This is gradual progress of spiritual mind, and this state is called prema, prema-gadgadayā vācā. So we have to make progress as it is exemplified by Prahlāda Mahārāja. Ādau gurv-āśrayam sad-dharma-pṛcchā sādhu-mārga-anugamanam (CC Madhya 23.14). (aside:) Stop that. The first business is ādau, in the beginning, gurv-āśrayam. Gurv-āśrayam means to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, ādau gurv-āśrayam, and this takes place when there is śraddhā. Just like in this meeting, persons who have got little faith, they can sit down and hear. This is called śraddhā. And the higher stage of śraddhā is to completely accept the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that is highest stage of śraddhā. In the lower stage, little faith, "So here is something going on about Kṛṣṇa, let us sit down and hear it," this is kaniṣṭha-śraddhā. And this śraddhā, faith, has to be increased. That ultimately, in the mature stage of śraddhā, faith, that is described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta,
- śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya
- kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya
- (CC Madhya 22.62)
This is śraddhā. Śraddha-śabde, this śraddhā, faith, means sudṛḍha niścaya, śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa. Kṛṣṇa says,
- sarva-dharmān parityajya
- mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
- ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
- mokṣayiṣyāmi . . .
- (BG 18.66)
This is called faith. Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that simply by surrendering at His lotus feet one becomes immediately a liberated person. Kṛṣṇa says that.
- sarva-dharmān parityajya
- mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
- ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
- mokṣayiṣyāmi . . .
- (BG 18.66)
Just like if I offer you that if you do this work, I shall give you immediately fifty thousand rupees. So who will believe me? "This man is a beggar, sannyāsī, how he'll give fifty thousand rupees?" So there is no śraddhā. But we cannot do so with reference to Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66), that is a fact. That is not a bogus promise. Because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all-powerful, whatever He likes, He can do. This is called faith.
So after reading Bhagavad-gītā, if one does not get this faith in Kṛṣṇa, then it is useless waste of time. That's all. There are many so-called scholars, politicians, they declare that "I read Bhagavad-gītā daily, three times," but the result is no faith in Kṛṣṇa. This is called useless waste of time. If you do not get the faith which is required by studying Bhagavad . . . Bhagavad-gītā is the ABCD reading for understanding God. That is ABC. So if you do not understand even the ABCD, how he'll advance in higher studies? That is not possible. So even we cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā, the ABCD, Kṛṣṇa says one thing, and they make, I mean to say, interpretation in a different way. Kṛṣṇa says, aham ādir hi devānām (BG 10.2), mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (BG 10.8). They do not believe it. Śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). To such persons the Bhāgavata says,
- dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
- viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
- notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
- śrama eva hi kevalam
- (SB 1.2.8)
You, you are very religious, performing the ritualistic ceremony very nicely, going to the Ganges and taking your bath, and dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ (SB 1.2.8). Very rightly you are executing your religious principle, and coming at home, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā—but you have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. That is useless time, useless waste of time. The Bhāgavata, śrama eva hi kevalam (SB 1.2.8). So this, why this happens? Because these people do not approach the right person, guru. Ādau gurv-āśrayam (CC Madhya 23.14).
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was visited by many learned brāhmaṇas when He was at Purī, Jagannātha Purī. So one learned brāhmaṇa, he wrote some poems about Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. There were many brāhmaṇas, they were coming, but all such reading matter, first it was to be tested by His secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara. If Svarūpa Dāmodara would pass, then Caitanya Mahāprabhu will hear. Otherwise, why should He waste His time, some hodge podge writing? So one brāhmaṇa, he wrote something about Caitanya Mahāprabhu and came to read, recite, before Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Svarūpa Dāmodara found many mistakes in that poem, so he did not allow him, that "You do not know how to present theistic literature. You don't . . . You cannot see Caitanya Mahāprabhu." He chastised him about the mistake.
So to write theistic literature is not to be done by any ordinary man. It is not to, because they, they do not know. So we should not read any literature which is not presented by a bona fide Vaiṣṇava. It has been forbidden by Sanātana Goswāmī.