Kaala Yoga Studio
– The difference between knowledge and realization (jnana and vijnana) is that first we acquire knowledge and then, by the mercy of the Guru and Krishna, we receive the realization of that knowledge in our hearts.
– The sastras describe five types of knowledge: pratyaksha (direct perception), but this way of acquiring knowledge involves some defects.
– Any knowledge acquired only by ordinary human beings or through direct perception is imperfect.
– Every soul conditioned by matter possesses four fundamental human defects: bhrama (tendency to make mistakes), pramada (delusion), vipralipsa (deceiving others), and karanapatava (imperfection of the sensory organs).
– Anumana (inference): For example, even though we haven’t been to Svargaloka, we have descriptions of what that place is like.
– When we perform many pious activities, we receive a birth on a celestial planet, but we cannot stay there forever, because when the balance of pious activities runs out, we are born again on Earth.
– Sloka: “te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti” (B.G. 9.21).
– Aparoksha: the knowledge of impersonalists who realize the existence of the wheel of samsara and desire immersion in brahmam.
– There is also knowledge about the innumerable vaikuntha planets, where the various expansions of Krishna live; and mahavaikunthas of the transcendental world.
– On those vaikuntha planets, all the souls that live there possess a feeling of reverence for the Lord (stava stutis).
– Regarding the knowledge of the existence of Krishna’s lilas as a human being.
– If you become absorbed in lila-katha, you will reach the abode of the Lord, for all your papa-karma is destroyed.
– Sloka: kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā… (CC Madhya-lila 21.101).
– Apakrta-jnana consists of having knowledge of that which appears material but is far beyond it.
– Although Brahma, Shiva, and Narada are liberated souls who do not suffer the influence of worldly illusion and confusion, they became confused due to the influence of Yogamaya, having difficulty recognizing the Supreme Lord as a cowherd boy of Vraja.
– Regarding the katha who, during the battle of Kurukshetra, Karna, Bhishma Pitamaha, among others, abandoned their bodies simply because Krishna pointed his finger at them.
– Krishna embodies the Bhagavad Gita to guide us spiritually, just as a father helps his son walk by holding his hands from behind to assist him.
