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Srimad-Bhagavatam - Canto 2 Chapter 4 Text 5
rajovaca
samicinam vaco brahman
sarva-jnasya tavanagha
tamo visiryate mahyam
hareh kathayatah katham


raja uvaca -- the King said; samicinam -- perfectly right; vacah -- speeches; brahman -- O learned brahmana; sarva-jnasya -- one who knows all; tava -- your; anagha -- without any contamination; tamah -- the darkness of ignorance; visiryate -- gradually disappearing; mahyam -- unto me; hareh -- of the Lord; kathayatah -- as you are speaking; katham -- topics.


TRANSLATION

Maharaja Pariksit said: O learned brahmana, you know everything because you are without material contamination. Therefore whatever you have spoken to me appears perfectly right. Your speeches are gradually destroying the darkness of my ignorance, for you are narrating the topics of the Lord.

PURPORT

The practical experience of Maharaja Pariksit is disclosed herein, revealing that transcendental topics of the Lord act like injections when received by the sincere devotee from a person who is perfectly uncontaminated by material tinges. In other words, reception of the messages of Srimad-Bhagavatam from professional men, heard by a karma-kandiya audience, never acts miraculously as stated here. Devotional hearing of the messages of the Lord is not like hearing ordinary topics; therefore the action will be felt by the sincere hearer by experience of the gradual disappearance of ignorance.

yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah

"Unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, all the imports of Vedic knowledge are automatically revealed." (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23)

atah sri-krsna-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah

"No one can understand Krsna as He is by the blunt material senses. But He reveals Himself to the devotees, being pleased with them for their transcendental loving service unto Him." (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234)

bhaktya mam abhijanati
yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva
visate tad-anantaram

"One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God."

These are Vedic instructions. One must have full faith in the words of the spiritual master and similar faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then the real knowledge of atma and Paramatma and the distinction between matter and spirit will be automatically revealed. This atma-tattva, or spiritual knowledge, will be revealed within the core of a devotee's heart because of his having taken shelter of the lotus feet of a mahajana such as Prahlada Maharaja.6.23]

When a hungry man is given food to eat, he feels satiation of hunger and the pleasure of dining simultaneously. Thus he does not have to ask whether he has actually been fed or not. The crucial test of hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam is that one should get positive enlightenment by such an act.

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