The Bhakthi or devotion of the Jnani is what is termed Sahajabhakthi, direct Bhakthi. The Bhakthi of the others can be called Gouna-bhakthi or derived Bhakthi, indirect Bhakthi. The Jnani cognises the Lord as his own Atma; his Bhakthi is Anu-rakthi, attachment towards or affection for God. 'Poojyaeshvanura ago bhakthi,' it is said; 'affection towards the venerable is Bhakthi', said Krishna. The Jnani becomes so as the result of the merit accumulated through many lives. It is not a stage attainable on the spur of the moment; nor is it available ready-made in shops for a price. It is not a marketable commodity. It is the culmination of the spiritual endeavour practised in many lives. It is desired that many good doctors must be produced for ministering to the people. But years of study and experience alone can supply them; if those unequipped are appointed as doctors in the hospitals and if they start prescribing and operating, they are bound to kill where they should cure. So too, if a person has become a Jnani today, you can imagine the years and years of Sadhana that won for him that height. That inheritance of spiritual impulses from previous births also helps his endeavours.

All kinds of people now name themselves as Jnanis. They do not know, perhaps, that a Jnani is marked by certain characteristics. The mark that proves him genuine is, of course, his declaration based on his own experience that "Vaasudevassarvamidam," "Vaasudeva is all this." The steady assimilation of that experience is the true sign of the Jnani. By Vaasudeva is meant here not the son of Vasudeva, but He who has made all beings His home, His Nivaasa. It is only a person who perceives the Lord in all beings that deserves to be called a Jnani. Instead, if others name themselves as Jnanis, they are so only in name. They have no genuine experience of Jnana. What exactly is that Jnana? It is the possession of that knowledge which enables you to have knowledge of all; and so enables you to dispense with the knowledge of all else.

This is the height which the Jnani reaches. On the other hand, no one can claim to be a Jnani who has simply learnt a few slokas by heart, or skipped through a few books, or ascended platforms with ten others and lectured for hours in the full pride of scholarship, reeling off ponderous sentences (like magician and his ball of thread), pouring out what has earlier been swallowed. We have large numbers of such self-styled Jnanis going about now. Their dress is ochre, but their hearts are ogre. Well, how can stones shine as gems? All stones are not precious stones. Who will assess a stone as equal to a gem? Only fools will be misled. For they know neither the one nor the other.