Srimad-Bhagavad-gita is non-different from Sri Krishna as it has emanated from the Lotus-Lips of Sri Krishna. Hence by taking shelter of Gita, one can experience Sri Krishna. Srimad Bhagavatam is Sri Krishna Himself and the twelve cantos are compared to twelve limbs of Sri Krishna. By taking shelter of Srimad Bhagavatam one can attain Sri Krishna. Similarly, to know about the embodiment of Transcendental Divine Love, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one has to relish Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat (written by Srila Vrndavan Das Thakur, who is an incarnation of Srila Vedavyasa) and Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita (written by Srila Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami, illuminated by the inspiration of Vrindavan-vihari Sri Madan Mohan) in the company of devotees.

Lord is the original spiritual master and Vedic scriptures are the original evidence. Hence we have to take shelter of the Lord and His transcendental sound – Vedic scriptures. Only by the mercy of Lord and Vedic scriptures can we know Him, understand Him and attain Him.

tat-kathāsu mahat puṇyaṁ
dhanyaṁ svastyayanaṁ śubham
yatra yatrottamaśloko
bhagavān gīyate hariḥ
(Srimad Bhagavat 8.1.32)

“Any literature or narration in which the Supreme Lord, Uttamaśloka, is described and His glories are being sung is certainly great, pure, glorious, auspicious and all good.”

Uttamaśloka—the Supreme Lord Whose glories are being sung by emancipated souls or realized souls. Hearing and speaking about the glories of the Supreme Lord sanctify us. We will then become blessed to get all kinds of eternal welfare. We can get all kinds of attainments by hearing and chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord.

Maharaj Pariksit had gone to Shamika Rishi's Ashram to quench his thirst. He was cursed by the son of Shamika Rishi that after seven days he will die by a snake bite. But, where has his thirst gone now? Pariksit Maharaj thought to himself, “The Lord mercifully gave me a time span of seven days to live. Within these seven days, I will not die. Nobody will be able to kill me. Death will come to me only after seven days. So for seven days I will be able to perform Hari-bhajan continuously.” While Pariksit Maharaj was hearing Srimad Bhagavatam from Sukadeva Goswami, the latter told him, “Maharaj, please take rest for some time. Take some food and water.” Pariksit Maharaj replied, “I have only seven days left to live. After that I have to die. I am not suffering by not drinking water. Neither I am suffering by not taking food or getting sleep. Please do not worry for me. 'pibantaṁ tvan-mukhāmbhoja cyutaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam'—I am drinking the ambrosia of Harikatha that is emerging from your lotus lips.”

Pariksit Maharaj got the highest objective of life only by performing ‘sravan-bhakti’ (hearing the pastimes of the Lord from a shuddha-bhakta). In this way he did it. We should perform sravan (hearing the pastimes of the Lord), kirtan (singing the glories of the Lord), padasevan (serving the lotus feet of the Lord) only with the aim of performing Hari-bhajan. We should not do it with the intention of just finishing the rules and regulations somehow. We should do these with heart and soul. Leaving aside all material egos one should perform all the above mentioned devotional activities only for the pleasure of the Lord with the ego that I am of Him. One should not have any other ulterior motives behind performing the above mentioned devotional activities and have to practice incessantly. Pariksit Maharaj said to Sukadeva Goswami, “I am not getting any sort of afflictions only due to drinking the ambrosia of Harikatha that is emerging from your lips.” In the same conversation, previously, Pariksit Maharaj said,

nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād
bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-’bhirāmāt
ka uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt
pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt
(Srimad Bhagavat 10.1.4)

A person who has got no thirst for any object of this world can sing the glories of the Lord and His associates. Only liberated souls, whose target is to please the Lord and nothing else, can sing His glories. Those with false egos and false interests cannot sing His glories. We are having false egos, passing through cycles of births and deaths and suffering three-fold afflictions. But even the medicine for such worldly diseases is also performing ‘sravan’ and ‘kirtan’. Even if one does not feel like performing ‘sravan’ and ‘kirtan’ he should still do it. The medicine for this disease of passing through cycles of births and deaths is performing ‘sravan’ and ‘kirtan’. So one should do it even if he does not feel like doing it.

syāt kṛṣṇa-nāma-caritādi-sitāpy avidyā-
pittopatapta-rasanasya na rocikā nu
kintv ādarād anudinaṁ khalu saiva juṣṭā
svādvī kramād bhavati tad-gada-mūla-hantrī
(Sri Rupa Goswami Upadeshamrita Verse 7)

Krishna–kathamrita (the ambrosia of Krishna-katha) is the sweetest amongst all the Mishri (sugar candy). A person who is suffering from disease of pitta (bile), to him even Mishri tastes bitter. Even though sugar candy tastes very sweet, he feels it bitter only because his tongue has become bitter due to the disease of bile. But what does an Ayurvedic doctor recommend for such a patient? He recommends the patient to drink more sugar-candy water even if it tastes bitter to him. The more such sugar-candy water enters the body of the patient it will cure the disease of the bile to that extent. And to the degree the disease gets cured the patient will be able to taste the sweetness of sugar candy to that extent. When the disease gets cured completely, he will be able to perceive the sweetness of sugar-candy completely. Now we have no taste to hear Harikatha. As per the narration heard yesterday, the boy who stayed in the Math to save himself from drought says, “When there is a festival in the Math and Prasadam is distributed, I love to have the Prasadam. But when I listen to Harikatha my head starts spinning.”

