View source for If you simply hear, without doing anything. Simply sit down in the temple and whenever there is talk of Bhagavad-gita, Bhaga..., you go on hearing. Bas. Even if you do not understand, please hear. That's all

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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB1836LosAngelesApril281973_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="234" link="Lecture on SB 1.8.36 -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1973" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.8.36 -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1973">
<div class="heading">If you simply hear, without doing anything. Simply sit down in the temple and whenever there is talk of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhaga..., you go on hearing. Bas. Even if you do not understand, please hear. That's all. That vibration, that mantra vibration will help you. Understanding is not very important thing.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.8.36 -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1973|Lecture on SB 1.8.36 -- Los Angeles, April 28, 1973]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Tan manye adhītam uttamam. Prahlada Mahārāja said one who is engaged in these activities, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, hearing and chanting. Hearing means to hear about somebody else, his activities, his form, his quality, his entourage, so many things. If I want to hear about you, you must have some activities, just like history. We hear about history. What is the history? History means the record of activities of different persons in different ages. That is history. So as soon as there is the question, hearing, then the next question will be to hear what? Or what about? What is the subject matter? So that is said: Viṣṇu. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. The activities of Lord Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is hearing. Not that hearing the news in the newspaper, not that sort of hearing. Brahma-jijñāsā. These things are statement in the Vedas. Inquiry about Brahman. Hearing about Brahman. Just like here, we are also hearing and chanting. What is the subject matter? The subject matter is Kṛṣṇa. We are not hearing here any market report. What is the price of this, what is the price of this share or that share. No. We are hearing about Kṛṣṇa. And when there is question of hearing, there must be speaking or chanting. So we are speaking and chanting about Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Simply always be engaged in hearing and chanting about Krsna. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ.</p>
<p>Then further. As soon as you become expert in hearing and chanting, then the next stage is smaraṇam. Smaraṇam, thinking of. Anything you speak or hear, later on you contemplate, you meditate, smaraṇam. So smaraṇam is the third stage. First of all, one must begin with hearing, śravaṇam. Otherwise, what about, meditation? Therefore we must first of all hear about the subject matter of meditation. If you do not know the subject matter of meditation, where is the question of meditation? And that is chanting. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.23|SB 7.5.23]]). About Lord Viṣṇu. Actually yoga meditation means to see the form of the Lord, four-handed viṣṇu-mūrti within the heart. That is real meditation. Now these rascals, they have manufactured so-called meditation. That is not meditation. Meditation means to see the form of the Lord within your heart. Because in, in the heart there is the Lord. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati ([[Vanisource:BG 18.61|BG 18.61]]). So by controlling all the senses. The senses are very restless. They are going this way and that way, this way and that way. Mind is going this way, that way. So by this aṣṭāṅga-yoga system, by sitting posture, by controlling the breathing, by modes of different posture of seeing, so many things there are. The real thing is to control the mind and concentrate it on the form of Viṣṇu. That is the real thing. That is called samādhi. Pratyāhāra samādhi. So aṣṭāṅga-yoga means to come to this point of smaraṇam, smaraṇam, arcanam. This is arcanam.</p>
<p>Just like we are worshiping the Deity. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Śrī vigraha, the Deity worship. Ārādhanam, ārādhanam, worshiping. Śrī-vigraha ārādhanam. Śrī-vigrahārādhanam. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya. Nitya, daily. Not that ārādhana after one week or one month. No. Nitya, twenty-four hours. So you should have such program for worshiping the Deity that you may be engaged twenty-four hours, twenty-four hours. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya, nitya-nānā, nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra, dressing, decorating. Daily, new dress, or twice new dress, or four times new dress. As much as you can. Śṛṅgāra. This is called śṛṅgāra. Kṛṣṇa is opulent, the most opulent enjoyer. And we should supply. We should supply by which He can enjoy. Just like if somebody gives me a new dress, so I say: "Oh, it is a new dress. Very nice." So that is my enjoyment. Similarly if you satisfy Kṛṣṇa daily a very gorgeous dress. Just like today I see it is very nice. This kind of dress should be supplied to Kṛṣṇa. First-class clothing, first-class. Everything first-class. No third-class thing for Kṛṣṇa. All first-class. The gopīs must be first class, the dress must be first-class, the eating foodstuff must be first-class, the sitting place must be first-class, more than first-class. That is called: śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. Cleansing the temple as clean as glass, always. Everyone remarks this that our temples are very clean. Yes. Temple means must be very clean. The more you cleanse the temple, the more your heart becomes cleansed. This is the process. The more you dress Kṛṣṇa, you become satisfied. At the present moment, we are accustomed to see my dress. "How costly dress I have got, I become satisfied..." No. When by dressing Kṛṣṇa you'll feel satisfied, that is spiritual satisfaction. That is spiritual satisfaction.</p>
