There are nine different processes. The most important process is hearing. And as soon as you want to hear, that means you have to concentrate your mind. So naturally the mind becomes, I mean to say, locked. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. But if we sleep, that is another thing that, "Let the lectures go on. Let me have some rest." That is another thing. But if you hear, if you are anxious to hear, then mind has to be engaged. Without attention, you cannot hear. If your mind is something doing, you are thinking of marketing something, or sometimes . . . so you can hear, make a show of hearing, but you are not hearing. Therefore mind is the first thing. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (SB 9.4.18). If you engage your mind in hearing, then you can describe the things in the Vaikuṇṭha, in the spiritual world. Vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānu . . .
So we have to practice. This is bhakti-yoga. First of all we have to engage the mind. Mind. And as soon as you engage the mind in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will help you in cleansing your mind. That is the opinion given by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Because everything . . . we cannot understand about God, or we cannot see God, or we do not know what is God, because there are so many dirty things on the mind. Otherwise, as soon as the mind is clear, devoid of all dirty things, you can see. You can understand what is God; you can see God every moment. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilo . . . (Bs. 5.38).
So there is no difficulty. God is here, Kṛṣṇa. But one's mind is not clear. He cannot see God; he sees a statue of stone. He sees a statue of stone. And whose mind is clear, like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as soon as He sees Jagannātha, immediately fainted, "Here is Kṛṣṇa." Actually, that is the fact. Here is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is omnipresent. That is God's one qualification: omnipresent. He is present everywhere. So why not present in the temple? He is present here. But we have no eyes to see, because our mind is not clean.
So we cannot use the senses to see God. That is the defect. Therefore premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena (Bs. 5.38). By the bhakti process, by devotional service, you cleanse your mind, you cleanse your senses. As soon as your mind is cleansed, then senses are also cleansed. That is helped by Kṛṣṇa Himself, as He says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ. As soon as Kṛṣṇa sees that you are eager to hear about Him . . . Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). By the first hearing you may not understand about Kṛṣṇa, but if you simply hear with little attention, although you do not understand, still, you will be pious. Because the dirty things means covered with impious activities. So if you hear about Kṛṣṇa, then gradually you will become pious, simply by hearing. Simply . . . just like if there is injection, anti . . . some disease, vaccine. You understand or not understand, it will act. Suppose if you take poison, if you do not understand what is poison, it will act. Similarly, kṛṣṇa-kathā is so powerful that if you simply hear, even if you do not understand, then you will become pious.
And by becoming pious . . . because without becoming pious, nobody can understand Kṛṣṇa. It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā, yeṣām anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām (BG 7.28): "those who are twenty-four hours engaged in pious activities." Therefore we engage our students in this bhakti-yoga practice, twenty-four hours routine work, because it is pious activities. So he will be purified. He will be purified. We have got so many times offering ārati, offering prasādam, cleansing the temple, dressing the Deity, talking about Him. Twenty-four hours must be. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Kīrtanīyaḥ, or sevanīyaḥ, sadā hariḥ, twenty-four hours. In this way we become purified. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā . . . (CC Antya 20.12). As soon as your mind is cleansed of all dirty things, then you become fit for going back to home, back to Godhead.
So any yoga practice . . . but other yoga practice—haṭha-yoga practice, dhyāna-yoga practice, karma-yoga practice, jñāna-yoga practice—these are very difficult in this age. But if you take to bhakti-yoga practice . . . it is recommended, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt. In this age, Kali-yuga, this hari-kīrtana is bhakti-yoga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ (SB 12.3.52). In different ages, because the people are different, so different methods are prescribed in the śāstra. In the Satya-yuga the meditation method was possible. In other yuga it is not possible. In Tretā-yuga, by sacrificing big, big yajña, performing yajña; in Dvāpara-yuga, by temple worship; and kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt, and in this Kali-yuga, simply by hari-kīrtana, by chanting the holy name of the Lord, you can get the same result. Therefore our process is kīrtana, always. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31).
So by bhakti-yoga practice you become perfect in all yogic practices, and ultimately you realize God very easily and directly. And that will help you to go back to home, back to Godhead.