Purifying Blunt Senses by Devotional Service

1. Our senses should not be employed for sense gratification but for engagement in service of Krishna. This is the goal of human life.

2. A human is identified when he begins to inquire about the Absolute Truth and this implies not only to Hindus, but to Muslims, Christians and entire human race because it is a science. Just like two plus two is four is acceptable by all, so this inquiry into the Absolute is necessray for all human beings.

3. So from where to get this knowledge? The answer is by approaching a Guru, Tasmad Guru Prapadyante and ask him submissively. He will give knowledge because they are seers of truth.

4. How to identify Guru? The first qualification is that he should be a person with brahminical qualities like self control, tolerance, honesty, austerity, truthfulness, cleanliness and he should work like a Brahmana. (6 duties of a Brahmana are Study Vedic Scriptures, Teach Vedic Scriptures, Expert in Worship, Teaching others to Worship, Take Charity and Give Charity). But the most important qualification is to be a Vaisnava. Sat karma nipuno vipro, tantra mantra visaradaha, avaisnava gurur na syad, vaisnava sva paco guruh - Even if he is expert in all duties of a Brahmana and knows all the Vedic mantras but if He is not a Vaisnava or Devotee of Lord Krishna but is impersonalist, voidist or does not what is God then he cannot be taken as Guru. On the other hand a Vaisnava, who knows what is Visnu, what is God, even though coming from the family of dog-eaters, he can be guru. This is the injunction of the sastra. One who knows God, he cannot remain dog-eaters. But sometimes he comes from there. But sastra says, Yes, when he has learned the science of God, then he can be accepted as guru.

5. Even Krishna says, only a devotee can understand Me. (Bhakto si me sakha ceti, rahasyam hy etad uttamam).

6. So to know the Lord we have to do devotional service and free ourselves (i.e our senses) from all designations and then we can see God, Krsna. Eg: A blunt knife cannot cut properly, but if we sharpen the knife then we can cut nicely. So with our blunt senses we cannot see or understand Krishna, but if we purify our senses by devotional service then we can understand Krishna.

7. So to know Krishna, we have to take advantage of this treasure house of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. Instead of wasting time with newspapers which are thrown right after reading, we should take advantage of real knowledge of the Absolute Truth.

- Summary of Srila Prabhupada lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.10