Knowledge of God descends through the guru's parampara, never ascends through human speculation or research.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.1 — June 9, 1974, Paris 740609SB-PARIS [39:11 Minutes] SB-02.01.01_740609SB-PARIS Prabhupāda: [leads singing of Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava] [break] [03:27] Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] śrī-śuka uvāca varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa ātmavit-sammataḥ puṁsāṁ śrotavyādiṣu yaḥ paraḥ [SB 2.1.1] [break] [6:50] Translation: "Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King, your question is glorious because it is very beneficial to all kinds of people.
To hear the answer to this question is the prime subject matter of hearing, and it is approved by all transcendentalists." Prabhupāda: varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa ātmavit-sammataḥ... ātmavit-sammataḥ puṁsāṁ śrotavyādiṣu yaḥ paraḥ [SB 2.1.1] So this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a question and answer. The beginning, the... This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, first of all it was narrated by Vyāsadeva, and it was heard by his son, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Then Śukadeva Gosvāmī narrated this Bhāgavatam to Parīkṣit Mahārāja at the time of his death.
And from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the Sūta Gosvāmī heard. This is the paramparā. [aside:] Not yet. This is the paramparā.
Kṛṣṇa says in the Fourth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg. 4.2]. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by Kṛṣṇa millions of years ago to the sun-god. Imaṁ vivasvate, proktavān avyayam. Imaṁ vivasvate proktam, vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt [Bg. 4.1].
This is the paramparā system. Our this Bhāgavata system, or Vedic system, is not research work. It is not research work. Nowadays it is a fashion that... Just like the theosophists, they're searching out God.
Since the beginning, they're searching out. And so many leaders came and gone, but they are searching out. And they will go on searching out for lives together. But it is not a thing to be searched out.
It is not ordinary thing, not material thing. You know... athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvayaprasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi jānāti tattvaṁ... na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan [SB 10.14.29] Ciraṁ vicinvan. For forever, millions of years, if you speculate to understand what is God, it is not possible. It is not a subject matter of speculative knowledge.