In SB 1.2.7 if the knowledge is acquired through devotion how is it causeless?

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Question. Bhagavata 1.2.7 It is said that the knowledge that is acquired knowledge is causeless. Ahai tukam.
But then it is also said that that knowledge is acquired. So, if something is acquired, then how is it causeless? Answer. Vasudeva.
Let me look at the words first. Vasudeva bhagwati bhakti yoga prayogitah janate asvairagyam jnanam jiyat ahai tukam. So, here it’s actually quite a hmm if you want to put it like that.
It’s a romantic description of bhakti. In the sense that it is said that there is also Lord Vasudeva over here. Vasudeva bhagwati bhakti yoga prayogitah.
So, prayogitah is connected, attached. This is applied. So, just as when a male and a female come in touch with each other, then a child is born.
So, like that Lord Vasudeva is in the heart of the devotee. Heart of all living beings. But when the soul connects with Lord Vasudeva through bhakti.
When bhakti comes in contact with Vasudeva, like our devotion is offered to Vasudeva, then that contact of bhakti there with Vasudeva leads to the getting of two children. Janayati. Janayati is to take birth there.
Gyanan, Vairagyam and Gyanan. An incision in knowledge. So, the central point of this verse is that a devotee doesn’t have to cultivate Gyanan and Vairagyam separately.
Rather just by the practice of bhakti, Gyanan and Vairagyam will come. So, the previous verse was savai kum sam paro dharma. The topmost dharma is bhakti.
And subsequent verses are all analysis of how bhakti is the topmost dharma. What about Vairanashram? What about Gyanan? What about Vairagyam? All the other things are contextualized in subsequent verses here. So, here now, Gyanan and Vairagyam come as a result of bhakti.
That is the central point. Now, what is Ahaitukam doing over here? Gyanam chait Ahaitukam. Now, the word Ahaitukam can have many different meanings.
Here, Prabhupada translates it as causeless. And the word Hetu literally means instrument or cause. It can also mean motivation.
Like Prabhupada translates Ahaituki bhakti, Ahaituki aprati hatayas I am motivated and uninterrupted. So, now, here, the cause, the word cause is a little, it is multivalent. The word cause can have many meanings.
Cause can mean this caused it to happen. Or it can mean for this, this happened. That means what? The cause can be the actuating purpose of something.
Or it can be the culminating purpose of something. And let me explain what I mean by this. When we say that this is that the cause of the Kurukshetra war was Duryodhana’s obstinacy.
That means because of Duryodhana’s obstinacy that the war took place. Or if we say that the soul’s desire to enjoy separate from Krishna is the cause of this world. That means what? It is not that they create the world.
But rather the world is as a forum for them to have their desires. The soul maintains the world. How can the soul maintain the world? We are not maintaining the world.
But what it means is the world exists because we have a desire for that. So that we are the cause of the world in the same way that the patients are the cause of the hospital. Patients don’t run the hospital.
But the hospital exists for the patients. So here the word cause has different meanings similarly. So here the more appropriate understanding is cause is of motivation.
So the Jnanis when they cultivate Jnana that Jnana is in the sense that that Jnana is with the aim of liberation. So the fundamental Jyogaswami explains in Sandarbhas three differences between the Jnana Bhakti and the Jnana of the Jnanis. So he says there is an intent in content and in effect.
So in intent actually the devotees the Jnanis want to merge with the absolute truth. The devotees want to serve the absolute truth. In content the devotees the Jnanis actually think, meditate on their oneness with the absolute truth.
Whereas the devotees meditate on their subordination to the absolute truth. How Krishna is so beautiful, how Krishna is so attractive, how Krishna is so wonderful and therefore he is so lovable. So the focus is on Krishna’s greatness not on our oneness with him.
And the effect is that actually the Jnanis Jnana makes their heart because ultimately if everything is one then there is nothing to love. And if I feel there is something to love then that is simply because of the illusion of my heart. So I sort of guard my heart against any emotions, seeing the emotions as the signs of illusion.
Whereas the devotee’s heart becomes soft towards Krishna by the Bhakti Anukula Jnana. So here when it is said Ahintuka Jnana what it refers to is that this Jnana is not having the motive of liberation. It is the Jnana which enhances the devotee’s appreciation of Krishna’s glories and thereby enhances the devotion.
So it is Ahintuka in the sense that it does not depend on anything other than Bhakti and it does not lead to anything other than Bhakti. It is within the purview of Bhakti itself. So we can say it is acquired in the sense that it is acquired by the practice of Bhakti.
But because it is not something outside the scope of Bhakti, so in that sense it is said it is causeless. So the causeless is more in the sense of it is not motivated by any cause outside of itself. So it is like a devotee wants to know about Krishna so that the devotee can love Krishna so that the devotee can be a better devotee.
The Jnani wants to know about Brahma not so that he can become a better Jnani although he may want that. The ultimate goal is to just merge in Brahma. So in that sense the Hetu for doing some so normally the word Hetu is used when the process and the goal are different.
When the process and goal are the same then it is not considered to be something outside the purview to aspire for the goal because the two are one and the same. So the Hetu is more in the sense that it is not motivated by anything outside of Bhakti.