don't hear from non-devotee

We should strictly follow this injunction and never try to hear from Mayavadis, impersonalists, voidists, politicians or so-called scholars. Strictly avoiding such inauspicious association, we should simply hear from pure devotees. Srila Rupa Gosvami therefore recommends, sri-guru-padasrayah: one must seek shelter at the lotus feet of a pure devotee who can be one's guru. Caitanya Mahaprabhu advises that a guru is one who strictly follows the instructions of Bhagavad-gita: yare dekha, tare kaha, 'krsna'-upadesa (Cc. Madhya 7.128). A juggler, a magician or one who speaks nonsense as an academic career is not a guru. Rather, a guru is one who presents Bhagavad-gita, Krsna's instructions, as it is. Sravana is very important; one must hear from the Vaisnava sadhu, guru and sastra. (More...)

So our process of understanding, this Krsna consciousness movement-we do not hear from any bogus person. We hear from Krsna. Therefore Krsna says for us, those who are Krsna conscious, tat samasena me srnu: "From Me, because I am the supreme authority, Krsna." Krsna says that mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya [Bg 7.7]: "There is no more superior authority than Me." So we get knowledge from superior authority. That is the process of acquiring knowledge. We go to school, colleges, teachers. So why? To receive knowledge. So teacher or school, college, they are in higher authority. Similarly, you go on, higher authorities, higher authorities, higher authorities, you reach to Brahma, because he is the original creature, and he described the Vedic knowledge. So he is also not higher authority. He also received knowledge from God. Tene brahma hrda adi-kavaye. That is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavata. Adi-kavaye, the original person. (More...)

So therefore bhagavan uvaca. We have to hear from Bhagavan, not from rascals. Then your knowledge is perfect. If you hear from rascals, then you become rascal. Don't hear from any rascal. Hear from Bhagavan and take it and accept it. Then gradually your existence will be purified. Just like if somebody comes... Recently it so happened. There is a big Mayavadi sannyasi in India. His name is Akhandananda Swami. Perhaps you know. Did you know? No. Anyone? Anyway, he is a Mayavadi sannyasi. So Acyutananda Swami went to sell some books in their camp. So his disciple requested him, "Why don't you ask some question from Swamiji?" So he said, "What I have to ask from him?" He was so convinced that "What this rascal can say to me? I know. I have heard from Krsna." This is knowledge. So if you stick to Krsna and hear from Him, you haven't got to hear from any rascal, any rascal. Then you will waste time. Don't hear from any rascal. (More...)

Prabhupada: Oh, that's all right. That's all right. Never mind. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, asat-saṅga-tyaga, ei vaisnava-acara [Cc Madhya 22.87]. Asat-saṅga-tyaga, ei vaisnava-acara. He, in one line, He said that "First of all, Vaisnava, his business is to avoid the company of asat." Asat means those who are materialistic interested. Asatah. Asato ma sad gama. This is very important thing. We have established this Krsna consciousness society-means that to avoid the asat-saṅga, to avoid the... Of course, we are preaching Krsna consciousness amongst the people who are interested in material subject matter. But we are not associating with them. We are associating with Krsna, because we don't talk anything except Krsna. We are not interested with their business. Everyone is interested with his own business. Similarly, we are interested with our own business, Krsna consciousness business. Even if we go to a materialistic person, we canvass, "Kindly become our member. Kindly read this book. Purchase this book." So we are not going to take their activities. We are trying to bring them in our activities. (More...)

So asat-saṅga-tyaga, vaisnava-acara. The Vaisnava, he should be always careful not to intermingle, means not to take up their ideas and thoughts. No. That is vaisnava-acara. Asat-saṅga-tyaga, ei vaisnava. And why they should be avoided? Asat eka stri-saṅgi, krsna-abhakta. Who is asat? Asat means those who are very much attached to sense gratification. Sense... The culmination of sense gratification is sex life. So those who are too much attached to sex life, stri-saṅgi, and krsna-abhakta, and not devotee of Krsna, they are asat. So those who are actually serious to make advance in spiritual life, they should avoid the asat. (More...)

There are so many Mayavadis and avaisnava, they practically do not accept Krsna even the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they dare to speak on Bhagavad-gita. Just see the fun. He does not accept Bhagavad-gita as it is, and he wants to comment and give his tika. So you'll never derive any benefit. Therefore here it is said, satam prasaṅgat. You should hear Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam from the devotees, not from a third-class man. No. Third class means those who are materialistic. So therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu has warned that mayavadi-bhasya sunile haya sarva-nasa. If you happen to hear from a Mayavadi, impersonalist, who does not accept Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or does not know what is Krsna, if such person reads Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, you will never derive any benefit. You can go on hearing them for hundreds of years; still, you will never understand what is Krsna. That is forbidden. Sanatana Gosvami has forbidden, that avaisnava-mukhodgirnam putam hari-kathamrtam. Hari-katha, talks, discussion on Hari, or Krsna, that is amrta. Amrta means nectarine. If one hears, then he gets his amrta. Amrtatvam. (More...)

