Knowledge and Devotion

Question: Someone may have knowledge but if he doesn’t have faith in the knowledge, [inaudible] because you were saying just knowledge is not enough. So if someone really has knowledge and has faith in it, he will definitely execute it also. So if one doesn’t have faith then what he has done, studied or heard, can we really call it as knowledge?
BCS: Let’s go back to that example I gave, knowledge of food and eating food. If you really have the knowledge of food then you will eat when you are hungry. You understand? Knowledge of the food means knowing the characteristic of food: what is the purpose of food? But just knowledge alone of the food is not enough. How to cook the food is not enough. You have to know how to satisfy your hunger. That is the purpose of food.

Question: In other words if someone has genuine knowledge he is going to be a devotee.
BCS: Yeah, right, devotion automatically has knowledge. Devotion is the mother. Bhakti Devi is the mother and she has two children, Jnana and Vairagya, knowledge and detachment. The person who is situated in pure devotional service he is in full knowledge and he is also detached from everything material.

Question: If someone has a, I mean he is not yet a pure devotee, fully purified, but he is engaged in devotional service and he is experiencing the bliss of devotional service. Such a person, if he doesn’t cultivate knowledge at the same time side by side, so despite of being engaged in devotional service is it true that he can easily get distracted by other things?
BCS: Yeah. So, you see, at that stage of sadhana bhakti cultivation of knowledge is necessary. What you are saying is the stage of sadhana bhakti. He is not siddha. He didn’t achieve perfection but he is practicing. So when you are practicing, what you are practicing? You have to understand that. Certain degree of knowledge is, cultivation of knowledge is necessary. Like, why do we have Bhagavatam class? We are not saying just always render service. We have called a Bhagavatam class. We have Bhagavad Gita classes. We have other arrangements for cultivation of or understanding the spiritual life.

HH Bhakti Charu Swami :: Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3th Canto, Chapter 24, The Renunciation Of Kardama Muni, Text 36