How to acquire real knowledge?
You have to become perfectly honest and learn to respect others. Do not pretend to be a mystic for the sole purpose of acquiring glory and fame. Not to provoke anxiety in others by our thoughts, words or actions. Learn to be tolerant, even in the face of provocations. Avoid duplicity in our relationships with others. Inquire into the Absolute Truth [which is none other than God Himself] from a genuine spiritual master, study spiritual science under his direction, and rely on him in serving him. Follow the regulating principles recommended by the scriptures [Do not have illicit sex. Do not eat meat, fish and eggs. Do not consume drugs, exciting products such as alcohol, coffee, tea, cigarettes. Do not play gambling]. Assimilate and put into practice the teachings of the scriptures (the original holy scriptures). Refrain from any practice that may hinder our progress in spiritual realization. Refuse to take more than what the body needs for its sustenance. Never make the mistake of identifying with your body and idealizing your family, your nation, your race…
Always remember that as long as you have a material body, you will have to face the sufferings that birth engenders, sickness, old age and death. It is futile to try, by all kinds of tricks, to escape it. You need to find your spiritual identity. Do not seek more material facilities than necessary for your spiritual development. Stay even tempered despite the dislikes and desires that arise in your mind. Become a pure devotee of the Supreme Person and serve him with all his being. Wanting more and more to live in a solitary, calm and peaceful place, favorable to spiritual research. Avoid places where materialists and unbelievers swarm. Seek spiritual knowledge rather than material knowledge, knowing that the former is eternal while the latter perishes with the body.
These principles allow for the gradual acquisition of true knowledge.
Devotional service transcends all form of liberation [of salvation].
Devotional service is the manifestation of pure love for God.
All those who wish to leave this world of suffering and go to the kingdom of God must make up their minds now. The surest way to return there is that of the service of love and absolute devotion offered to the Lord, a true passport to the spiritual world after having left its present carnal envelope. With the beginning of the devotional service offered to the Lord begins the spiritualization of our present body, so that having become a pure being, we no longer find any reason to be in a body of