Sravanam kirtanam Vishnu Smaranam ..
This Verse as found in the Srimad Bhagvatam emphasizes the importance of Hearing . It is the first step in progression of Spiritual Life to Hear attentively from the Proper spiritual authority. A person who hears attentively can assimilate the message properly and apply in one's life, thus making his/her life successful. After this follows the other 8 processes of Devotional service namely kirtanam etc. If one has not heard the message correctly he/ she will not be able to make much progress in spiritual life. We see in any gathering there are thousands and millions of people who come and listen to the spiritual talks , but only a few actually hear.
What does it mean to "Hear". Many people today Listen , but do not Hear. Instructions are given and many listen to them , give a ear to them , but do not assimilate the meaning or do not take them to heart, thus there is no transformation of heart that takes place. After listening to the spiritual topics some simply ignore them others , some pious minded people feel good about it , but rarely someone assimilates them and desires to put them in practice. It is seen often the Spiritual teachers many a times repeat the same instructions multiple times. For example Srila Prabhupada often repeated many famous verses from Bhagavad Gita in every lecture he gave. Most of his lectures stress on the same basic principle that we are not this body but the spirit soul . Often devotees wondered why did he always stress this point and did not talk anything other than this. The reason for this is because of the tendency of the mind to automatically accepts things which are favorable for one's sense gratification and reject those which prove to be contrary to it .
Also the attention span of people in Kaliyuga is not more than a few mins and the flickering mind will take them elsewhere after a few mins . Hence it becomes necessary to repeat and stress a important point multiple points , for the people to start acknowledging the importance of the point. If people acknowledge , they would think about it and then put it in action. Unless all the teachings in Bhagavad Gita are put in practice as it is with guidance from a bonafide spiritual guide, one will not reap any benefit by just reading and listening it superficially . One has to really " Hear" the message from the heart to understand and realize the message . Although the Bhagavad gita is only the start of a spiritual journey , it is the foundational philosophy which needs to be understood in its true essence . A person who takes this seriously and applies these teaching in the life , he/ she will experience a sublime happiness which cannot be found by other material means . One will have a purpose in life which is transcendental and full filling , A purpose of the soul, beyond the precincts of the material and mental plane.
It is a human tendency to really become attentive and interested to listen to philosophy of life when some major crisis is going on in once life, however people in Kaliyuga have degraded to such an extend that as soon as the crisis is over , they revert back to their old habits. Bhagavad Gita was spoken to Arjuna in a battlefield , where Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief with the thought of killing his kinsmen whom he adored and loved all this life. Of course Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord and was representing a common man on the directions of Krsna. The situation in which Arjuna was put was nerve breaking for any person and which induced him to surrender to the instructions of Krsna. In such a situation he was able to hear attentively and assimilate the message of Bhagavad Gita completely and act upon that.
Most of the people are not in such a crisis situation and even if they fall into such situations , they tend to resort to other ways like drinking and smoking , instead of turning to the right source i.e. Krsna. This is the unfortunate state of the people of Kaliyuga. Even people who are pious when in crisis generally approach the Lord for the mitigation of their grief, however after the crisis is over they forget any instructions and resort to their normal ways which leads them to yet another crisis.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says in this age only a very fortunate soul achieves the real purpose of life i.e. devotional service, by the mercy of Spiritual Master and Lord Krsna.
It is said mercy of the Lord is causeless, but this should not mean that we should not make any effort to understand and try our best to prove to the Lord that we are eligible for his mercy . If we put little effort to Hear the instructions of the great souls on spiritual topics and apply them in life , Krsna promises that a little effort in this direction will save one from the greatest danger. So why should we waste our time and not pay attention to such important topics that are been delivered to by us who are compassionate. Srila Prabhupada toiled hard during his old age to give us this knowledge in the simplest possible form, so that we could hear and take advantage of the facilities he has provided to us , in the form of his temples, books, his devotees, prasadam and ISKCON.
Hearing only a few words attentively and applying will make our lives success full. So next time when we hear a spiritual discourse by bonafide representatives of the Lord , we should shut off all the doors of our mind and concentrate on these sublime words with all the heart trying to understand on instruction thoroughly and apply them in our life.
