Text 55 

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva
visate tad-anantaram 

Translation

One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, and His plenary portions cannot be understood by mental speculation nor by the nondevotees. If anyone wants to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has to take to pure devotional service under the guidance of a pure devotee. Otherwise, the truth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead will always be hidden. As already stated in Bhagavad-gita (7.25), naham prakasah sarvasya: He is not revealed to everyone. No one can understand God simply by erudite scholarship or mental speculation. Only one who is actually engaged in Krishna consciousness and devotional service can understand what Krishna is. University degrees are not helpful. 

One who is fully conversant with the Krishna science becomes eligible to enter into the spiritual kingdom, the abode of Krishna. Becoming Brahman does not mean that one loses his identity. Devotional service is there, and as long as devotional service exists, there must be God, the devotee, and the process of devotional service. Such knowledge is never vanquished, even after liberation. Liberation involves getting free from the concept of material life; in spiritual life the same distinction is there, the same individuality is there, but in pure Krishna consciousness. One should not mistakenly think that the word visate, “enters into Me,” supports the monist theory that one becomes homogeneous with the impersonal Brahman. No. Visate means that one can enter into the abode of the Supreme Lord in one’s individuality to engage in His association and render service unto Him. For instance, a green bird enters a green tree not to become one with the tree but to enjoy the fruits of the tree. impersonalists generally give the example of a river flowing into the ocean and merging. This may be a source of happiness for the impersonalist, but the personalist keeps his personal individuality like an aquatic in the ocean. We find so many living entities within the ocean, if we go deep. Surface acquaintance with the ocean is not sufficient; one must have complete knowledge of the aquatics living in the ocean depths. 

Because of his pure devotional service, a devotee can understand the transcendental qualities and the opulences of the Supreme Lord in truth. As it is stated in the Eleventh Chapter, only by devotional service can one understand. The same is confirmed here; one can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead by devotional service and enter into His kingdom. 

After attainment of the brahma-bhuta stage of freedom from material conceptions, devotional service begins by one’s hearing about the Lord. When one hears about the Supreme Lord, automatically the brahma-bhuta stage develops, and material contamination—greediness and lust for sense enjoyment—disappears. As lust and desires disappear from the heart of a devotee, he becomes more attached to the service of the Lord, and by such attachment he becomes free from material contamination. 

In that state of life he can understand the Supreme Lord. This is the statement of Srimad-Bhagavatam also. After liberation the process of bhakti, or transcendental service, continues. The Vedanta-sutra (4.1.12) confirms this: a-prayanat tatrapi hi drstam. This means that after liberation the process of devotional service continues. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, real devotional liberation is defined as the reinstatement of the living entity in his own identity, his own constitutional position. The constitutional position is already explained: every living entity is a part-and-parcel fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord. 

Therefore his constitutional position is to serve. After liberation, this service is never stopped. Actual liberation is getting free from misconceptions of life.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

"After attaining bhakti, then what happens to that person?" Giving a particular case of the general rule, the Lord speaks this verse. By bhakti alone one knows me truly as either "that" or as "me". Thus, the jnani knows me as tat (brahman) and the various devotees know me as mam (bhagavan). Since I have said that only by pure bhakti am I known (bhakyaham ekaya grahyah), then the jnani under discussion, after that (tad anantaram), by that bhakti alone which functions after the cessation of vidya, knowing me, enters me. He realizes the happiness of merging with me (sayujya). The meaning is that since I am beyond maya and vidya is part of maya, I (even in the form of brahman) cannot be known by vidya.

But there may be objection, for in the Narada Pancaratra it is said:

sankhya-yogau ca vairagyam tapo bhaktis ca kesave panca-parvaiva vidya

Oh Kesava, there are five types of knowledge: sankhya, yoga, vairagya, tapas and bhakti.

Bhakti is thus said to be a function of vidya in this verse. However, this actually means that some small portion of the hladini sakti of bhakti enters into vidya in order to give vidya its results, just as bhakti also enters into karma yoga in order give results of karma. This can be said because there are many statements saying that karma, jnana, yoga and other processes are just useless labor without bhakti. Since nirguna bhakti is not a function of vidya filled with sattva guna, though vidya is the cause of extinguishing avidya, the cause of knowledge of tat is bhakti alone.

Moreover, the smrti says sattvam sanjayate jnanam: sattva gives rise to jnana. (BG 14.17) Knowledge, which arises from sattva, is called sattva. Just as the word sattva indicates vidya, so knowledge arising from bhakti is often called bhakti. Sometimes it is called bhakti and other times it is called jnana. Therefore, one should see that there are two types of knowledge. Giving up the first type of knowledge (sattva), by the second type of knowledge (bhakti), one will attains brahma sayujya. This can be understood by consulting the Bhagavatam 11, twenty-fifth chapter.

Now, those who presume to be jnanis, desiring sayujya, by executing jnana alone without bhakti at all, obtain only suffering as their fruit. They are the most heavily condemned.

There are others also who, knowing that one cannot attain liberation by jnana alone without bhakti, practice jnana mixed with bhakti. But they consider the form of bhagavan as falsity (upadhi) created by maya, that the body of the Lord is made of the gunas. Reaching the state of yogarudha, they think themselves liberated. They too are condemned.

