Without hearing and chanting, to become leader it is impossible. You can, you can become leader in the material world, but not in the spiritual world

Expressions researched:
"Without hearing and chanting, to become leader it is impossible. You can . . . you can become leader in the material world, but not in the spiritual world"

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

So we want to create a new generation in your country so that in the future there'll be fluent speaker in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and preach all over the country, and your country will be saved. Therefore, as a rigid principle, in every temple there should be class for hearing and chanting. Without hearing and chanting, to become leader it is impossible. You can, you can become leader in the material world, but not in the spiritual world.

Lecture on SB 1.8.22 -- Los Angeles, April 14, 1973:

Throughout the whole world, whatever knowledge is there, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, everything is there. There is literature, there is poetry, there is philosophy, there is religion, there is love of Godhead, there is astronomy. Everything is there. Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam (SB 12.13.18). Vidyā bhāgavatāvadhiḥ. If one simply reads this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, his education is the topmost. Vidyā bhāgavatāvadhiḥ. There is something topmost, ultimate. So for education, vidyā, this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If one studies Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he is well versed in every subject matter.

So we want to create a new generation in your country so that in the future there will be fluent speaker in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and preach all over the country, and your country will be saved. This is our program. We have come here not to exploit your country, but to give you something substantial. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

So read Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Pronounce the verses very nicely. Therefore we're repeating. You hear the records and try to repeat. Simply by chanting the mantra you'll be purified. Simply by chant . . . Even you do not understand a single word of it, simply if you chant, this vibration has got such power. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). If you simply chant and vibrate this verse . . . these verses, these ślokas, it is puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ.

There is . . . there is no question of understanding. Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. Puṇya means pious, and śravaṇa means hearing, and kīrtana means chanting. One who is chanting this verse and one who is hearing this verse, he is becoming pious automatically. Pious. To become pious one has to endeavor so much: do this, do that. But if you simply hear these verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā . . .

Therefore, as a rigid principle, in every temple there should be class for hearing and chanting. Without hearing and chanting, to become leader it is impossible. You can . . . you can become leader in the material world, but not in the spiritual world. Śravaṇa-kīrtana kare . . .

mālī hañā sei bīja kare āropaṇa

śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale karaye secana

(CC Madhya 19.152)

Bhakti-latā-bīja. It is a seed of developing your original consciousness. Just like in the seed there is potency, in a small seed, mustardlike, but if you sow it, in due course of times it comes out a big banyan tree. There is so much potency in that seed. Where is that scientist? Just prepare a seed in which there is a big, gigantic banyan tree.