Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 14 Verse 3-4

 Text 3

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyām

Translation

Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three

Purport

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has explained the words tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ (“by the body, words and mind”) in three ways. In reference to devotees, through their body, words and mind they are able to conquer Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus becoming perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they can touch His lotus feet with their hands, call Him to come with their words, and attain His direct audience within their mind simply by thinking about Him.

In the case of nondevotees, the words tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ refer to the word ajita, “unconquered,” and indicate that those not engaged in the loving service of Lord Kṛṣṇa cannot conquer the Absolute Truth by their bodily strength, verbal expertise or mental power. Despite all their endeavors, the ultimate truth remains beyond their reach.

In reference to the word jitaḥ, “conquered,” the words tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ indicate that the pure devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa conquer His body, words and mind. Lord Kṛṣṇa’s body is conquered because He always remains by the side of His pure devotees; Lord Kṛṣṇa’s words are conquered because He always chants the glories of His devotees; and Lord Kṛṣṇa’s mind is conquered because He always thinks about His loving devotees.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained the words tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ in regard to the word namantaḥ, “offering obeisances.” He explains that the devotees can take full advantage of the transcendental topics of the Lord by offering all respects to those topics with their body, words and mind. One should engage his body by touching the ground with his hands and head while offering obeisances to the topics of the Lord; one should engage his words by praising transcendental literatures such as Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as well as the devotees who are preaching such literatures; and one should engage his mind by feeling great reverence and pleasure while hearing the transcendental topics of the Lord. In this way, a sincere devotee who has acquired even a small amount of transcendental knowledge about Lord Kṛṣṇa can conquer Him and thus go back home, back to Godhead, for eternal life at the Lord’s side.

Text 4

śreyaḥ-sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho
kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate
nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām

Translation

My dear Lord, devotional service unto You is the best path for self-realization. If someone gives up that path and engages in the cultivation of speculative knowledge, he will simply undergo a troublesome process and will not achieve his desired result. As a person who beats an empty husk of wheat cannot get grain, one who simply speculates cannot achieve self-realization. His only gain is trouble.

Purport

Loving service to the Supreme Person is the natural and eternal function of every living entity. If a person renounces his own constitutional function and instead laboriously seeks so-called enlightenment through impersonal, speculative knowledge, his result is simply the trouble and bother that come from following an artificial process. A fool may beat an empty husk, not knowing that the grain has already been removed. Similarly foolish is the person who throws his mind again and again into the pursuit of knowledge without surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for it is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the very substance and goal of knowledge, just as grain is the substance and goal of the entire agricultural effort. Vedic knowledge or, indeed, material science without the Personality of Godhead is exactly like an empty and useless husk of wheat.

One may argue that by practicing yoga or cultivating impersonal knowledge one can acquire prestige, wealth, mystic powers or even impersonal liberation. But these so-called gains are actually useless, because they do not situate the living being in his constitutional position of loving service to the Supreme Lord. Therefore such results, being superfluous to the living being’s essential nature, are impermanent. As stated in the Nṛsiṁha Purāṇa, patreṣu puṣpeṣu phaleṣu toyeṣv akrīta-labhyeṣu vadaiva satsu/ bhaktyā su-labhye puruṣe purāṇe muktyai kim arthaṁ kriyate prayatnaḥ: “Since the primeval Personality of Godhead is easily attained by offering Him such things as leaves, flowers, fruits and water, which are all found without difficulty, why does one need to endeavor for liberation separately?”

Although the process of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa is very simple, it is extremely difficult for stubborn conditioned souls to completely humble themselves before the Supreme Personality of Godhead and absorb themselves twenty-four hours a day in His loving service. The mood of loving service is anathema to belligerent conditioned souls determined to defy God and enjoy. When such stubborn conditioned souls attempt to bypass surrendering to God through proud attempts at philosophical speculation, austerity, and yoga, they are turned back to the material platform by the powerful laws of God and violently merged into the heaving ocean of insignificance called the material world.