58 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 1
more attractive to liberated souls than to mundane people. He is of
necessity not impersonal because it is only possible to carry on transcen-
dental rasa with a person.

In the Srimad-Bhdgavatam the transcendental pastimes of the Lord are
narrated, and the narration is systematically depicted by Srila Sukadeva
Gosvami. Thus the subject matter is appealing to all classes of persons,
including those who seek liberation and those who seek to become one
with the supreme whole.

In Sanskrit the parrot is also known as suka. When a ripened fruit is cut
by the red beaks of such birds, its sweet flavor is enhanced. The Vedic
fruit which is mature and ripe in knowledge is spoken through the lips of
Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who is compared to the parrot not for his ability
to recite the Bhagavatam exactly as he heard it from his learned father,
but for his ability to present the work in a manner that would appeal to
all classes of men.

The subject matter is so presented through the lips of Srila Sukadeva
Gosvami that any sincere listener that hears submissively can at once
relish transcendental tastes which are distinct from the perverted tastes
of the material world. The ripened fruit is not dropped all of a sudden from
the highest planet of Krsnaloka. Rather, it has come down carefully
through the chain of disciplic succession without change or disturbance.
Foolish people who are not in the transcendental disciplic succession
commit great blunders by trying to understand the highest transcendental
rasa known as the rasa dance without following in the footsteps of Suka-
deva Gosvami, who presents this fruit very carefully by stages of transcen-
dental realization. One should be intelligent to know the position of
Srimad-Bhdgavatam by considering personalities like Sukadeva Gosvami,
who deals with the subject so carefully. This process of disciplic succession
of the Bhagavata school suggests that in the future also Srimad-Bhagavatam
has to be understood from a person who is factually a representative of
Srila Sukadeva Gosvami. A professional man who makes a business out of
reciting the Bhdgavatam illegally is certainly not a representative of Suka-
deva Gosvami. Such a man’s business is only to earn his livelihood. There-
fore one should refrain from hearing the lectures of such professional men.
Such men usually go to the most confidential part of the literature without
undergoing the gradual process of understanding this grave subject. They
usually plunge into the subject matter of the rasa dance, which is misun-
derstood by the foolish class of men. Some of them take this to be
immoral, while others try to cover it up by their own stupid interpreta-
tions. They have no desire to follow in the footsteps of Srila Sukadeva
Gosvami.
