Jaḍa Bharata

As Kṛṣṇa confirms in Bhagavad-gītā:

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntarātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

“Of all yogīs, he who abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.” (Bg. 6.47)plugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigBhagavad-gītā As It Is 6.47

And of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.

Jaḍa Bharata was a perfect yogī. He was formerly the emperor Bharata Mahārāja, and he was now the most exalted personality among learned sages and the master of all mystic powers. Although Jaḍa Bharata was an ordinary living entity, he had inherited all the knowledge given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kapiladeva. He could therefore be taken directly as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As confirmed by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his stanzas to the spiritual master: sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstraiḥ. An exalted personality like Jaḍa Bharata is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead because he fully represents the Lord by giving knowledge to others. Jaḍa Bharata is herein accepted as the direct representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead because he was imparting knowledge on behalf of the Supreme Lord. Therefore Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa concluded that it was appropriate to ask him about ātma-tattva, the spiritual science. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. This Vedic injunction is also confirmed herein. If anyone is at all interested in knowing the spiritual science (brahma jijñāsā), he must approach a guru like Jaḍa Bharata.