Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau, yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato 'pi. So this is the business of the spiritual master, yuktasya, to engage them always. Vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam. Such guru, spiritual master, I am offering. This is Gurv-aṣṭaka. So here it is said: śṛṇvanti. Kuntī-devī ... The first business is śṛṇvanti. One must be eager to hear. Lesson, everything is hearing. You go to school, college. What purpose you pay the school fee, college fee? For hearing. You hear from the learned professor, teacher, you sit down and you get knowledge. The first thing is śṛṇvanti. Therefore a devotee is always engaged in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, śṛṇvanti. That is devotee's business. Tavehitam. Those who are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their first business is hearing. So śṛṇvanti gāyanti. And if you actually, you have heard about Kṛṣṇa, then next business will be to chant, gāyanti.
Just like our preachers are going from here to interior parts of the village. Why? What is the purpose? For gāyanti., for preaching, for chanting. So that they may get the opportunity of hearing. Giving the opportunity to the people for hearing. That is gāyanti. And gṛṇanti, and takes seriously. Abhīkṣṇaśaḥ. Abhīkṣṇaśaḥ means twenty-four hours, without any stop, always. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (CC Adi 17.31). Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore recommends: kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. One should be engaged twenty-four hours in chanting. That is the business of Kṛṣṇa conscious men. Hearing, chanting, śravaṇam kīrtanam. Either all the items or take to one item. Simply hearing. Just like Parikṣit Mahārāja did. Parikṣit Mahārāja did not do any other things. He sat down tight before Śukadeva Gosvāmī and went on hearing, hearing, hearing for seven days. And then his life is finished. So anyone or all of them. If you simply hear, without doing anything. Simply sit down in the temple and whenever there is talk of Bhagavad-gītā, Bhaga..., you go on hearing. Bas. Even if you do not understand, please hear. That's all. That vibration, that mantra vibration will help you. Understanding is not very important thing. There may be so many fools and rascals, they do not know grammar, do not know Sanskrit. No, there is no need of...
Apratihatā. Bhakti is apratiha... Nothing can check the progress of bhakti. So simply you have to adopt the process. The process is hearing. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu was criticized by Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya in the beginning. He was, Caitanya Mahāprabhu was son of Jagannātha Miśra, and Jagannātha Miśra ... Jagannātha Miśra and Jagannātha Miśra's father-in-law, that means Caitanya Mahāprabhu's grandfather, grandfather, Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, he happened to be class friend of Sārvabhauma's father. That means Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya comes on the level of His father. So he asked that: "You are a boy, twenty-four years old only. You have taken sannyāsa. It is very difficult to keep sannyāsa because there are so many attractions for the young man. So you hear Vedānta-sūtra." This, the hearing. So hearing. So hearing's so important. Even amongst the Māyāvādī school, they hear Vedānta-sūtra. We also hear, but we hear, hear real Vedānta-sūtra. Because they falsely interpret, their hearing is spoiled, but we don't interpret. We hear actually. Kṛṣṇa says that "I am the Supreme." We accept it. That is hearing. And if you interpret, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa means this, Kurukṣetra means this," that mean you're spoiling your time. Why this, that? As it is, hear as it is. Then the...
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked to hear Vedānta. You know. And He was hearing. And Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was going on speaking, reciting Vedānta-sūtra. But He was simply hearing and then He was not asking any questions. So Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya asked that: "My dear boy, You are hearing, but You are not asking anything. What is this? You cannot understand? Or what is the reason that You are silent?" He said: "Yes, I'm understanding. But I am silent because you are explaining in a different way. Therefore I am simply hearing the verses of Vedānta-sūtra. I am not hearing you." Indirectly ... Of course, He was offering respect. Indirectly, he said that: "You are explaining the meaning foolishly." He said later on that: "I see, I hear the verses just like sunshine. But you are explaining just like covering cloud. This is your explanation." Sun is ... Nobody requires any lamp to see the sun. Everyone can see. But if it is covered by the cloud, it is very difficult to see. So this Māyāvāda interpretation is, explanation, means covering the real meaning. That's all. They do so like that. They'll never accept the direct meaning. Kurukṣetra dharmakṣetra... Even big, big political leaders. They will cover: "Kurukṣetra means this, dharmakṣetra means this." No. Hearing should be ... Our policy is hearing the original, as it is. Then it will be effective.
Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). Viṣṇu should be heard as He is. Gṛṇanty abhīkṣṇaśaḥ smaranti. The same, meditation, remembering, smaranti nandanti. Nandanti means he becomes jubilant, pleasure, reservoir of pleasure, nandati. Nandana means pleasing. Nandanti... Who? Tava īhitaṁ janaḥ. Those who are cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their business is śṛṇvanti, śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanty abhīkṣṇaśaḥ. This is the program, everywhere. We have to hear about Kṛṣṇa, we have to speak about Kṛṣṇa, we have to deal about Kṛṣṇa. Simply There are so many activities in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. We have to adopt everything. Then such persons, sa eva paśyanty, ta eva paśyanty. "By this process one day will come that he will see You." Ta eva paśyanty. And what is that vision? When you see God, Kṛṣṇa, then what is the effect? The effect is: bhava pravāha uparamam. Bhava pravāha. Pravāha means current. Now we are going on. Caitanya, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that: māyāra vaśe yāccho bhese.
Just like there is very, mean, forcible currents in the river, and if some animal is thrown in that, he'll be washed away. So we are being washed away by the currents one after another, of this material nature. Just like you have seen the big, big waves in the Pacific Ocean. Similarly, because we are under the grips of the material nature, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni gunaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27), so we become under the influence of the three modes of material nature, and the, by the current of such material nature, we are being washed away, washed away. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: māyāra vaśe yāccho bhese. "You are being washed away, carried away, by the currents." The currents also described. The first current is hunger. The second current is thirst. Similarly another current, janma mṛtyu, birth, death, old age. These are all currents. These are different currents of the material nature. We become hungry, we become thirsty. We become overwhelmed with regret, śoka moha, illusion, then birth, death, so many currents. We are being carried away. I am spirit soul. I am put into the material ocean, and the currents, currents are carried away. So here, if you be engaged, śṛṇvanti gāyanti abhīkṣṇaśaḥ, twenty-four hours, then the current, upāsanam, uparamam, the current will stop. No more you'll be carried away by these material current. Bhava pravāha uparamam. Where? Padāmbujam. "Your lotus feet. Your lotus feet." One how has learned how to see Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet and offer a little tulasī and sandalwood pulp, his, this current will stop. This current of material life will stop.