Verse Text
caritra-śravaṇaṁ, yathā caturthe (4.29.40)—
tasmin mahan-mukharitā madhubhic-caritra-
pīyūṣa-śeṣa-saritaḥ paritaḥ sravanti |
tā ye pibanty avitṛṣo nṛpa gāḍha-karṇais
tān na spṛśanty aśana-tṛḍ-bhaya-śoka-mohāḥ ||172||
Translation
Hearing the pastimes (verse 87), from Fourth Canto: In that assembly, excellent streams of nectar of the pastimes of the Lord emanating from the mouths of the saintly devotees flow everywhere. Those who drink that nectar with eager ears, with constant thirst, O King, will forget the necessities of life — namely hunger and thirst — and become immune to all kinds of fear, lamentation and illusion. SB 4.29.40
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The profuse (śeṣa) rivers (saritaḥ) of pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, which are loudly spoken by the devotee in the assembly of devotees (tasmin), flow everywhere. Hunger, thirst (tṛt), fear, lamentation and illusion do not touch those who drink that nectar with constant thirst, through attentive ears.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The profuse (śeṣa) rivers (saritaḥ) of pastimes of Kṛṣṇa transformed into words (mukharitāḥ) and emanating from the devotees’ mouths, in the assembly (tasmin) of devotees, flow everywhere. Mukharitāḥ means “transformed into sound or words.” The sentence suggests that the pastimes have spontaneously turned themselves into words with their proper meanings (since they flow like rivers). Śesa here means excellent.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Twenty-ninth Chapter, verse 39-40, the importance of hearing of the pastimes of the Lord is stated by Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: “My dear King, one should stay at a place where the great ācāryas [holy teachers] speak about the transcendental activities of the Lord, and one should give aural reception to the nectarean river flowing from the moonlike faces of such great personalities. If someone eagerly continues to hear such transcendental sounds, then certainly he will become freed from all material hunger, thirst, fear and lamentation, as well as all illusions of material existence.”
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also recommended this process of hearing as a means of self-realization in the present Age of Kali. In this age it is very difficult to follow thoroughly the regulative principles and studies of the Vedas which were formerly recommended. However, if one gives aural reception to the sound vibrated by great devotees and ācāryas, that alone will give him relief from all material contamination. Therefore it is the recommendation of Caitanya Mahāprabhu that one should simply hear from authorities who are actually devotees of the Lord. Hearing from professional men will not help. If we hear from those who are actually self-realized, then the nectarean rivers, like those which are flowing on the moon planet, will flow into our ears. This is the metaphor used in the above verse.
As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, “A materialistic person can give up his material hankerings only by becoming situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” Unless one finds a superior engagement, he will not be able to give up his inferior engagement. In the material world everyone is engaged in the illusory activities of the inferior energy, but when one is given the opportunity to relish the activities of the superior energy performed by Kṛṣṇa, then he forgets all his lesser pleasures. When Kṛṣṇa speaks on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, to the materialistic person it appears that this is simply talk between two friends, but actually it is a river of nectar flowing down from the mouth of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Arjuna gave aural reception to such vibrations, and thus he became freed from all the illusions of material problems.