Bhāgavata-dharma means beginning is hearing. That's all. Śravaṇam. You simply hear about God. You haven't got to do anything. God has given you the ear. You simply hear about God. That is the beginning of bhāgavata-dharma. It doesn't require that you have to pass M.A., Ph.D. examination, then you'll understand God. No. Very simple thing. What God says, Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto (BG 18.65), you hear it from Bhagavad-gītā. God says, Kṛṣṇa says that "You simply think of Me." Is it a very difficult task? Here is God, Kṛṣṇa. Either you say the image of God... We take God as He is. It is not image of God, but God Himself. He has come here in the form which you can see. God is everywhere, but unfortunately we haven't got eyes to see Him.
God is everywhere. Eko 'py asau racayituṁ jagad-aṇḍa-koṭim yac-chaktir asti jagad-aṇḍa-cayā yad-antaḥ aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). God is everywhere. Even within the atoms. But we have no eyes. The part of God, mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7). The little portion of God is there in you and me. The living force. But we cannot see that. So we haven't got eyes to see God. We cannot eyes to see my father, mother. We are seeing the body. When the father dies, we cry, "My father has gone." Where your father has gone? Here he's lying. But he has not seen ever who is his father. Therefore our present eyes are not fit to see spiritual thing. We are fit to see stone, wood, like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, out of His great kindness, He has appeared before you. You are thinking it is stone. It is not stone. Kṛṣṇa. But because you cannot see except stone, He appears like stone. This is called Deity worship. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that because you cannot see anything except stone and wood or something material...
The material is also Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is everything. God is everything. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). What is this material world? Kṛṣṇa says, "This bhūmi, this land, āpaḥ, the water, the ocean, that is My energy." There is no difference between the energy and the energetic. Just like the sunshine is the energy of the sun. The sunshine is also heat and light, and the sun is also heat and light. Similarly, this bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, these material things are the energy of Kṛṣṇa; therefore these energies are also Kṛṣṇa. So if we study about bhakti-mārga, about Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then we shall gradually understand. Therefore Prahlāda Mahārāja says that "Begin to understand bhāgavata-dharma, what is God, what He is like, what is His relationship with Me."