "I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa," this identification is ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am not this."
Brahmāsmi, this concept of life, that "I do not belong to this material world. I am Brahman. I am spirit soul . . . so without being spirit soul, how we can become servant of the Supreme Spirit? Just like without being fire, you cannot remain in the fire, similarly, without becoming Brahman, how we can serve the Supreme Brahman? So this is Brahman realization. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170).
Now, after being purified, what is your position? Not that you become imperson. There are philosophers, that when one becomes identified with Brahman, he becomes immediately imperson. No. We keep our personality. We are never impersons. All of us are individual. Kṛṣṇa is individual. We are sitting here. We are all individual. So we keep our individuality, but our senses become purified. That is called mukti.
The Bhāgavata gives the definition of mukti: mukti hitvā anyathā rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ (SB 2.10.6). What is mukti? Mukti means when one gives up his engagement, activities, hitvā anyathā rūpam, identifying himself with something material, and he is engaged in his own original, constitutional position, and that is called mukti. The original constitutional position is every living entity is a part and parcel of the Supreme Person.
I have given you several times example—this is stated in the śāstras also—just like this finger is my part and parcel of this body. It is the duty of the finger to serve the whole body. I want to do like that, the finger helps me. That is the duty of the finger. If the finger cannot do it, then it is to be understood that he is diseased. It is diseased. As soon as the finger cannot give me regular service, it is to be understood that it is diseased. Similarly, any person who is not giving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is diseased, materially diseased. He has to be cured.