body. This one, I take him beyond birth and death. He who seeks refuge elsewhere than in Me can never let go of the terrible fear of death and rebirth, for I am the Almighty Lord, the Sovereign Person, the original source of all creation, and the Supreme Soul, the Soul of all souls.

It is because of My supremacy, for fear of Me, that the wind blows. For fear of Me that the sun shines and that Indra, the master of the clouds, makes the rain fall. For fear of Me still fire burns and death goes, taking its due. Spiritualists, enriched with spiritual knowledge and renunciation, and absorbed in devotional service for their eternal benefit, seek refuge at My lotus feet; and since I am the Lord, they thus qualify to enter My divine kingdom without any fear. Consequently, men whose thoughts are fixed on the Lord, practice the devotional service intensively. This is the only way to achieve the ultimate perfection of existence.

The perfection of spiritual knowledge.

These words of the Supreme Lord describe what spiritual perfection is, which can even be known in the material universe.

Krishna, God, the Supreme Person says:

The devotee, envious of nothing, who behaves with all as a benevolent friend, who of nothing believes himself the possessor, who is freed from false ego [of the domination of matter, and of the identification with the body] and remains the same in joy as in sorrow, which forgives, which always knows contentment and engages with determination in the service of devotion, and whose mind and body are abandoned to the Supreme Lord, he is very dear to Me.

The devotee who never causes agitation for others and whom joys and sorrows do not affect, who does not depends in nothing on the modes of material action, the pure being, expert in everything, free from all anxiety, free from suffering ance, and who does not seek the fruit of his deeds, he is very dear to Me.

He who takes neither joy nor sorrow, who neither grieves nor covets, who renounces to the favorable as to the unfavorable, this one, My devotee, is very dear to Me.

The one who shows himself equal to the friend or the enemy, who remains the same in glory or reproach, heat or cold, praise or blame, forever pure from all filth, always silent, satisfied with everything, heedless of the shelter, and which, established in knowledge serves Me with love and devotion, this is very dear.