Shloka 21
Divinity and Divine Service
Bhagavān and Bhakti as the Supreme Dharma
भिद्यते हृदयग्रन्थिश्छिद्यन्ते सर्वसंशया: । क्षीयन्ते चास्य कर्माणि दृष्ट एवात्मनीश्वरे ॥ २१ ॥
bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi dṛṣṭa evātmanīśvare
When one beholds Īśvara, the Lord of the self, the knot in the heart is pierced, all doubts are cut away, and the chain of fruitive karma comes to an end.
Attaining scientific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead means seeing one’s own self simultaneously. As far as the identity of the living being as spirit self is concerned, there are a number of speculations and misgivings. The materialist does not believe in the existence of the spirit self, and empiric philosophers believe in the impersonal feature of the whole spirit without individuality of the living beings. But the transcendentalists affirm that the soul and the Supersoul are two different identities, qualitatively one but quantitatively different. There are many other theories, but all these different speculations are at once cleared off as soon as Śrī Kṛṣṇa is realized in truth by the process of bhakti-yoga. Śrī Kṛṣṇa is like the sun, and the materialistic speculations about the Absolute Truth are like the darkest midnight. As soon as the Kṛṣṇa sun is arisen within one’s heart, the darkness of materialistic speculations about the Absolute Truth and the living beings is at once cleared off. In the presence of the sun, the darkness cannot stand, and the relative truths that were hidden within the dense darkness of ignorance become clearly manifested by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, who is residing in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul.
FAQs
This verse says the heart-knot—deep material attachment and false identification—is broken when one directly realizes the Supreme Lord within the heart.
In the context of teaching the sages at Naimisharanya about the essence of dharma, Suta explains that true God-realization gives direct certainty (ending doubts) and burns up karmic reactions, making liberation natural.
Practice steady hearing and chanting about the Lord with sincerity; as devotion becomes experiential, confusion reduces, attachments loosen, and habitual karmic patterns lose their force.