Canto 2: The Cosmic Manifestation | Chapter 8: Questions by King Parīkṣit |
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 2.8.4
śṛṇvataḥ śraddhayā nityaḿ
gṛṇataś ca sva-ceṣṭitam
kālena nātidīrgheṇa
bhagavān viśate hṛdi
SYNONYMS
śṛṇvataḥ — of those who hear; śraddhayā — in earnestness; nityam — regularly, always; gṛṇataḥ — taking the matter; ca — also; sva-ceṣṭitam — seriously by one's own endeavor; kālena — duration; na — not; ati-dīrgheṇa — very prolonged time; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa; viśate — becomes manifest; hṛdi — within one's heart.
TRANSLATION
Persons who hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly and are always taking the matter very seriously will have the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa manifested in their hearts within a short time.
PURPORT
Cheap devotees or materialistic devotees of the Lord are very much desirous to see the Lord personally without meeting the requisite qualifications. Such third-grade devotees should know well that material attachment and seeing the Lord face to face cannot go together. It is not such a mechanical process that the professional Bhāgavatam reciters can do the job on behalf of the third-grade materialistic pseudo-devotee. The professional men are useless in this connection because they are neither self-realized nor interested in the liberation of the audience. They are simply interested in maintaining the material establishment of family attachment and earning some material benefits out of the profession. Mahārāja Parīkṣit had no more than seven days to live, but for others Mahārāja Parīkṣit personally recommends that one hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly, nityam, always by one's own effort and with serious devotion also. That will help one to see the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa manifested in one's heart within no time.
The pseudo-devotee, however, is very anxious to see the Lord according to his whims, not making any serious effort to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regularly and without detachment from material benefit. That is not the way recommended by an authority like Mahārāja Parīkṣit, who heard and benefited by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness