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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 10, Ch. 1]
completely freed from material desires ( nivṛtta-tarṣaiḥ ). Everyone within this material world, beginning from Brahmā down to the insignificant ant, is full of material desires for sense enjoyment, and everyone is busy in sense gratification, but when thus engaged one cannot fully understand the value of  kṛṣṇa-kathā , either in the form of  Bhagavad-gītā  or in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam .
If we hear the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from liberated persons, this hearing will certainly free us from the bondage of material activities, but hearing  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  spoken by a professional reciter cannot actually help us achieve liberation.  Kṛṣṇa-kathā  is very simple. In  Bhagavad-gītā  it is said that  Kṛṣṇa  is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As He Himself explains,  mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid asti dhanañjaya : “O Arjuna, there is no truth superior to Me.” (Bg. 7.7) Simply by understanding this fact—that  Kṛṣṇa  is the Supreme Personality of Godhead—one can become a liberated person. But, especially in this age, because people are interested in hearing  Bhagavad-gītā  from unscrupulous persons who depart from the simple presentation of  Bhagavad-gītā  and distort it for their personal satisfaction, they fail to derive the real benefit. There are big scholars, politicians, philosophers and scientists who speak on  Bhagavad-gītā  in their own polluted way, and people in general hear from them, being uninterested in hearing the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead from a devotee. A devotee is one who has no other motive for reciting  Bhagavad-gītā  and  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  than to serve the Lord. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore advised us to hear the glories of the Lord from a realized person ( bhāgavata paro diya bhāgavata sthane ). Unless one is personally a realized soul in the science of  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness, a neophyte should not approach him to hear about the Lord, for this is strictly forbidden by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, who quotes from the  Padma Purāṇa :
avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyaṁ sarpocchiṣṭaṁ yathā payaḥ
One should avoid hearing from a person not situated in Vaiṣṇava behavior. A Vaiṣṇava is  nivṛtta-tṛṣṇa ; that is, he has no material pur-