Guru's business is to give you light by knowledge. Then you understand. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). How the jñāna, knowledge, light is given? Śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. This is the guru's system, guru's symptom, what is guru. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam. He has completely assimilated the Vedic essence of life. That is called guru. And what is śabda? Śāstra, or Vedas. Śruti-śāstra. Śruti means Veda, knowledge. Veda means knowledge. Or knowledge is received through ear, by hearing. That is real knowledge. Not by experimental knowledge. You cannot understand which is beyond your sense perception by experiment. Just like you cannot understand who is your father by experimental knowledge: "Let me make experiment and find out who is my father." That is not possible. Because it is beyond your experience. Your father was existing when you were not existing. Then how you can understand by experimental knowledge? The authority is mother. Therefore Vedic knowledge is the mother; the Purāṇas are the sisters. They are explained like that. You should understand from the Vedas what is the ultimate knowledge. And Kṛṣṇa says, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ: (BG 15.15) the ultimate knowable objective is Kṛṣṇa.
So simply by understanding Kṛṣṇa... Kasmin tu bhagavo vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati. If you can simply understand Kṛṣṇa, then you understand everything. You haven't got to understand separately Kṛṣṇa's enlightenment. Teṣām aham... What is that verse? Samuddhartā. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā,
- teṣām evānukampārtham
- aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ
- nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho
- jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā
- (BG 10.11)
If you actually come in contact with Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is within your heart... Kṛṣṇa is not far away. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. But He's still nearer. He is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva... So if you become attached to Kṛṣṇa... When Kṛṣṇa sees now you are attached to Kṛṣṇa, then hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām. He is friend of the devotees. He's friend of everyone, but a special friend of the devotees. Suhṛt satām. Therefore you have to become a devotee. Therefore it is said, na yujyamānayā bhaktyā. Bhaktyā means devotee. Who performs devotional service unless he's a devotee? Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55). So if we become devotee, if we take to devotional service, then Kṛṣṇa says, teṣām evānukampārtham (BG 10.11), for special favor. Special favor. What is that? Teṣām evānukampārtham aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ nāśayāmi. Kṛṣṇa says, "I kill all kinds of ignorance."
So simply this qualification required, that you become perfect devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then you perfectly become jñānī. Jñāna is there. Simply it is covered by the curtain of ignorance. Just like in darkness. Everything is there. The light is there, everything is there. But as soon as it is dark, we cannot see where the things are there. So Kṛṣṇa says that anyone can understand Himself, anyone can understand Kṛṣṇa and the relationship, provided the darkness of ignorance is taken away. That is required. That is done by Kṛṣṇa personally. For whom? Teṣām evānukampārtham (BG 10.11). Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam. Those who are engaged twenty-four hours with love and faith in devotional service. Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ tam. The buddhi-yogam. He directs, "Do like this, do like that." Then... What for buddhi? Yena mām upayānti te. Then, gradually, you come to Kṛṣṇa, back to home, back to Godhead.