Page 20 - THE FOURTH DIMENSION

The culmination of all spiritual knowledge is engagement in unalloyed devotional service to Lord Krishna. The
crucial initial step is to accept a bona fide spiritual master. There are three types of spiritual masters: vartma
pradaksina guru – the person who first introduces you to Krishna consciousness; siksa guru is the person or
persons who give ongoing significant spiritual instructions that inspire and enlighten; diksa guru is the person
who initiates the disciple and encourages him by his personal example and instructions to always follow the
vows of initiation. Thus the exceptional twenty qualities of real knowledge are manifest in the sincere devotee
naturally by continual and uninterrupted performance of devotional service.

Modern Humanistic education is actually ignorance because it simply accentuates striving for material
happiness by eating, sleeping, sexual intercourse and defense. Materialistic persons live only for these four
activities that are characteristic of animals. The animals accomplish these four tasks without too much fanfare,
but the humans glorify these base activities as if they are the goal of life. This is abject ignorance and it violates
the purpose of human life. People who imitate the animals take their next birth in lower species of life because
they have ignored the purpose of human life.
Persons preoccupied with material life have very little inclination to glorify the Lord. If they engage in religious
ceremonies, it is to improve their material enjoyment, wealth, health, peace of mind, or protect their assets.
This is summarized as the pursuit of gain and safety. There is little or no genuine feeling of love of God.
Therefore, devotees engage in the difficult task of approaching even the most fallen persons in this world to
give them a chance to hear about the Lord. These saints act as instruments of the Lord’s causeless mercy to the
fallen souls. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has given two profound insights about the sacrifice of pure
devotees to spread the glories of Lord Krishna.

“A devotee of Kṛṣṇa is friendly to everyone. Therefore it is said here that he has no enemy (nirvairaḥ). How is
this? A devotee situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows that only devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can relieve a person
from all the problems of life. He has personal experience of this, and therefore he wants to introduce this system,
Kṛṣṇa consciousness, into human society. There are many examples in history of devotees of the Lord who risked
their lives for the spreading of God consciousness. The favorite example is Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified by
the nondevotees, but he sacrificed his life for spreading God consciousness. Of course, it would be superficial to
understand that he was killed. Similarly, in India also there are many examples, such as Ṭhākura Haridāsa and
Prahlāda Mahārāja. Why such risk? Because they wanted to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and it is difficult. A
Kṛṣṇa conscious person knows that if a man is suffering it is due to his forgetfulness of his eternal relationship
with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, the highest benefit one can render to human society is relieving one’s neighbor from all
material problems. In such a way, a pure devotee is engaged in the service of the Lord. Now, we can imagine
how merciful Kṛṣṇa is to those engaged in His service, risking everything for Him. Therefore it is certain that such
persons must reach the supreme planet after leaving the body.” (Bg 11.55 – purport)

Devotees, who risk their life and welfare for the sake of spreading Krishna Consciousness, will go to public places
to preach and chant Hare Krishna. They know from the Vedic scriptures that only about 25 per cent of people
in this age are interested in spiritual life. They attempt to seek those few interested people in public places such
as highly populated cities and towns and at the same time giving a chance to all people to become a genuine
devotee. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes:

“In the sixty-seventh verse of this chapter (Bg 18), the Lord explicitly forbade the Gītā’s being spoken to those
who are envious of the Lord. In other words, Bhagavad-gītā is for the devotees only. But it so happens that
sometimes a devotee of the Lord will hold open class, and in that class not all the students are expected to be
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