Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
In Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.16, Suta Goswami says,
śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ
syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt
O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vasudeva.
The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God. By the mercy of the devotees one may get the affinity to hear, but what is of equal importance is what happens after that. Due to our being under the influence of Krsna's inferior energy, we try to question, reason, justify & try to put forward arguments which we think are apt. Recognising this trait, that would be prelevant, our acaryas have warned us. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu says (CC Madhya 22.62),
‘śraddhā’-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya
kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya
Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.
The key here is to hear with faith i.e. to hear and allow it to go - not to the mind for mundane reasoning, neither to the other ear to evaporate, but straight to the heart where the spirit soul resides. Only when the hearing goes to the heart can we immediately put to action what we have heard with love. Otherwise the doubts in mind prevent us from doing our service cent percent though we know that we should do it. This sincerity in our endeavour begets Krsna's reciprocation.
Srila Prabhupada says, "The Lord is reciprocally respondent to His devotees. When He sees that a devotee is completely sincere in getting admittance to the transcendental service of the Lord and has thus become eager to hear about Him, the Lord acts from within the devotee in such a way that the devotee may easily go back to Him. The Lord is more anxious to take us back into His kingdom than we can desire. Most of us do not desire at all to go back to Godhead. Only a very few men want to go back to Godhead. But anyone who desires to go back to Godhead, Sri Krishna helps in all respects."
I pray to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev to shower their mercy to increase this desire in me.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Suhrt Krsna das
Auckland.
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