We have already explained, dharma does not mean a kind of faith, blind faith. Dharma means the real characteristic. For example, just like water is liquid. This is the characteristic of water. That is dharma. Stone is solid. That is the characteristic of stone. That is dharma. So faith is different thing. Faith, I have got faith today in something; tomorrow I may have faith in some other thing. And actually we see, sometimes a person called a Hindu, he is changing his faith to Muslim or Christian, or a Christian is changing his faith to another way. So faith can be changed, but the characteristics cannot be changed. Just like water is liquid. The liquidity cannot be changed of water. So in Sanskrit language or in Vedic literature, dharma means the characteristics which cannot be changed. Now let us consider what is the characteristic of the living being. The characteristic is that every one of us is serving somebody superior.
Nobody—we are sitting in this hall—can say that "I am not serving anyone." If somebody is not serving anyone, then he must be serving his own senses. The whole material world is going on because the people are engaged in the service of the senses. For sense gratification, one is doing very, very risky job. So nobody can say that "I am not serving." That is the characteristic of the living being, and that is called dharma. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa (CC Madhya 20.108-109), means we living entities, our real characteristic is to serve God. But we have given up the service of God; therefore we are now engaged in the service of the senses. And because we are constitutionally servant, therefore either we shall serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth, or, if we do not like to serve the Absolute Truth, then we must serve our senses. Therefore it is described, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra, means "Cheating type of religion is completely rejected here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam."
Here, this material world means everyone is trying to be master. But actually he is servant. Just like take, for example, in a family. The family head is the. . . Actually, he is servant of his wife, of his children or of his even servants. He is servant, but he is thinking that "I am the master of this family." In your country especially, if the husband cannot satisfy the wife, immediately there is divorce. So although in the name one is husband of the wife, but actually he is servant of the wife. The head of the family, just to keep the family members satisfied, he must be ready to serve all of them. If he dissatisfies any one of the family members, even to the servant, the whole family is disturbed. Therefore, constitutionally we are all servant, but we are serving misguidedly the senses. Why I serve my wife? Because she gives me facility of sense gratification. Actually, I do not serve even my wife, but I will serve my own senses. In this way, if you make an analytical study of everyone, you will find that everyone is engaged to serve his senses.
Therefore my original characteristic is to serve, but I am misplacing my service to somewhere else. So therefore it is said in this verse, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra. Kaitavaḥ means cheating. So everyone is serving his senses, but he is thinking that he is master. That is kaitavaḥ, means cheating, or māyā. The conclusion is that as we are constitutionally servant, we must remain a servant, not try falsely to become master. But by experience, we see that by giving service to so many things, nobody is satisfied, neither I am satisfied. For example, again let us go to the family life. A man has served the family with heart and soul throughout the whole life, and when he is old man, if he asks permission from his wife, "My dear wife, now I have served so much. Let me take sannyāsa now," the wife will never give permission. She will say, "What you have done? I have got to do so many things. Your this son is not yet settled up; this daughter is not yet married. How you can take sannyāsa? So you cannot do." So actually, he is the servant of the wife, but he is thinking, "I am master of the family."
This is called māyā. And any religious system on the platform of this false understanding is also cheating. Therefore it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra. Kaitavaḥ means cheating, which is not dharma, which is not the characteristic. The characteristic is that I am eternally servant of God. So instead of serving God, if I serve the dog, that is called cheating religion. Nobody is meant for serving a dog, but because I am servant, if I haven't got sufficient engagement as servant of God, then I keep a dog to serve him. So the conclusion is that constitutionally I am servant, servant of God, but instead of giving service to God, I am now engaged in the service of the dog. So on the standard of this so-called service, the Bhāgavata-dharma is not discussed, means the false service.
