Approaching a spiritual master is not just a fad. This is a necessity for anyone who is only too aware of material suffering and wishes to be free from it. Such a person must approach a spiritual master. We also find an example of this in the Bhagavad-Gita. When Arjuna became perplexed, not knowing whether or not to fight, he accepted Krishna as Spiritual Master. And here again, the Supreme Spiritual Master personally revealed the intrinsic nature of the being, this time to Arjuna. The distinct being (the individual soul distinct from God) is by nature intrinsic, a spiritual soul, foreign to matter, as such, it constitutes a spark of the Supreme Soul, the Absolute Truth, the Divine Person. The separate soul must surrender completely to Krishna, the Supreme Soul, to find happiness.

In his answers to Sanatane's questions, Lord Chaitanya takes up this same truth, with the difference that He does not present the data on the soul already contained in the Bhagavad-Gita (Words of Krishna, Christ, God, the Supreme Person). Rather, he begins his teaching where Krishna's ends. All great devotees recognize that Chaitanya is none other than Krishna, and his teaching in Sanatane begins where He concluded in the Gita, (Words of Krishna, Christ, God, the Supreme Person).

The Lord said: By your intrinsic nature you are a living soul of purely spiritual essence. The material body cannot be assimilated to your true identity, nor can the mind, intelligence or false ego which is identification with the body. Your true identity is to be the eternal servant of Krishna, God, the Supreme Lord. Your status is transcendent in nature. The higher energy of Krishna is of spiritual essence while the lower, external energy is of material essence. Located between these two energies, you therefore belong to the marginal energy of Krishna, which means that you are one with Him while being distinct from Him. Being spiritual in nature, you are identical to Krishna. But because you are only a tiny fragment of it, you are at the same time different from Him.

This simultaneous identity and difference have always characterized the relationship which unites beings with the Supreme Lord. The marginal status of the distinct being allows us to understand this notion of simultaneous identity and difference. The living being is like a molecule of the sun, while Krishna can be compared to the star itself, in all its glory. Lord Chaitanya compares living beings to sparks of fire and the Supreme Being to the very inferno from which they emanate. In this context, the Lord quotes a verse from the Visnu Purana (sacred book) where it is said that all cosmic manifestation is only the energy of the Supreme Lord. Like the fire which, from where it burns, diffuses its light and its heat all around, the Lord, who is in a given point of the spiritual world, deploys and manifests his different energies everywhere. Indeed, the entire Creation is made up of various manifestations of its energy.