The ear is the most important organ for learning what is to be done and what is not to be done for our ultimate benefit. We must hear from the superior authority. At night we sleep peacefully, unaware that someone might be coming to chop off our head. However, our sense of hearing is acute, even in the sleeping state. If someone cries out, Wake up! Wake up! Someone is coming to kill you! we can be saved. Similarly, we are sleeping under the influence of material nature. We seem to be awake and acting, but prakrti (material nature) is doing the actingnot us. We are being forced to act according to our association with the different modes of material nature. Although we are in the sleeping condition, our ear does not sleep, and it helps us to rise out of ignorance. If we hear from the right personthe spiritual masterand from the Vedic scriptures, we can awaken to our original, constitutional position as eternal servants of Krsna. The first prescription is sravanam, hearing about Krsna. If we simply hear about Krsna, we will automatically wake up. The injunction of the Vedas is uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata: Wake up! Get up! Understand the great benediction you have in this human form of life. Now utilize it and get free from the clutches of the material modes of nature. In the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Krsna explains how to do this: