Study a Verse

• Perfect transcendental knowledge comes from the expert spiritual master, and when such knowledge is heard by the expert disciple, it curbs the waves of material illusion.
• At that time, pure knowledge itself, one’s constant technical awareness of illusion, diminishes, just as fire diminishes and is extinguished after consuming its stock of fuel.
• Māyā offers the conditioned souls whatever they like within the three modes of nature, but such offerings are all just like fire that burns the heart to ashes.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Uncertainty → Clarity. The coming separation makes the instruction personally urgent.

Chapters 10–20 of Canto 11: Kṛṣṇa's teachings on self, yoga and wisdom. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 10: The Nature of Fruitive Activity

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The servant of the spiritual master should have very firm affection for his guru, should be anxious to receive from him knowledge of the Absolute Truth, and should be devoid of envy and the tendency to talk nonsense. The soul is distinct from the gross and subtle material bodies.