A scholar from England came to India and had to cross a river. The only way was by a boat. He got into the boat and told the boatman to take him across. The boatman saw the scholar and he appreciated that he was a learned and well-dressed man. He thought to himself, ‘the king is respected only in his kingdom, but a scholar is respected all over the world’. The weather was not good and there was a lot of turbulence; the boat rocked.
As soon as they started, this scholar asked, “As today it is quite windy, can you calculate the relationship between the torque and the crosscurrent of water?” The boatman said, “No sir, you know I am a simple boatman, I just row the boat.” The scholar said, “You probably haven’t studied Physics; after all, you are an ignorant, illiterate person. Let it be.” After a while, the weather worsened and the boat began to get tossed around in the water.
The scholar finally said, “I’m sure you would have studied statistics, the probability of the Gaussian graph, what the probability of rain is today.” The boatman, being frank, said, “No sir, I don’t know.”
The scholar asked, “Then how do you know when it’s going to rain?” The boatman replied, “We just see the clouds up there, and get an idea that it’s going to rain.” The scholar said, “You haven’t studied statistics and have been rowing all your life. Looks like 50 per cent of your life is wasted.”
As they moved along, the boat was about to capsize. The boatman tried to keep it steady and the scholar held on tightly. Finally, the scholar said, “Ok boatman, now that we are in a storm, tell me how you forecast the wind velocity.” The poor boat man had never heard these terms before.
He said, “No sir, I don’t know.” “I’m sure you don’t have any idea what meteorology and all those things are. So 75 per cent of your life is wasted!”
Finally, the boat capsized. Both of them were in the water and the scholar said, “Oh, boatman, save me! I don’t know to swim. Please save me!” The boatman replied, “You don’t know how to swim? Then 100 per cent of your life is lost.” And the scholar drowned.
This story provides a good example of relative knowledge and absolute knowledge. Although it is a crude example, but if one is in the water, what will eventually save him is his ability to swim. So even in the water of material existence, samsara sagara, what will save us, is remembering Krishna.
If one doesn’t have that knowledge at the point of death, yam yam vapi smaram loke tyajaty ante kalevaram — at that point we may have knowledge of Gaussian probability, we may have knowledge of many other things, but at that point, they will be of no use.
So that is why in life, while we are engaged in various occupational duties, the varna asrama system is there. These duties have to be done so that we develop an attraction to the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the process of bhakti yoga. There is no means of auspicious deliverance other than the direct devotional service of the Lord. And here it says that it is the most auspicious means of deliverance from the grip of material existence.
We are entangled because we commit many sins as we are ignorant and have simple tendencies. This is a never-ending cycle. We have so many different ideas of what will make us happy, which we pursue confidently and finally mess up our lives.
From the process of bhakti yoga comes jnana, knowledge — understanding things as they are, what is right, what is wrong, what has to be done, what is pious and what is impious. And vairagya — detatchment — something which we are very attached to, like most of us, before coming to Krishna, we were attached to watching movies and many other things through.
Detachment — purification of the heart — ceto darpana marjanam — this happens. Eventually it is the thinking of Krishna himself. After careful studying, Brahma ascertained that attraction to Krishna is the highest perfection of religion.
And once one practices this most auspicious process — devotional service to Krishna — what happens? We feel relief. Brahma buta prasannatma na socati na kanksati – we will be prasannatma – happy, joyful. The bhakti yoga is not only easy, simple, natural and free from trouble, but is the only source of happiness for a human being. We will truly experience the happiness we desire.