Absorption is Required

I will recite one story in this connection, that one brahmana in South India, in Ranganatha temple, he was reading Bhagavad-gita. And he was illiterate. He did not know neither Sanskrit nor any letter. Illiterate. So the people, neighborhood, they knew that, "This man is illiterate, and he is reading Bhagavad-gita." He is opening the Bhagavad-gita, "Uh, uh," like that he was. So somebody was joking, "Well, brahmana, how you are reading Bhagavad-gita?" He could understand that, "This man is joking, because I am illiterate."

So in this way, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also happened to be that day in the Ranganatha temple, and He could understand that, "Here is a devotee." So He approached him and He asked, "My dear brahmana, what you are reading?" So he could also understand that, "This man is not joking." So he said, "Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gita. I am trying to read Bhagavad-gita, but I am illiterate. So my Guru Maharaja said that, 'You must read eighteen chapters daily.' So I have no knowledge. I cannot read. Still, Guru Maharaja said, so I am just trying to carry out his order and opening the pages, and that's all. I do not know how to read it."

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that, "You are crying sometimes, I see." Then, "Yes, I am crying." "How you are crying if you cannot read?" "No, because when I take this Bhagavad-gita book, I see one picture, that Krishna is so kind that He has taken the chariot driver, sarathi, of Arjuna. He is His devotee. So Sri Krishna is so kind that He can accept the position of a servant because Arjuna was ordering, 'Keep my chariot here,' and Krishna was serving him. So Krishna is so kind. So when I see this picture within my mind, I am crying." So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately embraced him that, "You are reading Bhagavad-gita. Without any education, you are reading Bhagavad-gita." He embraced him.

So this is... How he was seeing the picture? Because he was a lover of Krishna. It doesn't matter he could read these shlokas or not, but he was absorbed in love of Krishna, and he was seeing Krishna was sitting there, and He was driving the chariot of Arjuna. This is required, not that education.