- śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
- smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
- arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
- sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
- (SB 7.5.23)
These are the devotional process. Hear. First of all, hearing. Hearing means the perfect knowledge, hearing from the authority. Because we are ignorant. Just like we go to school, colleges, and hear from the teachers, from the professors, similarly, hearing means hearing from the authority, not from the rascals. That is hearing. Just like in the Vedas it is said, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). To hear the right news, the perfect knowledge, you must approach the bona fide spiritual master. Gurum eva abhigacchet. Must! It is not that "I can get knowledge at home. Why shall I go to guru? I do not find any guru."
These things are current very much. "It may be there is no guru." Not at all. You cannot say that. Just like there are imitation coin. You have met with some imitation coins. That does not mean there is no real coin. You are unfortunate, you met with imitation coin. So don't make that calculation that, "There is no real coin, all imitation." That is nonsense. There is imitation coin, and there is real coin. It is up to you to find out which is the real and which is the imitation.
So Bhāgavata gives you direction that, "If you are actually serious about finding out a guru . . ." Guru . . . who requires a guru? Who requires? Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta (SB 11.3.21). One should surrender unto guru. Jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: one who is inquisitive to understand the transcendental knowledge. The ordinary man does not require to search out the guru to find out astrology: "Gurujī, kindly tell me what will be the price next . . .?" Not that guru. Jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam: one who is serious to understand about the transcendental knowledge. Uttamam. Udgata-tamam: beyond this material world.
This material world is tama, darkness. So if one is very serious to inquire about the world of light, for him there is need of guru, not for ordinary person. Guru, we should not make a guru as a fashion. Everyone makes a guru, "Let me have a guru also, any kind of . . ." No. That is not required. Guru is required by somebody who is serious to know about the transcendental world, the world of light. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. The world of jyoti. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo na candra (BG 15.6). That world, where there is no need of sun, moon, electricity.
There is another world. That we get information from Bhagavad-gītā. Paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20). There is another nature, which is sanātana, eternal. This world, this material world, is not eternal. Just like we have got this body. This is not eternal; it is temporary. It has got some particular date of his birth, and it has got some particular date of his annihilation. Similarly, this gigantic body, universe, it is created at a certain date, and it will be annihilated at a certain date. This is material world. But there is another world. That information we get from Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literature. Spiritual world. This material world is only one-fourth of the whole creation. Ekāṁśena sthito jagat.
- athavā bahunaitena
- kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna
- viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ aham kṛtsnam
- ekāṁśena sthito . . .
- (BG 10.42)
This is only one part. The three-fourths part is the spiritual world. In this world the living entities, they are very small number. All these living entities throughout the whole universe, fourteen worlds, they are only some limited. But in the spiritual world the number of living entities are unlimited. This information we have to hear. Therefore here it is said, śrotavya: one must hear. Śrotavya.
Therefore Vedic knowledge is called śruti. It has to be acquired by hearing, śruti. Not by seeing, not by experimental knowledge. That is not possible. Because it is beyond, beyond our sense perception. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet (Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma parva 5.22). Don't try to understand by false argument, dry argument, which is beyond your conception, beyond your reach. Simply waste of time. Then how to know? Now, śrotavya. You have to hear. That is the only means.
The example I have given several times: Just like if you want to know who is your father, it is to be śrotavya. From where? From the authority, my mother. You cannot manufacture your knowledge who is your father. No. You cannot speculate. That is not pos . . . because it beyond your reach. The father was existing before your birth, so how you can understand father by experimental knowledge? That is not possible. You have to accept the statement of your mother. That's all. Finished.
Similarly, Vedas—our mother of knowledge. Purāṇas—our sisters of knowledge. So we have to consult from the Vedas and from the right person. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet (MU 1.2.12), from the guru. Not that you purchase one book, Vedas, from the market, and you become a Vedāntist. No. That is not possible. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet. Must go to understand. Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). These are the injunctions.