So Bhāgavata gives you direction that "If you are actually serious about finding out a 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: "Guruji, 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 kṛtsnam
- ekāṁśena sthito jagat
- (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. 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 this 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 Vedantist. 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. Śrotavya. This is the process of śrotavya. Tad viddhi praṇipātena. You have to hear by surrendering. First of all you have to find out where you can surrender. Because everyone is big man. Why he shall surrender? So unless he finds out somebody who he can surrender to, then that is the beginning of transcendental knowledge. Śrotavya. So who can be a bigger personality than Kṛṣṇa? So hear from Kṛṣṇa, hear from Vyāsadeva, hear from Nārada, hear from their representative, Nārada's representative, Vyāsadeva; Vyāsadeva's representative, Madhva Muni. Similarly, in that paramparā system... Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayaḥ (BG 4.2). So we have to catch up the paramparā, disciplic chain, bona fide spiritual master, and from him we have to hear. Śrotavya.
Now, in the next verse it is said that yad-anudhyāsinā. Dhyeya. Simply by thinking of Kṛṣṇa, hearing about Kṛṣṇa, speaking about Kṛṣṇa, meditating upon Kṛṣṇa, worshiping Kṛṣṇa, you become perfect. That is assured in the Bhagavad-gītā: man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). So the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very simple. We are teaching people that "Here is God, Kṛṣṇa. We can give you the name, address, form, and everything." Yes. Kṛṣṇa says, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. He is giving His address. Yad gatvā na nivartante (BG 15.6). "Where you go, you don't require to come back." Tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. So Kṛṣṇa is giving information about His abode. So simply you have to qualify yourself to go there. That's all. That qualification is simply man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru (BG 18.65). "Simply think of Me." And if you simply think of Kṛṣṇa, you become the greatest yogi.