So animitta bhagavati bhaktih siddher gariyasi. That is better than siddhi. Siddhi means self-realization or Brahman realization. Therefore Krsna says also. What Krsna says and what Kapiladeva says, they are the same thing. Therefore here it is also said, bhagavan uvaca. And in the Bhagavad-gita also you will find, bhagavan uvaca. Never said krsna uvaca or kapila uvaca, because They are Bhagavan. So those who are self-realized soul, who know what is Bhagavan, so instead of speaking kapiladeva uvaca, he says, Vyasadeva says... Srimad-Bhagavatam is compiled by Srimad Vyasadeva. So as Bhagavad-gita also, it was heard by Arjuna, it was released to Sanjaya, and then, from Sanjaya heard Vyasadeva, and he made it recorded in writing in Mahabharata... So he says, bhagavan uvaca. Bhagavan uvaca means that is the perfect version. There is no mistake. If some ordinary man says, there will be so many defects and cheating, because ordinary person has no perfect knowledge. He may be very, very advanced scholar, but that does not mean he is perfect. Perfection is different thing. Perfection means there should be no mistake, no illusion, no cheating and no imperfections of the senses. That is perfection. And therefore it is said here, bhagavan uvaca. Bhagavan is all-perfect. Therefore we should take knowledge from Bhagavan or one who speaks according to the version of Bhagavan. We should not hear anybody else. That is imperfect. (More...)

So samsayatma vinasyati. So it is our business to be very, very careful from understanding spiritual life or devotional life from nondevotee class of men. Nondevotee means one who does not accept Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is nondevotee. Krsna abhakta ara. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was asked by His one devotee, grhastha devotee, that "What is the primary function of a devotee?" So Caitanya Mahaprabhu said in two lines: asat-saṅga-tyaga, ei vaisnava-acara [Cc Madhya 22.87]. Asat. Asat means those who are nondevotees. They are asat. They are asat. Why asat? Because they will remain in this material world. Therefore they are asat. And those who will go to the spiritual..., those who will be promoted to the spiritual world, back to home, back to Godhead, they are sat, om tat sat, because they are being promoted to the eternal kingdom. That is sat. This is the distinction between asat and sat. Those who will perpetually remain within this material world, they are called asat. The karmis, jnanis and yogis... Yogis, they... Just like... What is that big yogis? That rsi, great rsi? (More...)

Professional men are useless because they are neither self-realized nor interested in the liberation of the audience. They are simply interested in maintaining the material establishment of family attachment and earning some material benefits out of the p

Cheap devotees or the material devotees of the Lord are very much desirous to see the Lord personally without making any requisite qualification. Such third-grade devotees should know well that material attachment and seeing the Lord eye to eye cannot go together. It is not such a mechanical process that the professional Bhagavatam reciters can do the job on behalf of the third-grade materialist pseudo-devotee. The professional men are useless in this connection because they are neither self-realized nor interested in the liberation of the audience. They are simply interested in maintaining the material establishment of family attachment and earning some material benefits out of the profession. Maharaja Pariksit had no more than seven days to live, but for others Maharaja Pariksit personally recommends that one should hear Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly, nityam, always by one's own effort and with serious devotion also. That will help one to see the Lord Sri Krsna manifested in one's heart within no time. (More...)

The materialist wants to derive some material benefit from his so-called hearing of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Undoubtedly such an audience, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam from the professional men, can derive some material benefit, but that does not mean that such a

The hearing of Srimad-Bhagavatam performed by the professional men is different from the transcendental hearing of Maharaja Pariksit. Maharaja Pariksit was a soul realized in the Absolute Truth, Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. The fruitive materialist is not a realized soul; he wants to derive some material benefit from his so-called hearing of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Undoubtedly such an audience, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam from the professional men, can derive some material benefit as desired by them, but that does not mean that such a pretense of hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam for a week is as good as that of Maharaja Pariksit. (More...)

It is the duty of the sane to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam from a self-realized soul without being duped by professional men, and one should continue such hearing till the end of one's life so that one can actually have the transcendental association of the Lord and thus be liberated simply by hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam. (More...)