This is beginning of successful life. Ādau śraddhā, this śraddhā, or this niścayātmikā buddhi, or vyavasāyātmikā buddhi, is the beginning of spiritual life. If one has no faith in the words of the authorities, then he has no hope. Saṁśayātmā vinaśyati. Vinaśyati means he does not get any chance to enter into spiritual life. We are in the material world. We are. . . Vinaśyatsu. We are in an atmosphere of being finished. That everyone, we know. This body. . . I am concerned with this body, and the body is to be finished. But the soul is not finished. Therefore our bhakti-mārga. . . How one can make progress in bhakti-mārga? If we have got faith in the words of Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), if we apply our intelligence, niścayātmikā, then our spiritual life begins. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ (CC Madhya 23.14-15). These are the different methods to make advance in spiritual life, especially in bhakti-yoga, devotional life.
So ādau śraddhā. Kṛṣṇa says these are on the intellectual platform. Sometimes intellectual platform is taken as sentimental. But if it is rightly taken, somebody believes, even Kṛṣṇa. . . Kṛṣṇa's statement, they are not sentimental. They are vijñāna-sahitam. Jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitam. Yaj jñātvā mokṣyase aśubhāt, jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ pravakṣyāmy anasūyave (BG 9.1). Yaj jñātvā mokṣyase aśubhāt. This is the statement in Bhagavad-gītā. Jñānaṁ te 'haṁ sa-vijñānam vakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ (BG 7.2). Pravakṣyāmy aśeṣataḥ, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase aśubhāt. That aśubha, inauspicious, we do not understand. We have taken inauspicious thing as auspicious. This is called māyā. We accept something māyā, or illusion, or vivarta. We accept something for something. The example is given: there is a rope, and due to my ignorance or insufficient knowledge, I take it as a snake. This is my insufficient knowledge. The snake is fact and the rope is fact. But when we take the rope as snake, that is ignorance, or the snake as rope, that is ignorance. The Māyāvādī philosopher says that "We are accepting snake. . . er, rope as a snake. But there is no snake." But we, Vaiṣṇava philosopher, we say, "No, there is snake and there is rope. But when we accept the rope as snake, that is māyā." Similarly, there is spiritual world and there is material world. But when we accept the material world as everything, that is māyā. That is illusion.
There is spiritual world. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that paras tasmāt tu bhāvaḥ anyaḥ (BG 8.20): "There is another bhāva, nature." What is the nature? Sarveṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati: "When the material world, this cosmic manifestation, the phenomenal world, will be finished, that will stay. That will not be finished." There are many example. Just like mirage in the desert: sometimes you see there is vast mass of water in the desert. The animal runs after the water, being thirsty, but there is no water. Therefore the animal dies. But human being should not be like the animal. They should raise their standard. They have got special consciousness. They can raise their standard of understanding by these literatures, Vedic literatures given by God. Vyāsadeva is incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, so he has given us the Vedic literature. Therefore his name is Vedavyāsa, incarnation of God, Vedavyāsa. Mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā paraiḥ (SB 1.1.2). There is no need of speculating. Just follow Vyāsadeva in the disciplic succession. Vyāsadeva's disciple is Nārada Muni. Nārada Muni's disciple is Vyāsadeva. So in this paramparā system, if we receive knowledge, then that is perfect knowledge. So we have to accept it. Niścayātmikā.
Therefore Rūpa Gosvāmī says that spiritual life can be advanced, the first principle is utsāha. Utsāhāt. Utsāha means enthusiasm: "Yes, Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66). I will accept it and work enthusiastically on the principle, as Kṛṣṇa says." Kṛṣṇa says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65), and we have to do it, execute it enthusiastically: "Yes, I shall always think of Kṛṣṇa." Man-manāḥ. Kṛṣṇa says directly, man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ, "You just become My devotee." So we have to be enthusiastic, "Yes, I shall become Kṛṣṇa's devotee."