How one is intelligent, how one is dull, how one is via media—that is due to these three guṇas: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa. If one is intelligent, that is one of the qualification of sattva-guṇa. Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam. The brahminical qualification: satyaḥ śamo damo titikṣa arjavam eva ca, jñānam vijñānam āstikyam brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). In the society, human society, there must be a class of brāhmaṇa, intelligent class. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to create a section of the human society—real brāhmaṇa, intelligence. And the intelligence means Veda. Veda means knowledge. Knowledge . . . One who has got sufficient knowledge, he is intelligence, not the fool, rascal. So therefore the . . . There is Vedas, and there are Vedānta, Vedānta. Veda, Vedānta, source of knowledge. So Vedas means knowledge, and Veda-anta . . . Anta means the last word. So that anta knowledge, or the last word in knowledge, is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vidyā bhāgavatāvadhiḥ, they say. Knowledge, expansion of knowledge, the last word is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So it is the explanation of Vedānta. Bhāṣyaṁ brahma-sūtrāṇām. Vedānta's another name is Brahma-sūtra. In India there are Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they advertise themselves as the Vedāntists, "one who knows Vedānta." But actually they do not know Vedānta. Real Vedānta is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because this is commentary. Bhāṣya ayaṁ brahma-sūtrāṇām (Garuḍa Purāṇa). Brahma-sūtra is Vedānta.
So Vedānta, what is that Vedānta? That is explained by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyam (BG 15.15): "Vedas means to understand Me." That is Veda. If one does not understand Kṛṣṇa, his so-called Vedic knowledge or Vedānta knowledge is useless, śrama eva hi kevalam, simply labor.
- dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
- viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
- notpayed ratiṁ yadi
- śrama eva hi kevalam
- (SB 1.2.8)