Revive your eternal relationship with Krishna through hearing, remembering, and surrendering in disciplined devotional service.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: veda-śāstra-kahe—'sambandha', 'abhidheya', 'prayojana' 'kṛṣṇa'—prāpya sambandha, 'bhakti'-prāptyera sādhana [Cc Madhya 20.124] [The Vedic literatures give information about the living entity’s eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, which is called sambandha. The living entity’s understanding of this relationship and his acting accordingly is called abhidheya. Returning home, back to Godhead, is the ultimate goal of life and is called prayojana.] Now, the Vedas or the scriptures, why they are made? This...
It is not practically made, but it is coming down by traditional process, by hearing. Just like we accept our father by hearing. A child is born, and when the child sees his other brothers and sisters calling a gentleman "father," he also begins to say "father." There is no question of studying. By hearing.
How does a child learns to call the father a father? Because he hears. Others are calling "father," so he also calls "father." There is no evidence. There is no study.
Similarly, the Vedic knowledge was coming by hearing. There was no need of book. But when this age, Kali-yuga, began, five thousand years before, they were recorded, and systematically... Vedas, first one..., there was only one Veda, Atharva Veda.
Then Vyāsadeva, just to make it clear, divided into four and entrusted his various disciples to take charge of one school of Veda. Then again he made Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, just to make the Vedic knowledge understandable by the common man in different way. But the principle is the same. So Lord Caitanya says the purpose of Veda is... Veda-śāstra kahe-'sambandha'.
Sambandha. What is our relation? Our relation is, as Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. [O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.] So the relation with God is that we are... Everything is born out of the energy of God. So we are also born.
Therefore we say God "Father." This is accepted in every religion. There is no argument. Now, what is the relationship between father and son? Is it the relationship to exact only from father?