170
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
[Antya-līlā, Ch. 13]
TRANSLATION
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, “When you return home, serve your aged father and mother, who are devotees, and try to study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a pure Vaiṣṇava who has realized God.”
PURPORT
One should note how Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, advised Raghunātha Bhaṭṭācārya to learn  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . He advised him to understand  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  not from professional men but from a real  bhāgavata , devotee. He also advised Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa to serve his mother and father because they were both His devotees. Anyone who wishes to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness must try to serve the devotees of Kṛṣṇa. As Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says,  chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā : “Without serving a self-realized Vaiṣṇava, no one has ever been released from the materialistic way of life.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu would have never advised Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa to serve ordinary parents, but since his parents were Vaiṣṇavas, the Lord advised him to serve them.
One might ask “Why shouldn’t ordinary parents be served?” As stated in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (5.5.18):
gurur na sa syāt svajano na sa syāt 
    pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt 
    daivaṁ na tat syāt na patiś ca sa syān 
    na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum
“One who cannot deliver his dependent from the path of birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a relative, a father or mother, or a worshipable demigod, nor should such a person become a husband.” Everyone naturally gets a father and mother at the time of birth, but the real father and mother are they who can release their offspring from the clutches of imminent death. This is possible only for parents advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore any parents who cannot enlighten their offspring in Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be accepted as a real father and mother. The following verse from the  Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu  (1.2.200) confirms the uselessness of serving ordinary parents:
laukikī vaidikī vāpi 
    yā kriyā kriyate mune 
    hari-sevānukūlaiva 
    sa kāryā bhaktim icchatā