If you want to make progress in the matter of chanting the holy name of the Lord, then you have to learn also toleration. So many people will criticize. So many people will be prepared to unnecessarily put hindrances in your path. So one has to learn if one is serious to make progress in knowledge. Actual knowledge is to understand God. That is actual knowledge. Therefore it is called Vedānta. Vedānta. Veda means knowledge, and anta means the ultimate. The ultimate knowledge is to know Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). Everyone . . . there is a class of men, they say that, "We only believe in the Vedas." "What you believe? Do you know Kṛṣṇa?" "No sir. We accept Kṛṣṇa as a big man, that's all, not as God." That means he does not understand what is Kṛṣṇa. So what is the use of Vedānta? There are so-called Vedāntists, they avoid Kṛṣṇa. They'll write comments on Bhagavad-gītā, avoid Kṛṣṇa. This is going on. This is going on.
But actual knowledge means to come to the point of knowledge one has to acquire these qualifications. But if one at once takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as it is stated, mam ca vyabhicāriṇī . . . what is that? Mayi ca ananya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī. Bhakti-avyabhicāriṇī. Vyabhicāriṇī means mixed with other things. There is karma, jñāna, yoga and bhakti. So there are . . . everything must be with bhakti; otherwise there is no success. Even if you are a karmī, you must add bhakti. Then you'll be successful. Yat karoṣi yat juhosi yad aśnāsi kuruṣva mad arpanam (BG 9.27). This is bhakti-yoga, er, karma-yoga. You may be a businessman, you may be engineer, you may be whatever you may be; it doesn't matter. But bhakti must be added there. Then you are successful. If you are devoid of bhakti, then it is useless, waste of time. That is the verdict of the śāstra.
Śāstra says, atha pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭha. This was spoken by Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī in the assembly of great brahmins and saintly person who were meeting big congress for one thousand years. Now we hold meeting for eight days, or utmost fifteen days, not more than that. But formerly they used to hold meetings, spiritual meeting, for one thousand years. Naimiṣāraṇya. That Naimiṣāraṇya is still existing near Lucknow. Most of you may know. So there was a meeting to be continued for one thousand years. And in that meeting Sūta Gosvāmī was presiding, and he said . . . he addressed all the brahmins and . . . because spiritual meetings were generally attended by highly educated brahmins and saintly persons. Some of the kṣatriyas also. The vaiśyas and śūdras, they were not interested. So therefore Sūta Gosvāmī especially addressed the learned brahmins, ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhāḥ (SB 1.2.13): "O the best of the brahmins who are present here." Ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhāḥ varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ.
The society was in those days varṇa and āśrama. Varṇa means the four divisions of the society: brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra. Catur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Similarly, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. This is Vedic culture. Varnāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. So Sūta Gosvāmī said that everyone has got his particular duty, varṇa and āśrama. Atha pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhāḥ varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya. Everyone has got duty, but saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam (SB 1.2.13). Nobody is concerned, "Whether I am doing something, I am engaged in certain occupation, whether I am getting perfection." Because human life is meant for attaining perfection. And what is that perfection? That also we do not know. The perfection is to get out of this repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. That is perfection.