Introduction
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the liberated state. Also, if persons who are trying to be liberated hear such narrations as  Bhagavad-gītā  and  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , then their path of liberation becomes very clear.  Bhagavad-gītā  is the preliminary study of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . By studying the  Gītā , one becomes fully conscious of the position of Lord Kṛṣṇa; and when he is situated at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he understands the narrations of Kṛṣṇa as described in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . Lord Caitanya has therefore advised His followers that their business is to propagate  Kṛṣṇa-kathā .
Kṛṣṇa-kathā  means narrations about Kṛṣṇa. There are two  Kṛṣṇa-kathās : narrations  spoken by Kṛṣṇa  and narrations  spoken about Kṛṣṇa .  Bhagavad-gītā  is the narration or the philosophy or the science of God, spoken by Kṛṣṇa Himself.  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is the narration about the activities and transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Both are  Kṛṣṇa-kathā . It is the order of Lord Caitanya that  Kṛṣṇa-kathā  should be spread all over the world, because if the conditioned souls, suffering under the pangs of material existence, take to  Kṛṣṇa-kathā , then their path of liberation will be open and clear. The purpose of presenting this book is primarily to induce people to understand Kṛṣṇa or  Kṛṣṇa-kathā , because thereby they can become freed from material bondage.
This  Kṛṣṇa-kathā  will also be very much appealing to the most materialistic persons because Kṛṣṇa's pastimes with the  gopīs  (cowherd girls) are exactly like the loving affairs between young girls and boys within this material world. Actually, the sex feeling found in human society is not unnatural because this same sex feeling is there in the original Personality of Godhead. The pleasure potency is called  Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī . The attraction of loving affairs on the basis of sex feeling is the original feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we, the conditioned souls, being part and parcel of the Supreme, have such feelings also, but they are experienced within a perverted, minute condition. Therefore, when those who are after sex life in this material world hear about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes with the  gopīs , they will relish transcendental pleasure, although it appears to be materialistic. The advantage will be that they will gradually be elevated to the spiritual platform. In the  Bhāgavatam  it is stated that if one hears the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa with the  gopīs from authorities with submission , then he will be promoted to the platform of transcendental loving service to the Lord, and the material disease of lust within his heart will be completely vanquished. In other words, it will counteract the material sex life.
Kṛṣṇa will be appealing to the liberated souls and to persons who are trying to be liberated, as well as to the gross, conditioned materialist.