He is considered fortunate: one who kicks māyā, goes to Kṛṣṇa, takes the instructions of the spiritual master seriously, and comes to this path of devotion. Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja [Cc. Madhya līlā 19.151]. First is kṛṣṇa-kṛpa. Second comes guru-kṛpa because you cannot have this direct approach to Kṛṣṇa. If you are intelligent, if you have some ajñāta-sukṛti, past sukṛti, bhakti unmukhī sukṛti, then by the result, by the consequence of that sukṛti, you will meet and associate with sādhu. The result of bhakti unmukhī sukṛti is that by the association of sādhu, you become very, very eager to understand that I am a spirit soul, an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How can I approach Him and get Him? You are very eager and are crying for it.
Ayi nanda-tanuja kiṅkaraṁ patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya [Cc. Antya līlā 20.32, Śikṣāṣṭaka 5]. Śrīman Mahāprabhu says this. This path is of crying, praying with folded hands from the core of your heart, "Kṛṣṇa, ayi nanda-tanuja, O son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa, kiṅkaraṁ, I am your servant, kiṅkaraṁ, eternal servant. Patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau. It is my misfortune that I have been put here in this dreadful material ocean of existence wherein I suffer from the three-fold material miseries. Patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya. O Kṛṣṇa, please shower Your mercy on me, kick me out from this dreadful material ocean and think of me as a speck of dust at Your lotus feet." When you pray like that, when you are very eager, when you cry for it, then you get kṛṣṇa-kṛpa. "Oh, now he is crying for Me," Kṛṣṇa thinks. He is inside your heart as paramātmā, the Supersoul. "He is very eager now to get Me and is crying for Me," so He showers His mercy, and then you meet guru, the bona fide spiritual master. This is kṛṣṇa-kṛpa.
Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ [Bg. 4.34]. Bhagavad-gītā teaches this. When Kṛṣṇa showers His mercy, then you meet, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12]. Upaniṣad says this also. If you are very eager to know the science, vijñāna, then approach a bona fide spiritual master who is svapriyaṁ brahmaniṣṭham, comes in this hearing process, and śrota pārampārya comes in the disciplic succession, bona fide disciplic succession. Approach a bona fide spiritual master who has heard from his spiritual master because this is a hearing process. It is śrota pārampārya, a descending process, not an ascending process. The māyāvādīs and the jñānīs adopt this ascending process, but we, the devotees, bhaktas, or vaiṣṇavas, adopt the descending process. These are the two processes: inductive and deductive logic. Are you a student of logic? No. Those who are students of logic know inductive and deductive logic, these ascending and descending processes.
When you surrender yourself at the lotus feet of the guru, the spiritual master, who is a representative of Kṛṣṇa, serve him, please him, and enquire tattva jijñāsā, then, out of mercy when the guru is pleased, he will impart this knowledge to you. This is guru-kṛpa. You can now approach with the help of the guru, the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Now your intelligence is purified. The impurity is gone by the mercy of the guru, and the intelligence is purified. Kṛṣṇa gives that purified intelligence.
Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te
[Bg. 10.10]
By dint of purified intelligence, you can approach Kṛṣṇa, not by impure intelligence. That purified intelligence comes from Kṛṣṇa through the medium of guru, through His representative, the spiritual master. So, one who is fortunate, bhāgyavān, gets this. When he abuses his independence, and his intelligence is polluted, he becomes captured by māyā and comes here to this material existence or material world and undergoes many species, lakhs of species of life, and wanders in different universes, different planetary systems.