"If under the teaching of true scripture, a man turns to Krishna, he is saved, he gets rid of illusion. A creature labouring under illusion remembers not Krishna. So Krishna kindly created the Vedas and Purans. He makes himself known through scripture, _guru_, and the soul; and man comes to realize 'Krishna is my lord and saviour'. The Vedas treat of Relation, Epithet, and Needs; that Relation is the attaining of Krishna, faith is the means of this attainment, the epithets are his names; love is the (supreme) need, the most precious treasure and the highest achievement of humanity. _Madhur_ service is the means of gaining Krishna. By serving him we can enjoy the relish of him. The following parable will illustrate it: An all-knowing seer visited a poor man and seeing his misery said, 'Why are you so poor? Your father has left you a large legacy. He died elsewhere and therefore could not inform you of it.' At these words the man began to hunt for his treasure. In the same manner the _Vedas_ and _Purans_ instruct men about Krishna. The counsel of the seer is the source, the treasure is the consequence. By his own knowledge the man could not attain to his father's treasure the seer had to tell him the method of discovering it: 'Here lies the treasure. If you dig in the south, hornets will rise and not money. If you dig west a gnome will show itself and hinder you. In the north your diggings will discover a dark serpent, which will swallow you up. But by digging a little on the east side you will get the pots of treasure.' Similarly the _Shastras_ assert that leaving work, knowledge and abstraction (_yog_), one can influence Krishna by faith alone. _Vide_ the _Bhágabat_, XI. xiv. 19 & 20. "Therefore is faith the only means of gaining Krishna, and it is described in all _Shastras_ as _abhidheya_. As wealth gives pleasure and drives away sorrow of itself, so _bhakti_ kindles love of Krishna, and when love is turned to Krishna man is freed from bondage to the world. The fruit of love is not riches or the cessation of re-birth, but its chief object is the enjoyment of the beatitude of loving." [A long discourse on Krishna's forms, omitted in the second edition.] [Text, canto 20.] [1] The town of Hajipur on the north bank of the Ganges, opposite Patna, was the seat of the governor of Bihar on behalf of the Sultans of Bengal. (_Riyaz-us-salatin_, Eng. tr. 134 _n_.) CHAPTER XIX On the sweetness of Krishna's attributes [The Master continued His teaching of Sanátan thus:]