The ultimate goal is how to know Kṛṣṇa. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ (BG 15.15). So if we follow this principle, hear Bhāgavatam . . . Bhāgavatam means the words or the activities of Bhagavān. But the impersonalists, they think the ultimate goal, ultimate truth, Absolute Truth, is not a person. So there is no activity. If one is person, he has got activities. But if one is not person, void, just like a sky . . . in the sky, there is no activity. The only activity is the sky is covered with cloud, and you cannot see the sun. That is the only activity.
So that kind of activity is not required. Regular, varieties of activities. Therefore we have to hear about Kṛṣṇa. You'll hear about Kṛṣṇa in so many varieties of activities. Bhagavad-gītā, you hear. It's so many activities of Kṛṣṇa. So we have to hear about these. And unless there are activities, what you will hear? Simply "Brahman, Brahman, Brahman . . ." Nirākāra. How long you will hear? And how long you will enjoy? That is . . . there is no enjoyment. Therefore they, these Brahmavādī, these Nirākāravādī, although by austerities and penances they may rise up to the Brahman effulgence, still, they will fall down. Because we are living entities, we want varieties of enjoyment. We are not satisfied in void, in zero. That is not possible. Therefore śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ (SB 1.2.17). One has to hear about Kṛṣṇa, varieties of activities. Varieties of activities. Not nirākāra, without any activities. No. That activity is different from material activity. Janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). Therefore it is called divyam. They are not ordinary activities. They are all transcendental, spiritual activities. The Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand.
So we have got enough matter for hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa . . . if we simply sit down and hear, we become pious. And as soon as we become pious, then we can understand what is Kṛṣṇa, what is God. If we are involved or implicated in sinful activities, there is no chance. Therefore anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. By sādhu-saṅga (CC Madhya 22.83), by association with the sādhus, bhaktas, and by bhajana-kriyā, we'll be seen . . . a person will be seen that he's no more involved in unwanted things. He's simply interested in executing devotional service. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī (SB 1.2.18). When we are almost free from all this contamination, then we become fixed up in the devotional service.