What is satisfactory hearing? When we listen to the television? Or the Srimad Bhagvatam? So Srila Prabhupada in this purport (SB 2.6.46) stresses hearing about the Lord.
He says that one cannot be fully satisfied by hearing, unless and until, one is given a chance to hear the transcendental activities of the Lord.
Every living entity has a tendency to hear some pleasing messages and as such, almost every one of us is inclined to hear news and talks broadcast by the television and radio stations. But difficulty is, that no is satisfied at heart by hearing such messages, all those messages.
The cause of such dissatisfaction is the incompatibility of the message, with the innermost stratum of a living soul… Radio news, T.V. news and newspapers are incompatible with the inner stratum of the living soul. This transcendental literature however is especially prepared by Vyasadev to give the utmost satisfaction to the people in general by narrating the activities of the Lord, as instructed by Narada Muni to Vyasadev. People who take interest in hearing Srimad Bhagvatam clear their hearts of accumulated mundane filth. There are a thousand and one rash literatures on the market. But one who has taken interest in Srimad Bhagvatam loses all interest in such filthy literature.
Srila Prabhupada is being quite specific here about the power of Srimad Bhagvatam to defeat our interest in mundane news.
And one will have to do the experiment and find out which leaves him with a better taste, more satisfaction.
Now the question to be asked talking is about hearing Srimad Bhagvatam but I have a natural attraction to hearing T.V. news and it’s all so jazzed up and there is one lady newscaster and one man newscaster and they go back and forth… waah waah wooh wooh… waah waah wooh wooh… so how do I get attraction for the Srimad Bhagvatam? Because all the ladies are watching the man newscaster and all the men are watching the lady newscaster… so how do you get an affinity?
Mahat-sevam – by serving those devotees who are completely free from vice one gets affinity for hearing the message of Srimad Bhagvatam. This is from the first canto of the Srimad Bhagvatam, chapter 2, verse 16. Chapter 2 is very important, so many important verses there…
śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya
vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ
syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ
puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt
Srila Prabhupada: O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done (mahat-sevayā viprāḥ). By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vāsudeva.
MS: So you get vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ - the taste for hearing by serving the devotees. So this is the key, how one can get attraction for hearing. By serving the servants of the Lord, one gradually gets the qualities of such servants and thus one becomes qualified to hear the glories of God. Eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of the devotee, eligible for entering the kingdom of God. So we often ask devotees, “Oh you are reading…?” “Oh no, I don’t have much taste for reading” “Are you listening to tapes?” “No… I don’t like it so much…”
Well, this lack of attraction or taste for hearing or reading is indicative of person’s heart contamination, when one doesn’t have much attraction for talks of the Lord. But by serving, then one will get this taste.
So Sridhar Swami, he responds to the question, “I lack a taste for hearing so what should I do?”
Sridhar Swami says, “By visiting places of pilgrimage and serving the mahatmas residing there, it will gradually purify us and evoke our spiritual desires.”
Jiva Goswami comments that the holy people frequent holy places. Meeting them, taking their association and feeling their potency will awaken our desire to gain knowledge about the Supreme Lord; by hearing Krsna-katha from them.
Devotees may also associate with Srila Prabhupada by reading his books and hearing his recorded lectures and conversations.
Further spiritual taste is generated from this initial desire to hear Krsna-katha. Preachers in ISKCON should think of themselves are insignificant servants of Srila Prabhupada and his mission to establish Krsna consciousness in the world. When preachers feel their insignificance, they will be able to pray that Srila Prabhupada preach through them. Or that in one of any number of ways they may assist Srila Prabhupada and his mission. Such a service mood will award them with a taste for hearing Krsna-katha. This is the point.
Mahat-sevam, sraddha, a humble approach, feeling oneself insignificant, depending on Srila Prabhupada’s mercy, praying to him and serving devotees, especially devotees in a holy dhama, then one will get some taste for hearing Hari-katha. It is contagious, if you serve someone who has taste for Hari-katha then that will come to you, that is what we heard. The qualities of the servants of the Lord are attained by someone who serves the servant of the Lord.
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