So Lord Caitanya is stressing on that point that, aiche śāstra kahe—karma, jñāna, yoga tyaji'. Karma. Karma means general activities on moral principle. That is called karma. Karma means, real karma means that you have to live, so you have to work. So work in such a way that you may not be entangled. Just like honest businessman, he works; he works according to the law. He does not play any blackmailing, and he pays the proper income tax to the government and the other taxes. He does nicely. This is called work, karma. You have to live. Without working you cannot live. But you work in such a way so that you may not be entangled. That is called work, karma yoga. Now, this work is not the solution of your human life. You can get some morsel of bread and eat and drink and sleep and just enjoy your wife and die like cats and dogs, that's all. And then you will take with you the result of your good work or bad work. That is karma. That is not solution.
Then the next stage is, above this karma, this ordinary, general people, there is a class, they are thinkers. They are thinkers: "Whether this is the solution of life?" So thinkers, some of them are dry thinkers. They have no knowledge, but they think only. They do not get the source of knowledge from higher authorities; they manufacture their own way. So apart from that, those who are bona fide thinkers, they are called jñānī. Jñānī means that this process of karma cannot make solution of life. They push some philosophical thesis that "This is the solution of life." They are called jñānī.
And the others, the yogī, they meditate. So what they meditate? Not they meditate falsely; they meditate, they concentrate the whole senses and put the focus in the soul and the Supersoul. So their endeavor is to make, reestablish with the Supersoul who is sitting in my heart. That is yoga system. So all these systems can be adjusted only in one system: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the version of all the śāstra, all the Vedas. So Lord Caitanya also confirms that:
- aiche śāstra kahe—karma, jñāna, yoga tyaji'
- 'bhaktye' kṛṣṇa vaśa haya, bhaktye tāṅre bhaji
- (CC Madhya 20.136)
If you want Kṛṣṇa, if you want God, then you don't try to follow all these processes. You just try to follow devotional service to the Lord, bhakti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That will please Kṛṣṇa. And then by His pleasing, He will reveal to you. He will reveal to you. God, being pleased with your sincere service and love, He will let you know. Just like Arjuna is being instructed by the Supreme Lord, and He says: "My dear Arjuna, I am speaking to you the most confidential part of knowledge." So if we become friend like Arjuna to Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will reveal Himself, as He is revealing Himself, "I am this, I am that, I am this, I am that," in the conflict.
So if you actually want to reestablish your lost relationship with Kṛṣṇa and God, then you have to adopt this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and nothing more.