Sentiment is bhāva, but that is after full knowledge. When you can understand Kṛṣṇa is so great, so powerful, then your devotion increases immediately. Therefore we have to study śāstras for understanding His position, and if we understand Kṛṣṇa, then we become liberated person immediately. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. Janma karma ca me divyam (BG 4.9). So those who are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they should study Kṛṣṇa scientifically, not by sentiment. After full knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, when you become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa's thought, that is called bhāva. Budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ.
So that bhāva stage does not come immediately. You have to practice gradually.
- ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-
- saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā
- tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt
- tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ
- athāsaktis tato bhāvaḥ
- (CC Madhya 23.14-15)
There are stages. So this is the beginning, ādau śraddhā. Just like yesterday evening . . . They very much appreciated this Ratha-yātrā ceremony, and they wrote very frankly, "Here is the point of meeting East and West." The newspapers, they have written like that. It is actually the fact. We cannot become United Nations or United Dogs. (laughter) It is not possible. Everyone is barking. And if you practice to bark, then simply some different types of dog, some bulldogs, some greyhounds, some this, some that. (laughter) So how they will be united? No. That is not possible. Here is unity, when you accept Jagannātha. There is unity. So actually, if we take Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement very seriously, scientifically, then there is unity.
- vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
- brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
- śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
- paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
- (BG 5.18)
Paṇḍitaḥ means learned. He is sama-darśinaḥ.
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
- na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
- mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
- (BG 18.54)
Actually this is the platform where we can unite. And by practical example you have shown. Everyone was engaged in dancing and chanting, never mind whether Indian, American, black, white, children, or old like me. This is wanted. This is wanted. And when we thoroughly understand what is the basic principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we understand, "Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, is the central point of attraction," then our life is successful. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ (BG 7.19). Mahātmā means great soul. So great soul, one who has understood that Kṛṣṇa is the source of all energies, just like the sun is the source of all material energy . . . So then we can become perfect. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ. I request you that each and every one of you just become mahātmā—not crippled-minded, but broad-minded. That is possible when we understand Kṛṣṇa is the source of all energy.