Prahlāda Mahārāja at the age of five years only he was a great devotee. Prahlāda Mahārāja is one of the mahājanas, great authorities of this line, devotional line. (aside:) You can take your seats. To understand God and to understand our relationship with God, it is not to be done by mental speculation. It is not possible. God is not so cheap thing that one can understand by mental speculation. In the present age people are very much fond of mental speculation. In the śāstra it is said, tarko apratiṣṭhaḥ: (CC Madhya 17.186) "Simply by arguing you cannot come to the right conclusion." You may be very good arguer, but another arguer may defeat you by his argument. So in this way, simply by dry arguments it is not possible to come to the conclusion. Tarko 'pratiṣṭha śrutayo vibhinnāḥ. Scripture. There are different scriptures. If you simply... Scripture means Vedic, Vedas. There are four Vedas and many other also, corollaries. So by studying at home these books, that is also not possible to understand. And nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam. And if you follow philosophers, so one philosopher is differing from another philosopher. Just like our Śyāmasundara has brought one book, Ideas of Philosophers, different philosophers talking differently. So how you can take the conclusion? Even Aristotle, he is talking so many things nonsense. So mental speculators, philosophers. In this way you cannot.
Dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyām: "Actually, the purport of religion and God is very confidential." Therefore, to understand it, one has to follow the great authorities, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). Mahājana. So that mahājana, great authorities, are also mentioned, who are mahājanas. Authorities. So,
- svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ
- kumāraḥ kapilo manuḥ
- prahlādo janako bhīṣmo
- balir vaiyāsakir vayam
- (SB 6.3.20)
Everything is there in the śāstra. If you simply refer to śāstras for the right source of knowledge, then you get. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya. If you do things without reference to the śāstras, then Lord Kṛṣṇa says, na siddhiṁ sa avapnoti: "You will never get perfection." Na sukham: "Neither happiness."