Prabhupāda Guides His Disciples to Advance in Spiritual Life through Hearing
Spiritual life is not a process of invention, but rather one of submissive aural reception. Śrīla Prabhupāda meticulously trained his followers to understand that their advancement depends entirely on how attentively they hear the transcendental message. By opening their ears to the authorized words of Kṛṣṇa and the disciplic succession, devotees can easily conquer the restless mind and achieve the ultimate perfection of life.
The Foundation of Devotional Service
The entire framework of spiritual realization rests upon the practice of hearing, or śravaṇam. Before one can engage in any other devotional activity, they must first acquire the initial faith to sit down and listen to the science of God. Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that our main business in human life is to redirect our aural attention away from mundane sound vibrations and towards the Supreme Lord. By simply giving aural reception to the descriptions of Kṛṣṇa's activities and kingdom, a conditioned soul takes their first definitive step back to the spiritual world.
- The beginning of service is to engage our hearing organs, and receive the transcendental message by aural reception.
- Hearing is our main business. You are hearing. If you go out from this temple you will also hear. Or the sound is always going on. If we do not want to hear, the hearing is going on.
- The first thing is we must hear. Srotavyah. Just try to hear what is God, what is His kingdom, how He acts, how He is cheerful. These things are to be heard. Sravanam.
- Spiritual life begins, first of all, sraddha, some faith. Just like you are coming here, kindly, to hear me. You have got little faith. This is the beginning. Without faith, you could not spare your time here, because here there is no cinema playing.
Receiving Knowledge from Authorized Sources
While hearing is essential, the source of the sound vibration dictates the result. To protect his students from spiritual contamination, Śrīla Prabhupāda vehemently warned them never to hear from unauthorized mental speculators or those outside the disciplic succession. True transcendental knowledge descends purely through the paramparā, starting from Kṛṣṇa Himself. By exclusively hearing from the bona fide guru, the śāstra, and the saintly ācāryas, devotees are guaranteed to receive perfect knowledge without any defects or cheating.
- Most important process is hearing from the guru, sadhu and sastra—the spiritual master, the saintly acaryas and the Vedic literature.
- Because we are hearing from the Source of all knowledge, Krishna, through His representatives, the saints and acharyas in disciplic succession, we have got solid basis for understanding.
- We cannot accept the theories or the statement of some defective person. We should hear from the person who is not defective—perfect. Therefore our process of hearing or getting knowledge is from the perfect person. That is called Krsna consciousness.
- Krsna consciousness movement is, that don't hear the cheaters and don't try to cheat others. Be honest and hear from the authorities. That is Krsna consciousness.
- If you stick to Krsna and hear from Him, you haven't got to hear from any rascal, any rascal. Then you will waste time. Don't hear from any rascal. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gita As It Is—as it is, without any change.
The Interdependence of Hearing and Chanting
In the practice of bhakti-yoga, hearing cannot be separated from the act of chanting or speaking. The two processes of śravaṇam and kīrtanam operate in a dynamic, continuous loop that constantly engages the consciousness in the Supreme. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarified that someone must be chanting in order for another to hear, whether through musical vibration or the reading of philosophical texts. By establishing this twenty-four-hour cycle of producing and receiving the holy name and transcendental topics, the society effectively maintains its spiritual life.
- Constantly, twenty-four hours, if you hear and chant. Hear means somebody chants or you chant yourself or hear, or some of your colleague may chant, you hear. Or he may hear, you may chant. This process must go on. This is sravanam kirtanam visnoh.
- When there is question of hearing, there must be speaking or chanting. So we are speaking and chanting about Krsna. That is bhakti. Simply always be engaged in hearing and chanting about Krsna. Sravanam kirtanam visnoh.
- Unless there is chanting, there is no question of hearing. Hear means somebody must be chanting. Either we chant with musical sound or we chant by lectures of Bhagavad-gita, this is all chanting. And the others, they are hearing.
- First hearing, then chanting. Hear from the right source and discuss amongst yourselves. Istagosthi. Then the perfection.
The Secret to Perfect Preaching
To be a qualified preacher in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement does not require immense mundane scholarship or inventive intelligence. The profound secret to success, as revealed by Śrīla Prabhupāda, is the ability to perfectly reproduce whatever one has heard from the spiritual master. He instructed his disciples never to add, subtract, or manufacture their own ideas when presenting the philosophy. By simply acting as a faithful messenger of the sound vibration received through the disciplic succession, any sincere student becomes an empowered and perfect speaker.
- Whatever you are hearing from me, whatever you are learning from me, you have to distribute the same in toto without any addition or alteration. Then all of you become the spiritual master.
- You will become perfect preacher. Preach only what you have heard from Krsna and guru, that's all. Don't add and subtract. Then you are secure.
- Kirtana means whatever we hear from the Spiritual Master we repeat it again nicely. One who can reproduce the sound vibration heard from the Spiritual Master, he will be a good preacher.
- Remain always a servant of your spiritual master and present the thing as you have heard. You'll be spiritual master. This is secret. You should know it. Don't try to become overintelligent. That will spoil. Evam parampara.
- Hear and repeat, hear and repeat. You haven't got to manufacture. Any one of us, simply if you reproduce the purport which I have given in the Bhagavata, you become a good speaker.
Overcoming the Restless Mind Through Attention
The human mind is inherently flickering and easily distracted by the modes of material nature. To counter this, Śrīla Prabhupāda demanded that his disciples practice highly attentive hearing. When the ear is forcefully and deliberately engaged in receiving the transcendental vibration of the mahā-mantra or the scriptures, the mind is automatically forced to focus. This concentrated, anxious desire to hear cleanses the consciousness, completely eradicates hazy material illusions, and quickly situates the practitioner on the platform of pure spiritual goodness.
- Our mind is very restless, so mind tries to go. Suppose I am speaking and you are hearing, and mind is somewhere. This is . . . ordinarily there is such difficulty, but we have to bring back the mind again.
- If you hear, if you are anxious to hear, then mind has to be engaged. Without attention, you cannot hear.
- Simply hearing about Krsna, as we are doing. Then, gradually, we come to the platform of goodness, and the lower modes of material nature, namely ignorance and passion, cannot disturb us. We become situated in goodness.
- When Hare Krishna Mantra is vibrating on your tongue and you are hearing attentively, then your consciousness becomes clear or Krishna Consciousness and there is no question of maya or hazy consciousness.
- We are hearing from the scriptures, from authorities, that "I have got this miserable conditional body to suffer threefolds of material miseries; still, I am not very much anxious how to stop this repetition of birth and death. I am drinking poison."
Conclusion
The entire structure of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is built upon the pure descending process of aural reception. By strictly instructing his disciples to hear only from authorized sources and to repeat exactly what they received, Śrīla Prabhupāda ensured that the transcendental message remained intact and fully potent. This simple yet profound discipline of submissive hearing forms an impenetrable shield against material illusion, allowing any sincere soul to quickly and securely advance on the path back to the spiritual world.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Our Hearing (Disciples of SP). We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.