Now, how it is concluded? Therefore the next verse says, nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam: "This real service is enunciated here as the essence of all Vedic knowledge." Nigama means the Vedas, and it is called kalpa-taru. Kalpa-taru means desire tree. Vedic knowledge is so perfect that you can receive from the Vedas all different types of knowledge. You can receive knowledge from the Vedas, all types of knowledge, means that social, political and scientific, and there are so many departments of knowledge, even engineering, medical science. The medical science is called Āyur-veda. Āyur-veda means the Vedic knowledge about the duration of life. Similarly, there is Dhanur-veda, Dhanur-veda, military science. There are so many departments. Just like this aeroplane. That is also mentioned in the Vedas. There are not only aeroplanes; there are three other sciences. It is called kapota-vāhī. Kapota-vāhī means. . . The ka means the sky, and pota means ship. So as there is science how to manufacture the airship, there is there. There is another science of the same type, it is called kapota-vāhī. Kapota means pigeons. You can train up pigeons, and they will carry you from one place to another. There is another science which is called ākāśa-patana. Ākāśa-patana means in the ākāśa, in the sky, you can fly with any vehicle. There are mantras—suppose I am sitting on this throne—by chanting those mantras this seat will be flying in the sky. We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Kapiladeva. . .? No, Kardama Muni, father of Kapiladeva, he made an aeroplane or a exactly a township, with big, big buildings, with lake, garden and so many people, that was flying in the sky and visited all the planets. Therefore it is said, nigama-kalpa-taru. Kalpa-taru means desire tree.
So Vedas are compared with the desire tree. Desire tree means just like here in this material world you go to the mango tree, you get mangoes. But you cannot get samosā. (laughter) But desire trees there are. In the spiritual planets there are desire tree. Whatever you want, you can get from that tree. If you go to any tree, and whatever you like, you get it from it. So that is called kalpa-taru. So these Vedas are compared with the kalpa-taru because you can derive any kind of knowledge from Vedic literature. So Veda means knowledge. The word Veda means knowledge. So Vedic literature means. . . You can take it, any kind of knowledge, it can be called Vedas. Vetti veda vido jñāne vinte vid vicāraṇe(?). So in Sanskrit grammar the vid-dhātu. From vid-dhātu. . . Means knowing. And from vid-dhātu the word Veda has come. Now, the author says that "This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the essence of Vedic knowledge." Vedic knowledge is compared with the tree, and the tree has got fruit. So this Bhāgavatam is the fruit of the Vedic tree. That means you keep a tree for some getting fruit. If there is no fruit, that is meant for fuel. It is useless tree.
So here it is said, nigama-kalpa-taror galitaṁ phalam (SB 1.1.3), means "The Vedic literature is just like the desire tree, and the Bhāgavatam is the ripened fruit." And galitaṁ phalam means a fruit ripened in the tree, it is very, very delicious. Generally, for business purpose, fruits or unripe fruits are taken from the tree, and it is artificially kept to ripe. That fruit means the unripe fruit taken from the tree and it is ripened artificially—that is not so tasteful. And if the fruit is ripened in the tree fully, then you taste it—it is very delicious. Another thing is that if any fruit in the tree, when it is ripened, it is tasted by the parrot, touched by the beak of the parrot, it becomes more delicious.
So here it is said that this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not only the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree, but it is tasted by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is the realized person. He is liberated, realized person. Therefore, to hear Bhāgavatam from him is immediately delicious and effective, śuka-mukhād amṛta-drava-saṁyutam. It is because it is explained by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, not a professional, third-class man, but Śukadeva Gosvāmī. It is the injunction of Sanātana Gosvāmī that one should hear Vedic literature—Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā—from the realized person. Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī says, avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam, śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyam (Padma Purāṇa). Means "If hari-kathāmṛtam," means the Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā. . . This is hari-kathāmṛtam, the nectarean about the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore it is called hari-kathāmṛtam. "So one should not hear hari-kathāmṛtam from a non-realized avaiṣṇava." Vaiṣṇava means visnu-asya(?) devatā, one who worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. And Viṣṇu is the expansion of Kṛṣṇa.