Pṛthivīte, upon the surface of the earth, there are many system of religion. Yahā kichu dharma nāme chole. So what is that? Bhāgavata kahe. He does not say, but he says on the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is scholarship. A scholar will not speak anything as he is thinking. No. He will give authoritative quotation to support. That is Vedic system. When you support your proposition with the Vedic version, then it is accepted. Otherwise not. Veda pramāṇa.
So Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura said bhāgavata kahe. He doesn't say "In my opinion." Nowadays it has become a very good fashion, "I think," "In my opinion." Without knowing his own value, he gives his opinion. He does not know that he's imperfect. He's imperfect in his senses, he's liable to commit mistake, he's illusioned, and he's a cheater. Everyone knows that "How I am cheating the other party." Especially amongst businessmen, when there is conference, so each one is trying, "Now how much I have cheated him." So this cheating, vipralipsā, is one of the qualification of the conditioned soul. Bhrama pramāda vipralipsā karaṇāpāṭava (CC Adi 7.107). So a person, authorized person in the line of disciplic succession, he does not speak by his own authority. Immediately he'll quote from the Vedic literature to support his proposition. So Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura says bhāgavata kahe. He doesn't say that "I say," or "In my opinion." No. Bhāgavata kahe taha pari purṇa chole.
- pṛthivīte yahā kichu dharma nāme cale
- bhāgavata kahe taha pari purṇa chole
So how is that Bhāgavata says? The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you'll find, in the introductory portion, Vyāsadeva says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). Atra, śrīmad-bhāgavate, kaitavo dharma, projjhita. Kaitava means cheating. Cheating type of religion is completely kicked out. Projjhita. Prakṛṣṭha rūpena ujjhita. Just like we sweep over the floor and throw away the dust just to make the floor very clean. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, just to make it very clean from this cheating type of religious system . . . it is written by Vyāsadeva, religion means that yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. This is religion. Here it is said. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). It doesn't matter whether you are Hindu or Musselman or Christian or Buddha or Jaini or so on, so on—there are so many, hundreds—but the test is yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, whether you have developed your love for God. That is wanted. It doesn't matter.