Å›ravaṇa-kÄ«rtana ha-ite kṛṣṇe haya 'premÄ'
sei pañcama puruá¹£Ärtha — puruá¹£Ärthera sÄ«mÄ

 Å›ravaṇa-kÄ«rtana - hearing and chanting; ha-ite - from; kṛṣṇe - unto Lord Kṛṣṇa; haya - there is; premÄ - transcendental love; sei - that; pañcama puruá¹£a-artha - the fifth platform of perfection of life; puruá¹£a-arthera sÄ«mÄ - the limit of goals of life.


Text

“When one comes to the platform of loving service to Lord Kṛṣṇa by executing these nine processes, beginning with hearing and chanting, he has attained the fifth platform of success and the limit of life’s goals.

Purport

Everyone is after success in religion, economic development, sense gratification and ultimately merging into the existence of Brahman. These are the general practices of the common man, but according to the strict principles of the Vedas, the highest attainment is to rise to the platform of Å›ravaṇaá¹ kÄ«rtanam, hearing and chanting about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (1.1.2):

dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarÄṇÄá¹ satÄá¹
 vedyaá¹ vÄstavam atra vastu Å›iva-daá¹ tÄpa-trayonmÅ«lanam
Å›rÄ«mad-bhÄgavate mahÄ-muni-ká¹›te kiá¹ vÄ parair Ä«Å›varaḥ
 sadyo há¹›dy avarudhyate ’tra ká¹›tibhiḥ Å›uÅ›rÅ«á¹£ubhis tat-ká¹£aṇÄt

“Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this BhÄgavata PurÄṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful BhÄgavatam, compiled by the great sage ÅšrÄ« VyÄsadeva, is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of BhÄgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.†This verse of ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam rejects as cheating processes all religious activities that aim at achieving materialistic goals, including dharma, artha, kÄma and even moká¹£a, or liberation.

According to ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ«, the material conception of success (moká¹£a, or liberation) is desired by those in material existence. Devotees, however, not being situated in material existence, have no desire for liberation.

A devotee is always liberated in all stages of life because he is always engaged in the nine items of devotional service (Å›ravaṇam, kÄ«rtanam, etc.). ÅšrÄ« Caitanya MahÄprabhu’s philosophy holds that devotional service to Kṛṣṇa always exists in everyone’s heart. It simply has to be awakened by the process of Å›ravaṇaá¹ kÄ«rtanaá¹ viṣṇoḥ. ÅšravaṇÄdi Å›uddha-citte karaye udaya (Cc. Madhya 22.107). When a person is actually engaged in devotional service, his eternal relationship with the Lord, the servant-master relationship, is awakened.