As we live in an information-centered age, we are often stimulated by new information. When we encounter the Bhagavad-gita, we tend to seek stimulation in new spiritual information. If we let this search for new information become an obsession, we will end up knowing much, but experiencing little – spiritual fulfillment will elude us.
Why?
Because spiritual fulfillment comes from love, not knowledge.
Gita wisdom explains that we are all conscious spiritual beings whose deepest need is love. To relish real and eternal happiness, we need to love the all-attractive, all-loving Lord of our heart, Krishna. To love him, we need to know him. So, Gita wisdom provides abundant spiritual information about him.
Nonetheless, the goal of the spiritual path is not information but devotion. Information is useful to the extent it serves as a means to the end of devotion. If information alone becomes our end, we will not connect devotionally with Krishna and so won’t experience deep spiritual happiness. As we are innately pleasure-seeking, desires for material pleasures will continue to torment us. At best, we will stay stuck at the intellectual platform where we may delight in showing off our spiritual knowledge to others. At worst, our thirst for pleasure will drag us down to the sensual level or even the sinful level.
To rise from the intellectual level to the spiritual level, we need to let scriptural information spur us into transcendental action, into practical service to Krishna. Service expresses our devotion if we have it and our desire for devotion if we don’t have it. When we thus go beyond stocking information to immersing ourselves in the flow of service, our information will, by Krishna’s mercy, blossom into realization. This integration of information and realization will, as the Gita (06.08) states, grant spiritual satisfaction.
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