Just like Bhagavad-gītā ends with the assertion of the Lord: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Sarva-dharmān. We have created so many dharmas. But dharma cannot be so many. Dharma is one. Or religious system... What is that, religious system? The all religious system, the author of religion, author of religion... Just like author of law is government, similarly author of religion is God, Kṛṣṇa. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). You cannot manufacture dharma, just like you cannot manufacture law at your home. That will be not feasible. That will be not useful for anyone. You can make thousands of laws: "I think this should be done..." That is the fashion now. Everyone thinks in his own way. That is not philosophy. That is not law: "I think..." "We think..." No. You cannot think. What is your value? You are imperfect. Your senses are imperfect. How you can think perfect things? No, that is not possible. Therefore we have to...
- tad viddhi praṇipātena
- paripraśnena sevayā
- upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
- jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
- (BG 4.34)
You have to take knowledge from the tattva-darśī, one who has seen the truth. Otherwise, you'll be frustrated. Similarly religion. Religion you cannot manufacture: "This is our religion. This is this religion, that religion, that religion." So that is not religion. Religion is this: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). Mayy ananyena bhāvena bhaktim. This is religion. Anything else, that is cheating. That is not religion.
Therefore if one can understand Bhagavad-gītā perfectly and he takes to this system of religion, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), then he can understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because where Bhagavad-gītā is ended, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins from that point. Because in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the introductory verses, Vyāsadeva says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇām (SB 1.1.2). "This, this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not ordinary type of religious system, because from this Bhāgavatam, kaitava, cheating type of religion, is completely swept away, kicked out, thrown away." Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). And upon this the great commentator Śrīdhara Svāmī, he says, atra mokṣa-vāñchā api nirasta. Because we know dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa (SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90). So Śrīdhara Svāmī says that dharmaḥ projjhita... Because people are becoming religious for mokṣa, liberation. So Śrīdhara Svāmī says that up to the end of mokṣa-vāñchā, desire for liberation, that is also rejected. The... Because mokṣa is also not our ultimate goal of life. Mokṣa means to get relief from the material bondage. But if you do not get engagement of spiritual life, then mokṣa is also cheating because you'll fall down again.
I have repeatedly said that cure of disease is all right, but after curing, if you are not engaged in your healthy activities, then means, that means that your disease is again, will be relapsed. The śāstra says therefore, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ (SB 10.2.32). One sometimes, after practicing much severe austerities and penances, he can approach the Brahman, paraṁ padam, that is Brahman realization, or Brahmaloka. Patanty adhaḥ. But from there also you will fall down. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Because they did not care to worship the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Māyāvādīs, the impersonalists, they fall down. Because they cannot stay. It is not possible. Simply impersonal effulgence, Brahman effulgence, you cannot stay. You can... That example I have given many times, that you can go very high in the sky by your very powerful sputnik and airship, but if you have no place to stay there, then you'll come back again. You'll come back again. Similarly, you can go to the Brahman effulgence, but within the Brahman effulgence, there are Vaikuṇṭha planets, or the spiritual world, there is Vaikuṇṭha planet. If you have no place to stay in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, then you'll come down again to this material world.