This Verse as found in the Srimad Bhagvatam emphasizes the importance of Hearing . It is the first step in progression of Spiritual Life to Hear attentively from the Proper spiritual authority. A person who hears attentively can assimilate the message properly and apply in one's life, thus making his/her life successful. After this follows the other 8 processes of Devotional service namely kirtanam etc. If one has not heard the message correctly he/ she will not be able to make much progress in spiritual life. We see in any gathering there are thousands and millions of people who come and listen to the spiritual talks , but only a few actually hear.
What does it mean to "Hear". Many people today Listen , but do not Hear. Instructions are given and many listen to them , give a ear to them , but do not assimilate the meaning or do not take them to heart, thus there is no transformation of heart that takes place. After listening to the spiritual topics some simply ignore them others , some pious minded people feel good about it , but rarely someone assimilates them and desires to put them in practice. It is seen often the Spiritual teachers many a times repeat the same instructions multiple times. For example Srila Prabhupada often repeated many famous verses from Bhagavad Gita in every lecture he gave. Most of his lectures stress on the same basic principle that we are not this body but the spirit soul . Often devotees wondered why did he always stress this point and did not talk anything other than this. The reason for this is because of the tendency of the mind to automatically accepts things which are favorable for one's sense gratification and reject those which prove to be contrary to it .
Also the attention span of people in Kaliyuga is not more than a few mins and the flickering mind will take them elsewhere after a few mins . Hence it becomes necessary to repeat and stress a important point multiple points , for the people to start acknowledging the importance of the point. If people acknowledge , they would think about it and then put it in action. Unless all the teachings in Bhagavad Gita are put in practice as it is with guidance from a bonafide spiritual guide, one will not reap any benefit by just reading and listening it superficially . One has to really " Hear" the message from the heart to understand and realize the message . Although the Bhagavad gita is only the start of a spiritual journey , it is the foundational philosophy which needs to be understood in its true essence . A person who takes this seriously and applies these teaching in the life , he/ she will experience a sublime happiness which cannot be found by other material means . One will have a purpose in life which is transcendental and full filling , A purpose of the soul, beyond the precincts of the material and mental plane.
It is a human tendency to really become attentive and interested to listen to philosophy of life when some major crisis is going on in once life, however people in Kaliyuga have degraded to such an extend that as soon as the crisis is over , they revert back to their old habits. Bhagavad Gita was spoken to Arjuna in a battlefield , where Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief with the thought of killing his kinsmen whom he adored and loved all this life. Of course Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord and was representing a common man on the directions of Krsna. The situation in which Arjuna was put was nerve breaking for any person and which induced him to surrender to the instructions of Krsna. In such a situation he was able to hear attentively and assimilate the message of Bhagavad Gita completely and act upon that.
Most of the people are not in such a crisis situation and even if they fall into such situations , they tend to resort to other ways like drinking and smoking , instead of turning to the right source i.e. Krsna. This is the unfortunate state of the people of Kaliyuga. Even people who are pious when in crisis generally approach the Lord for the mitigation of their grief, however after the crisis is over they forget any instructions and resort to their normal ways which leads them to yet another crisis.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says in this age only a very fortunate soul achieves the real purpose of life i.e. devotional service, by the mercy of Spiritual Master and Lord Krsna.
It is said mercy of the Lord is causeless, but this should not mean that we should not make any effort to understand and try our best to prove to the Lord that we are eligible for his mercy . If we put little effort to Hear the instructions of the great souls on spiritual topics and apply them in life , Krsna promises that a little effort in this direction will save one from the greatest danger. So why should we waste our time and not pay attention to such important topics that are been delivered to by us who are compassionate. Srila Prabhupada toiled hard during his old age to give us this knowledge in the simplest possible form, so that we could hear and take advantage of the facilities he has provided to us , in the form of his temples, books, his devotees, prasadam and ISKCON.
Hearing only a few words attentively and applying will make our lives success full. So next time when we hear a spiritual discourse by bonafide representatives of the Lord , we should shut off all the doors of our mind and concentrate on these sublime words with all the heart trying to understand on instruction thoroughly and apply them in our life.