<p>Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau, yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi **. So this is the business of the spiritual master, yuktasya, to engage them always. Vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam. Such guru, spiritual master, I am offering. This is Gurv-aṣṭaka. So here it is said: śṛṇvanti. Kuntī-devī ... The first business is śṛṇvanti. One must be eager to hear. Lesson, everything is hearing. You go to school, college. What purpose you pay the school fee, college fee? For hearing. You hear from the learned professor, teacher, you sit down and you get knowledge. The first thing is śṛṇvanti. Therefore a devotee is always engaged in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, śṛṇvanti. That is devotee's business. Tavehitam. Those who are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their first business is hearing. So śṛṇvanti gāyanti. And if you actually, you have heard about Kṛṣṇa, then next business will be to chant, gāyanti.</p>
<p>Just like our preachers are going from here to interior parts of the village. Why? What is the purpose? For gāyanti., for preaching, for chanting. So that they may get the opportunity of hearing. Giving the opportunity to the people for hearing. That is gāyanti. And gṛṇanti, and takes seriously. Abhīkṣṇaśaḥ. Abhīkṣṇaśaḥ means twenty-four hours, without any stop, always. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ ([[Vanisource:CC Adi 17.31|CC Adi 17.31]]). Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore recommends: kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. One should be engaged twenty-four hours in chanting. That is the business of Kṛṣṇa conscious men. Hearing, chanting, śravaṇam kīrtanam. Either all the items or take to one item. Simply hearing. Just like Parikṣit Mahārāja did. Parikṣit Mahārāja did not do any other things. He sat down tight before Śukadeva Gosvāmī and went on hearing, hearing, hearing for seven days. And then his life is finished. So anyone or all of them. If you simply hear, without doing anything. Simply sit down in the temple and whenever there is talk of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhaga..., you go on hearing. Bas. Even if you do not understand, please hear. That's all. That vibration, that mantra vibration will help you. Understanding is not very important thing. There may be so many fools and rascals, they do not know grammar, do not know Sanskrit. No, there is no need of...</p>
<p>Apratihatā. Bhakti is apratiha... Nothing can check the progress of bhakti. So simply you have to adopt the process. The process is hearing. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was criticized by Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya in the beginning. He was, Caitanya Mahāprabhu was son of Jagannātha Miśra, and Jagannātha Miśra ... Jagannātha Miśra and Jagannātha Miśra's father-in-law, that means Caitanya Mahāprabhu's grandfather, grandfather, Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, he happened to be class friend of Sārvabhauma's father. That means Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya comes on the level of His father. So he asked that: "You are a boy, twenty-four years old only. You have taken sannyāsa. It is very difficult to keep sannyāsa because there are so many attractions for the young man. So you hear Vedānta-sūtra." This, the hearing. So hearing. So hearing's so important. Even amongst the Māyāvādī school, they hear Vedānta-sūtra. We also hear, but we hear, hear real Vedānta-sūtra. Because they falsely interpret, their hearing is spoiled, but we don't interpret. We hear actually. Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the Supreme." We accept it. That is hearing. And if you interpret, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa means this, Kurukṣetra means this," that mean you're spoiling your time. Why this, that? As it is, hear as it is. Then the...</p>
<p>So Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked to hear Vedānta. You know. And He was hearing. And Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was going on speaking, reciting Vedānta-sūtra. But He was simply hearing and then He was not asking any questions. So Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya asked that: "My dear boy, You are hearing, but You are not asking anything. What is this? You cannot understand? Or what is the reason that You are silent?" He said: "Yes, I'm understanding. But I am silent because you are explaining in a different way. Therefore I am simply hearing the verses of Vedānta-sūtra. I am not hearing you." Indirectly ... Of course, He was offering respect. Indirectly, he said that: "You are explaining the meaning foolishly." He said later on that: "I see, I hear the verses just like sunshine. But you are explaining just like covering cloud. This is your explanation." Sun is ... Nobody requires any lamp to see the sun. Everyone can see. But if it is covered by the cloud, it is very difficult to see. So this Māyāvāda interpretation is, explanation, means covering the real meaning. That's all. They do so like that. They'll never accept the direct meaning. Kurukṣetra dharmakṣetra... Even big, big political leaders. They will cover: "Kurukṣetra means this, dharmakṣetra means this." No. Hearing should be ... Our policy is hearing the original, as it is. Then it will be effective.</p>
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