We must know God, and we must know what is His order, and we should abide by the orders. Then that is religion. So you take any type of religion, these three things are there: that we must try to know God, and what does He desires, and to fulfill it. Therefore in the Bhāgavatam it is said:
- sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
- yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
- ahaituky apratihatā
- yayātmā suprasīdati
- (SB 1.2.6)
It is said here that that is first-class religious system. It does not say Hinduism, Muslimism or Christianism. General definition: "That is first-class religion . . ." Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo. Why it is said, para? Para means the supreme. Not ordinary thing; supreme. "The supreme religious system is that which teaches the follower how to love God." That is supreme. It does not matter you learn to love God through Christianism or Hinduism or Muslimism, any "ism," but the result should be how much you have advanced in the art of loving God. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). Bhakti, this word, Sanskrit word, is used, "devotion," bhakti. To render service to God, that is bhakti. We are rendering service to so many things. That is not bhakti. Bhakti means to render service to God. And adhokṣaje.
There are many terminology of understanding God, but here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, God is mentioned as adhokṣaja. Adhokṣaja means beyond your sense perception. The another word is used, avāṅ mānasa-gocaraḥ, "Beyond the expression of your mind, words." Avāṅ mānasa-gocaraḥ. And another meaning, literal meaning, adha: adha means subdued. Adhakṛta akṣaja-jñānam. Akṣa. Akṣa means eyes, or . . . in Sanskrit there are letters beginning from a, ā, i and, at last, kṣa. So beginning from a to kṣa, a-kṣa, means we understand by combination of words. So you can combine so many words, but still, it is beyond that expression. That is called adhokṣaja. So God is realized . . . not by vocabulary we can understand what is the nature of God, or, in one word, that God is beyond our this material sense perception.