Question: How is jnana dependent on bhakti? Does it mean a jnani has to practice bhakti with his practice of jnana to be successful? Or does it mean that a jnani has to come to path of bhakti as a result of his jnana?
Answer: He has to practice bhakti as secondary to jnana.
Question: If he has to practice bhakti, the question comes up how can he practice bhakti if he is doing devotion with the objective of liberation? How can that be bhakti?
Answer: It is sakama bhakti, kaivalya-kama to be exact.
Question: Can bhakti also be directed to the demigods?
Answer: Primarily not. Bhakti in its primary sense is only to God.
Question: It seems it is not bhakti as it is kaivailya kama and also not to Krishna, then how is jnana dependent on bhakti?
Answer: Why is it not bhakti? Of course it has to be to Visnu-tattva. Only He can give the result of jnana.
Question: It seems the point is that somehow Krishna is reciprocating and giving them the results of their efforts, but why is Krishna reciprocating if it is not love or devotion? In other words, what is the difference between kaivalya kama and jnana that Krishna is reciprocating?
Answer: He reciprocates because jnanis are following a path prescribed by Him in shastra. They have respect for shastra. Otherwise there was no need to propagate sayujya mukti [liberation by merging with the Supreme]. It is not unconditional love, but conditional.
Question: Isn’t the idea that for the jnanis to be successful, Krishna has to give them the results, but why when they are neither worshipping Him directly nor trying to please Him? Or is it only when they worship Krishna that a jnani can become successful? But do they worship Krishna?
Answer: Krishna says chaturvidha bhajante mam—four types of people worship Me. He says they are all udara. He reciprocates so that people in general have faith in Him and worship Him. If they are not worshiping Him directly then they can only get material results, not mukti. Jnanis can become successful only when they worship Krishna or Vishnu. If they do not worship Him then there is no question of mukti.
