16
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 1]
For advancement of material knowledge there is the need for personal capacity and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master. The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science. It should not, however, be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current. The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude. The idea is that both the spiritual master and the disciple must be bona fide. In this case, the spiritual master, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is ready to recite exactly what he has learned from his great father Śrīla Vyāsadeva, and the disciple, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, is a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is he who believes sincerely that by becoming a devotee of the Lord one becomes fully equipped with everything spiritual. This teaching is imparted by the Lord Himself in the pages of the  Bhagavad-gītā , in which it is clearly described that the Lord (Śrī Kṛṣṇa) is everything, and to surrender unto Him solely and wholly makes one the most perfectly pious man. This unflinching faith in Lord Kṛṣṇa prepares one to become a student of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , and one who hears  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  from a devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī is sure to attain salvation at the end, as Mahārāja Parīkṣit did. The professional reciter of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  and the pseudo-devotees whose faith is based on one week's hearing are different from the duo of Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Śrīla Vyāsadeva explained  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  unto Śukadeva Gosvāmī from the very beginning of the " janmādyasya " verse, and so Śukadeva Gosvāmī also explained it to the King. Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as the  Mahāpuruṣa  in the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  (Canto 11) in His devotional feature as Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in His devotional attitude, descended on earth to bestow special favors upon the fallen souls of this age of Kali. There are two verses particularly suitable to offer as prayers to this  Mahāpuruṣa  feature of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
dhyeyaṁ sadā paribhava-ghnam abhīṣṭa-dohaṁ tīrthāspadaṁ śiva-virīnci-nutaṁ śaraṇyam