It is said:

mukha-bahuru-padebhyah purusasyasramaih saha
catvaro jajnire varna gunair vipradayah prthak

Each of the four social orders, headed by the brahmanas, was born through different combinations of the modes of nature, from the face, arms, thighs and feet of the Supreme Lord in His universal form. Thus the four spiritual orders were also generated. SB 11.5.2

ya evam purusam saksad atma-prabhavam isvaram
na bhajanty avajananti sthanad bhrastah patanty adhah

If any of the members of the four varnas and four asramas fail to worship or intentionally disrespect the Personality of Godhead, who is the source of their own creation, they willfall down from their position into a hellish state of life. SB 11.5.3

The meaning is that both those who do not worship me and as well those who do worship me but also disrespect me, even if they are sannyasis, have all their knowledge destroyed and fall.

It is also said:

ye 'nye 'ravindaksa vimukta-maninas
tvayy asta-bhavad avisuddha-buddhayah
aruhya krcchrena param padam tatah
patanty adho 'nadrta-vusmad-anghrayah

O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet. SB 10.2.32

The word "foot" (anghri) should be taken to indicate "with bhakti." Thus the phrase would mean "those who do not accept your feet with devotion." They accept the Lord, but in the wrong way. The phrase anadrta-yusmad-anghraya means that they disrespect the Lord by thinking that the Lord's body is material.

It is also said:

avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam

The fools do not know me. They think I have taken the body of a material human. BG 9.11

Actually his form is human, but it is also sac cid ananda. That form can be seen only by the influence of the Lord's inconceivable krpa sakti.

It is said in the Narayana Adhyatma:

nityavyakto 'pi bhagavan iks(y)ate nija-saktitah
tarn rte paramanandam kah pasyet tarn imam prabhum

The Lord who is eternal and invisible can be seen through his own sakti. Other than by that means, who can see that Lord of the highest bliss?

That the Lord has a sac cid ananda body is confirmed in the Gopala Tapani Upanisad (1.33) with sat-cid-ananda-vigraham sri-vrndavana-sura-bhuruha-talasinam: that form of the Lord which is eternity knowledge and bliss was seated at the base of a desire tree in Vrndavana.

darsayam asa tarn ksattah sabdarh brahma dadhad vapuh

The Lord showed Himself to that Kardama Muni and displayed His transcendental form, which can be understood only through the Vedas.   SB 3.21.8

Thus in the srutis and smrtis there are thousands of such authoritative statements indicating the Lord's transcendental body. However, by such statements as the following, these jnanis think that the Lord, bhagavan, is a false creation of maya (upadhi).

mayam tu prakrtirh vidyan mayinam tu mahesvaram

Know this nature to be maya. The great Lord is also made of this maya.   Svetasvatara Upanisad 4.2

However, this statement means that the Lord is endowed with an eternal sakti called maya arising from his own svarupa.

Madhvacarya quotes sruti to explain this statement,

ato maya-mayam visnum pravadanti sanatanam

Thus they call the eternal Visnu mayamayam.

Thus the word mayam in the Svetasvatara verse refers to the cit Sakti arising from the svarupa of the Lord, not to the sakti of the three gunas, which does not arise from his svarupa. They do not consider this meaning of the sruti statement. Nor do they consider that the statement could mean "Durga is maya and Siva is the possessor of maya".

Thus, though these jnanis attain the status of jivan mukta, they fall down because of aparadha to the Lord. It is said in the parisista vacana of the Vasana Bhasya:

jivan-mukta api punar yanti samsara-vasanam
yady acintya-maha-saktau bhagavaty aparadhinah

The jivan muktas, if they are offenders to the Lord of inconceivable great sakti, again enter the illusions of samsara.

Attaining their goal, they think sadhana is no longer proper, and thus at the time of rejecting jnana, they reject not only jiiana, but also guni bhuta bhakti, thinking that tangible realization (of form and qualities) is false. After bhakti disappears along with jnana, because of offense to the form of the Lord, it cannot be again attained. Because they cannot realize tat without bhakti, they are therefore known only as persons who think they are liberated, having only false samadhi. This is stated in the verse ye 'nye 'ravindaksa vimukta-maninah.

But those who practice jnana mixed with bhakti, and at the same time respect the sac cid ananda form of bhagavan, gradually, with the cessation of vidya and avidya, attain para bhakti. Those liberated souls are of two types. One type, performing bhakti for obtaining sayujya, attains sayujya in the Lord's form, realizing tat. These persons are praiseworthy.

The other type of person, such as Sukadeva, being greatly fortunate, gives up the desire for liberation by the influence of unpredicted association with kind, elevated devotees, and submerges himself completely in the taste of the sweetness of bhakti rasa. This is the most praiseworthy type. It is said:

atmaramas ca munayo nirgrantha apy urukrame
kurvanty ahaitukim bhaktim itthambhuta-guno harih

All different varieties of atmaramas [those who take pleasure in atma, or spirit self], especially those established on the path of self-realization, though freed from all kinds of material bondage, bondage; desire to render unalloyed devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead. This means that the Lord possesses transcendental qualities and therefore can attract everyone, including liberated souls. SB 1.7.10

Thus there are four types of jnanis: two, reproachable, fall; and two, praiseworthy, cross samsara.