144 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI

in chanting twenty-four hours a day. That is the business of Krsna con-
scious devotees.

One may perform all the methods of devotional service or may accept
only one. Simply hearing is enough. Pariksit Maharaja did not do any-
thing else but sit down before Sukadeva Gosvami and hear for the last
seven days of his life. If one simply hears, without doing anything else, if
one simply sits down in the temple and whenever there is talk of
Bhagavad-gita one goes on hearing, that will be enough. Even if you do
not understand, please hear. The vibration, the mantra, will help you.
Grammatical or scholarly understanding is not very important. One may
not know Sanskrit grammar, but bhakti is apratihata, unimpedable.
Nothing can check the progress of bhakti. Therefore one should simply
adopt this process of hearing, as recommended by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

After Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted the renounced order of life, he
was criticized by Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, who had been a school-
friend of Nilambara Cakravarti, the father-in-law of Caitanya Maha-
prabhu’s father, Jagannatha Misra. By this relationship, Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya was on the level of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s grandfather.
Thus he said to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, ‘‘You are a boy only twenty-four
years old, and now You have taken sannydsa. Sannyasa is very difficult to
keep, because for a young man the world has so many attractions. So You
should hear Vedanta-sutra.’’ Sarvabhauma Bhattacdrya belonged to the
Mayavada school, and this indicates that hearing is important even
among the Mayavadis, who stress the importance of hearing Vedanta-
sutra. The Vaisnavas, the devotees of Krsna, also hear Vedanta-suitra, but
not from the Mayavadis, who falsely interpret it and spoil the process of
hearing. The Vaisnavas actually hear Veddnta-sutra, because they do not
interpret it. When Krsna says, ‘‘I am the Supreme,” the Vaisnavas ac-
cept it, and that is the proper way of hearing. If one speculatively in-
terprets the Veddnta-stitra or Bhagavad-gita, saying, ‘“The word krsna
means this, and kuruksetra means that,’ one is simply wasting one’s
time. One should hear this literature as it is.

Thus although Caitanya Mahaprabhu agreed to hear Vedanta from Sar-
vabhauma Bhattacarya, He simply went on hearing it for many days but
did not ask any questions. Finally Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya said to Him,
““My dear boy, You are hearing, but You do not ask any questions. Why is
this? Is it that You can’t understand? What is the reason You are silent?”
Caitanya Mahaprabhu answered, “‘Yes, I understand. But I am silent be-
cause You are explaining the Veddnta-stitra in a speculative way.
Therefore I am simply listening to the verses of Vedanta-stitra but not ac-
