Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Narada Bhakti Sutra 17

kathadisv iti gargah

SYNONYMS

katha-adisu -- for narrations and so on; iti -- so; garga -- Garga Muni.

TRANSLATION

Garga Muni says that bhakti is fondness for narrations about the Lord, by the Lord, and so on.

PURPORT

As Garga Muni taught the importance of attachment for hearing krsna-katha, so Srila Prabhupada also stressed krsna-katha. One type of krsna-katha consists of words directly spoken from the mouth of the Lord, such as the Bhagavad-gita. Lord Caitanya advocated that we repeat the words spoken by Krsna (krsna-upadesa) to whomever we meet. Another kind of krsna-katha consists of words spoken about Krsna, such as those spoken by Sukadeva Gosvami to Maharaja Pariksit in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Sukadeva speaks throughout all twelve cantos about the wonderful pastimes of the Lord in His various incarnations. In the Tenth Canto he describes the original form of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna in Vrndavana, Mathura, and Dvaraka. All of this is krsna-katha.

It is a characteristic of pure devotees that they speak only on transcendental subjects. A devotee practices mauna, or silence, by refraining from all mundane talk, but he is always pleased to speak krsna-katha. As Krsna states in the Bhagavad-gita (10.9),

mac-citta mad-gata-prana bodhayantah parasparam

kathayantas ca mam nityam tusyanti ca ramanti ca

"The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me." Before beginning his Tenth Canto descriptions of Lord Krsna, Sukadeva tells Maharaja Pariksit,

nivrtta-tarsair upagiyamanad

bhavausadhac chrotra-mano-'bhiramat

ka uttamasloka-gunanuvadat

puman virajyeta vina pasu-ghnat

"Descriptions of the Lord spoken by those who are free of material desires are the right medicine for the conditioned soul undergoing repeated birth and death, and they delight the ear and the mind. Therefore who will cease hearing such glorification of the Lord except a butcher or one who is killing his own self?" (Bhag. 10.1.4).

Narada Muni attributed his own Krsna consciousness to the pure devotees (bhakti-vedantas) whom he had served and heard speaking krsna-katha when he was only a five-year-old boy: "O Vyasadeva, in that association and by the mercy of those great Vedantists, I could hear them describe the attractive activities of Lord Krsna. And thus listening attentively, my taste for hearing of the Personality of Godhead increased at every step" (Bhag. 1.5.26). And so the opinion of Garga Muni -- that bhakti consists of attraction for krsna-katha -- is approved and practiced by the maha-janas.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari