Surrender to Krishna through devotional service, not sense gratification, perfects the human birth.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīla Prabhupāda and Devotees Speak — April 9, 1969, New York 690409LE-NEW YORK [13:47 Minutes] Lectures_690409LE-NEW YORK Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So today you speak something, I shall hear. Yes. Any of you can speak something from Śikṣāṣṭaka? Yes?
Thank you. Viṣṇujana: "Glory to Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years together. And thus the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death, is extinguished. Such saṅkīrtana movement gives the essence of all nectar of transcendental bliss and helps us to have a taste of that full nectarean for which always anxious we are." So this is the mercy you have given us, this saṅkīrtana movement, that every day, ten hours a day, we can chant the holy name of God right out on the street, and everyone who sees and hears is learning about Lord Caitanya, is learning about the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, and is practically engaged in devotion. Prabhupāda: Thank you. Ṛṣi Kumāra, you can speak something? Yes. Ṛṣi Kumāra: In the Vedic literatures it is stated that there are 8,400,000 species of life that one can take in this material world.
So we've come to this human form, taken this human body, and it's such a great opportunity for realizing the purpose of life. We're so fortunate that Prabhupāda has come to teach us this process of realizing ourselves in this human form. So let us take advantage of this causeless mercy which Kṛṣṇa has sent us. Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hmm.
There is a verse by Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam apāyayan mām anabhīpsum andhaṁ kṛpāmbudhir yas tam aham... [Cc. Madhya 6.254]. [“Let me take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who has descended in the form of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to teach us real knowledge, His devotional service and detachment from whatever does not foster Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He has descended because He is an ocean of transcendental mercy. Let me surrender unto His lotus feet.] Sanātanam... Kṛpāmbudhir yas sanātanaṁ prabhu tam aham āśrayaḥ. Like that. Sanātana...
Six Gosvāmīs: Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī. So Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was very rich man's son, and he was youngest. All the Gosvāmīns used to treat him as younger brother. So he's writing his realization, that vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam. This bhakti-yogam, devotional service, is..., another name is vairāgya-vidyā.
Vairāgya-vidyā means... Vairāgya means renunciation. We are now caught up by this material body, and we have to get out. So this process of getting out is noncooperation.
That is called vairāgya-vidyā. So Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī says that "I was unwilling to accept this vairāgya-vidyā, but He forced me to take it." And... Apāyayan mām anabhīpsum andham: "Because I was blind, I thought that this material world is everything. Therefore I was blind. And therefore I was unwilling also." People are unwilling to accept the Kṛṣṇa consciousness because they are blind.