Srila Prabhupada Speaks About The Importance Of Hearing About Krishna
Actually it is happening. There are so many churches, nobody is going. In London, I have seen. In your country also, there are so many churches vacant. We have purchased so many churches. In Los Angeles we have purchased that church. When it was running as a church, it was a deserted . . . (indistinct) . . . since we have taken that, every night, every day, hundreds of people are gathering like this, because there is words of Kṛṣṇa. And people are hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ (SB 1.2.8). So you can have your churches, temple or mosque, but if you do not develop your tendency to hear about God, then it will not be successful. Śrama eva hi kevalam. Śrama eva hi kevalam.
Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ. Dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ notpādayed yadi ratim . . . (SB 1.2.8). By going daily to the temple, or to the church, or to the mosque, or anywhere, any religious building or institution, if you do not develop your propensity to hear about God, then you have wasted your time. Śrama eva hi kevalam. Going and coming, it is simply labor, that’s all. So that is the test. Therefore either in temple or in church, in mosque there must be regular recitation on the talks of God. Otherwise, people will lose interest, and the churches and temples have to be closed.
So that talks of God is here in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, because our God is not impersonal, void. No. He is the Supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa. You can see personally how He’s standing, how He’s enjoying with His eternal consort, lover, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Here is God, actually. God is not engaged in punishing somebody, original God. God is engaged in enjoying with His eternal consort, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
This Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is enchanting Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is enchanting Rādhārāṇī. This is the business of God. Duhe lage harai. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that when Kṛṣṇa comes before Rādhārāṇī, She becomes so much engladdened by seeing the beauty of Kṛṣṇa that She becomes more beautiful. And as soon as Rādhārāṇī becomes beautiful, Kṛṣṇa becomes engladdened and He becomes more beautiful. So unlimitedly there is competition of becoming more beautiful, duhe lage hurai. That is the statement. Competition. Because in the spiritual world everything is unlimited. So unlimitedly, both of Them becoming beautiful and both of Them enjoying unlimitedly. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So similarly, if we develop our propensity to hear about God and His activities with His cowherd boys friend, with His girlfriends, gopīs, with His mother, with His father, with His teacher—so many. Everything is imitation, perverted reflection. Here also you have got those relationship—relationship between father and the son, relationship between conjugal lover, the boy and the girl, relationship between friend and friend, relationship between master and servant. Everything is here also, but because they are material, they do not stand.
I am servant of somebody. If he does not pay me salary, I give up his service. I am friend of somebody. If my intention is not fulfilled, then I give up that friendship. My love with a boy or with a girl is there, but as soon as there is some discrepancy, there is divorce. So here everything is perverted and with so many faulty ideas. But this, this very thing is there in the kingdom of God, in relationship with God, Kṛṣṇa. And there everything is eternal. By becoming servant of God, you’ll eternally enjoy, same as master. By becoming a friend of God, you enjoy eternal friendship. By becoming father or mother of God, you enjoy the parental affection between father and son. And by becoming lover of God, you become eternally happy.
So unless you hear about these things, then how you can be intensified to go to God? Just like when I hear about some country, that “This country is like this, and there is such-and-such happiness and such-and-such enjoyment,” then we think of making a tourist list to go there. Therefore to go back to home, back to Godhead, unless we hear about Him, how we can be inclined? Therefore God comes, Kṛṣṇa comes. He manifests His pastimes in Vṛndāvana, how He’s dealing with friends, how dealing with servant, mother, father, lover, so that we may be inclined to go back to home, back to Godhead. This is God’s mercy.
Therefore executing religious principle means the result must be to develop our propensity to hear about God. Notpādayed ratim. This rati, rati means just like rati is called sexual appetite. The Gosvāmīs, they have described rati, how rati is explained, (indistinct Sanskrit). Just like young boy and young girl, they meet together. Immediately their sex impulse become agitated. It hasn’t got to be taught them. Naturally. Naturally, he wants to talk or she wants to talk. So this is called rati, spontaneous attraction. This is called . . . it has not to be taught; spontaneous. So as soon as there is spontaneous attraction to hear about God, that will mean that we are attaining perfection in religion. So if you are going on as a hackneyed program to the church, to the temple or to the mosque, but there is no spontaneous attraction for hearing about God, then it is simply labor, simply waste of time. That’s all. That is explained here:
dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
notpādayed ratiṁ yadi
śrama eva hi kevalam
(SB 1.2.8)
So to come to this platform of spontaneous attraction, you have to execute some other formulas.
Reference : Lecture SB 01.02.08 – New Vrindaban, USA
