Spiritual knowledge of Krishna must flow through an authentic disciplic succession or it becomes lost and distorted by time's destructive force.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 4.2 — March 22, 1974, Bombay 740322BG-BOMBAY [36:55 Minutes] Bg-04.02_740322BG-BOMBAY Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse] evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa [Bg. 4.2] [break] [02:57] Translation: "This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.
But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost." Prabhupāda: evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa [Bg. 4.2] So the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, how it has to be received, that is explained here. It is not to be understood by so-called scholarship. In the Vedic literature we find, nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.23]. If you're actually interested in ātma-jñāna, self-realization, then you cannot understand by your so-called academic education.
No. Nāyam ātmā pravacanena... Or because you are a big speaker, you can speak very nicely, decorating language, therefore you have understood—that is also not possible. The spiritual knowledge has to be understood by the grace of the Supreme Spirit.
Yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyaḥ [Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.23]. One who is favored by the Supreme... Here Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Being, God, He's explaining about Himself. So you have to learn about God, or Kṛṣṇa, from Kṛṣṇa, or through the paramparā.
As Kṛṣṇa says, evaṁ paramparā. Paramparā means Kṛṣṇa explained the knowledge, Vedic knowledge, to Lord Brahmā, ādi-kavaye. Janmādy asya yataḥ anvayāt itarataś ca artheṣu abhijñaḥ sva-rāṭ tene brahma hṛdā [SB 1.1.1]. The spiritual knowledge, brahma, brahma-vidyā, śabda-brahma, the Vedic knowledge... Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā, the words written in this book, Bhagavad-gītā, although it appears like ordinary letters, they are not like that.
It is Vedic vibration. The things which are being spoken by Kṛṣṇa, they are not ordinary language. Had it been ordinary language, how...? Because it was written five thousand years ago.
How it is still going on? There are many literatures written by great, great poets within two thousand..., two hundred years, three hundred years, or, say, thousands of years. But they are being forgotten. But therefore the character of the Vedic knowledge, they are not material things.