Hari-Katha is More Than Nectar

Srila Gurudeva: Devotees who have been freed from all kinds of material desires, who have no desire even for mukti, liberation, and all these things, such a qualified person is qualified to tell hari-katha. What will this hari-katha be? All the medicines of this world taste somewhat bitter. But this medicine, the hari- katha by such a qualified person, is not bitter. It is very sweet and delicious. Also, when it will be tasted on the tongue, it will be very tasteful. What is the tongue for tasting hari-katha? The ears. Very beautiful and sweet and delicious pastimes of Krsna will come through the ears. Also, it will be very, very tasteful in the heart also. All medicines are bitter, thus sometimes they are sugar-coated. But this medicine of hari- katha does not need to be sugar-coated. It is not bitter. It’s very delicious, more than nectar. Who will not hear this hari-katha, who are they? If anyone is not hearing the pastimes of Krsna from the mouth of a pure devotee like Sukadeva Gosvami, those people are like butchers. Why? Because they don’t want to take that medicine. They neglect that hari-katha. Those who are neglecting this kind of hari-katha, this high-class hari-katha, are certainly like butchers. They are butchers to both others and themselves. They are slaughtering and killing their own soul. They also tell others, “Oh, don’t go, don’t hear.” They are like this.

Hari-katha is always like amrta, it gives life even to a dead body. But we should not hear from bogus people. Like milk which is touched by a very poisonous serpent, we should not drink it, otherwise we will die. Similarly, hari-katha is more powerful than amrta, nectar, but we should not hear this hari-katha from any person that is not bona-fide. Otherwise, we will commit spiritual suicide. We will die spiritually. So everywhere it has been said, “You should go to a bona-fide Vaisnava.” Hari-katha is automatically coming from their mouths like an endless flow, always. Those who will go and sink in this current will be pure forever. By hearing this katha, all kinds of sorrow and suffering, all worldly desires, eating and drinking, all these things will go away. So who will not hear all this katha? If any bona-fide Vaisnavas come and you are fortunate to hear, then you should try to hear all these things. If we have any chance to hear from this kind of person or anyone in their line, we must hear them. By hearing, envy and all other things can go away and we will be pure devotees.

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 26th, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]