Actually this is the real disease that one does not have a liking for hearing topics on the pastimes of the Lord. The real disease is misconception of one’s self. We think that we are this body and so the requirements of the body become our actual requirements. This is the reason why we have got no taste to hear topics on the Lord. For eating we have got so much eagerness. Therefore it is said, nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-’bhirāmāt, Harikatha is the only medicine for the disease of material existence. It is so much pleasing to hear Harikatha—chrotra-mano-’bhirāmāt. Harikatha will manifest itself on the tongue of a pure devotee whose only aim is to please Krishna. If the mind is averse to the Lord, then Harikatha will not be pleasing to one’s mind.

Ka uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt—persons who have got the aptitude to kill other living beings, persons with a wild-temperament, ferocious, they will abstain from hearing Harikatha. Such persons have a furious nature. In this world, only sober-tempered nice persons will have the aptitude to hear Harikatha. They will not be able to remain without hearing Harikatha. Vile and wicked natured persons will never hear Harikatha. Such persons are even more degraded in nature than animals like tigers. Even ferocious beasts like tigers and lions have got some consciousness. They do not like killing unnecessarily. They kill other beings for maintaining their own livelihood. But human beings have become so ferocious that they kill other living beings unnecessarily without considering whether the living being is a child or a woman or a weak person. Such violent human beings do these only because they have abstained themselves from worshipping the Supreme Lord. So such things will keep on happening in this material world. Therefore it is said before,

nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād
bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-’bhirāmāt
ka uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt
pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt
(Srimad Bhagavat 10.1.4)

“Other than vile and ferocious natured persons (paśughnāt) who get pleasure by inflicting pain and misery to other living beings, is there any person in this world who can abstain himself from hearing the discourses on the Lord?”

Only a pious-natured person will associate with pious objects. The Supreme Lord is All-Knowledge, All-Existence, All-Bliss and All-Good. If you do not cultivate it, then you will not get contact with the All-Existence, All-Knowledge, All-Bliss and All-Good. You will get just the opposite. The other meaning of paśughnāt is a person who does suicide. Such vicious persons who deprive themselves from performing sravan-kirtan are the ones who are trying to commit suicide. Other than such persons, who else will not perform hearing and singing the glories of the Lord? So here Maharaj Pariksit expressed his desire to hear the pastimes of the Lord rescuing the elephant Gajendra. He had got a liking for hearing the glories of the Lord. What is the 'swarup lakshan' or the original quality of a sadhu?

mayy ananyena bhāvena
bhaktiṁ kurvanti ye dṛḍhām
mat-kṛte tyakta-karmāṇas
tyakta-svajana-bāndhavāḥ
mad-āśrayāḥ kathā mṛṣṭāḥ
śṛṇvanti kathayanti ca
tapanti vividhās tāpā
naitān mad-gata-cetasaḥ
(Srimad Bhagavat 3.25.22-23)

The original quality of a sadhu is that he will keep himself engaged in hearing and reciting the pure divine discourses on the Supreme Lord. If a person doesn’t have the liking to hear Harikatha or speak Harikatha, he should not be accepted as a sadhu. He will spend his energy for all the non-eternal things of this world, not for eternal truth, Supreme Lord. If you give your energy for the Supreme Lord, you will go to Him. And if you give your energy for something that is devoid of knowledge, devoid of existence and devoid of bliss you will also remain devoid of knowledge, devoid of existence and devoid of bliss (asat, acid and nirananda). You will only get the above mentioned three. What else will you get?

Sukadeva Goswami also performed kirtan for seven days and seven nights. He too did not eat, drink nor took rest for those days.

śrī-sūta uvāca
parīkṣitaivaṁ sa tu bādarāyaṇiḥ
prāyopaviṣṭena kathāsu coditaḥ
uvāca viprāḥ pratinandya pārthivaṁ
mudā munīnāṁ sadasi sma śṛṇvatām
(Srimad Bhagavat 8.1.33)

“Sri Suta Goswami said: O Brahmanas, when Pariksit Maharaja, who was awaiting impending death, thus requested Sukadeva Goswami to speak, Sukadeva Goswami, encouraged by the King’s words, offered respect to the King and spoke with great pleasure in the assembly of sages, who desired to hear him.”

Srimad Bhagavatam is commentary of the Brahma-sutra, the commentary of Vedanta. There were three sittings on Srimad Bhagavatam, they took place in three different places. The first sitting took place in Badrinarayan. The second one at Shukratal and the third one at Naimisharanya. So, after being requested by King Pariksit to narrate the pastimes of the Lord, Sri Sukadeva Goswami blissfully described them in front of the King and many other saints. The devotee who describes the pastimes of the Lord also gets happiness. Just like the three rivers namely the Ganga, the Mandakini and the Bhagirathi purify everything, the speaker, the listener as well as the enquirer of Srimad Bhagavatam also get purified. The person who asks questions after hearing Bhagavatam also gets benefitted. But not everybody can ask questions.

Sri Sanatana Goswami asked questions and they were answered by Mahaprabhu. Arjuna asked questions which were answered by Lord Krishna. There are many Rishi-muni but Lord Krishna answered the questions of Arjuna since he is a devotee. After being requested by King Pariksit to narrate the pastimes of the Lord, Sri Sukadeva Goswami blissfully described them in front of the King and many other saints.