Only through devotional love does the transcendental eye open to see God beyond material darkness.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.8 — November 8, 1974, Bombay 741108SB-BOMBAY [37:38 Minutes] SB-03.25.08_741108SB-BOMBAY Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] tasya tvaṁ tamaso 'ndhasya duṣpārasyādya pāragam sac-cakṣur janmanām ante labdhaṁ me tvad-anugrahāt [SB 3.25.8] [break] [00:59] "Your Lordship is my only means of getting out of this darkest region of ignorance, because You are my transcendental eye which, by Your mercy only, I have attained after many, many births." Prabhupāda: tasya tvaṁ tamasa andhasya duṣpārasyādya pāragam sac-cakṣur janmanām ante labdhaṁ me tvad-anugrahāt [SB 3.25.8] So sac-cakṣur, to see oneself and to see God, it is not very easy. Janmanām ante.
Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante [Bg. 7.19]. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. Jñānavān. The so-called learned scholars, Vedāntists, so-called Vedāntists...
One who is actual Vedānt..., knower of Vedānta, he understands the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Because veda means knowledge, and anta, "the last phase." Knowledge, there are different types of knowledge. Ordinary knowledge, as we are now interested for economic benefit, that is not actual knowledge. That is art of livelihood.
That is not knowledge. Suppose you are a very big engineer, and another man is ordinary electric mistri. The qualification is the same: earning livelihood by some art. If there is some wrong in the electric line, I cannot repair it; I call one mistri.
He knows the art. He immediately revives the electric current. So this sort of knowledge is called śilpa, śilpa-jñāna, "artistic knowledge." That is not knowledge. Real knowledge is Vedic knowledge, Vedānta knowledge: to know oneself, "What I am, what is God, Bhagavān, what is my relation with Him, and what is my duty, and what is the ultimate goal of life." This is knowledge.
Etaj jñānaṁ tad ajñānam anyathāyathā [Bg. 13.12]. Kṛṣṇa says, "This is jñānam." Kṣetra-kṣetra-jña-jñānam. If one can understand oneself and the Supreme Self and what is this material world, why we have come here, what is my relation with God, what is my relation with this world, this is knowledge. They are called jñānavān.
Jñānavān, they are searching after knowledge. Ke āmi kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. This knowledge begins, inquisitiveness, athāto brahma jijñāsā. Just like Sanātana Gosvāmī went to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He was minister, very big minister of Bengal, Nawab Hussain Shah's government.