from tHe Lips part 3
Good Fortune of Recordings
The age of technology has some advantages for devotees. One of which is the good fortune of having audio and video recordings of Srila Prabhupada and current saintly persons. Aside from recordings we now have social media that enable us to connect with different devotees. These mediums enable us to easily remember and contemplate on Srila Prabhupada’s teachings.
However, it’s not that recordings or social media can replace personal association. This is a simple matter of common sense. Imagine if, while sitting upstairs watching a video lecture of Srila Prabhupada, suddenly
someone rushed into the room and announced that Srila Prabhupada just arrived at your house, “He just walked inside and right now is giving class downstairs.” Who would refuse to go, saying, “There is no need for me to go downstairs to hear from him. I’m associating with him via a recording. It’s just as good.”
Srila Prabhupada’s divine presence in his books and recordings is an important principle in ISKCON. It is a great treasure in our society that devotees should take advantage of. By listening attentively and acting on his teachings, any sincere seeker of the truth can directly associate with him. However, that does not mean that recordings or social media can replace the principle of personal association in disciplic succession.
Directly from the Lips
For these reasons, Srila Prabhupada repeatedly emphasized the need for hearing directly from a person. He often used the phrase, “from the lips”. A few examples:
A businessman is always very eager to go to a place where business is transacted. Similarly, a devotee is very eager to hear from the lips of liberated devotees. As soon as one hears the glories of the Lord from the liberated devotees, he immediately becomes impregnated with Krishna consciousness. (Purport to Bhāg. 4.29.39-40.)
In Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna is hearing about God from the lips of Sri Krishna himself. In this way Arjuna set the
criterion for understanding the Supreme by submissive hearing. It is our position to hear Bhagavad-gītā from the lips of Arjuna or his bona fide representative, the spiritual master. (Chapter 3 of Beyond Birth and Death.)
When it is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy on hearers, and as such this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non-devotees should be avoided. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects. (Chapter 6 of Krishna Consciousness, the Topmost Yoga System.)
The transcendental messages of the scriptures should be heard from the lips of realized souls. (Chapter 28 of Teachings of Lord Caitanya.)
Our movement is being carried by spiritual strength from chanting of the Hare Krishna māhā-mantra from the lips of pure devotees. Our disciples are pure and therefore the effect is that this movement is gaining in scope all over the world. (Letter to Murari, 4 February 1971.)
Only Through the Devotee
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and other vaiṣṇava literature can only be approached via the medium of Krishna’s devotee. Caitanya-caritāmṛta. (madhya 11.28) and Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta (2.6) quote Ādi Purāṇa:
ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ mad-bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās te me bhakta-tamā matāḥ
[Lord Krishna told Arjuna:] “Those who are my direct devotees are actually not my devotees, but those who are the devotees of my devotee are factually my devotees.”Therefore, Lord Shiva says in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (madhya 24.313):
ahaṁ vedmi śuko vetti vyāso vetti na vetti vā
bhaktyā bhāgavataṁ grāhyaṁ na buddhyā na ca ṭīkayā
I know Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Sukadev Goswami, the son of Vyasadev, knows, and Vyasadev himself may know or may not know Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam can only be understood through bhakti, devotion. It is not possible to understand it by dint of one’s material intelligence nor by taking help from commentaries.
Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to this verse:
According to the Vedic injunction, yasya deve parā bhak- tir yathā deve tathā gurau [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23], all Vedic literatures maintain that Śrīmad Bhāgavatam has to be learned from the person bhāgavata, and to understand it one has to engage in pure devotional service. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam cannot be understood by so-called erudite scholars or grammarians. One who has developed pure Krishna consciousness and has served the pure devotee, the spiritual master, can un- derstand Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Others cannot. — MD
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