1. Canto 1 – Chapter 5 – Text 39-40 CONCLUDING INSTRUCTION OF NARADA

2. ima ṁ sva-nigama ṁ brahmann avetya mad-anu ṣṭ hitam adān me jñānam aiśvarya ṁ svasmin bhāva ṁ ca keśava ḥ O br ā hma ṇ a, thus by the Supreme Lord K ṛṣṇ a I was endowed first with the transcendental knowledge of the Lord as inculcated in the confidential parts of the Vedas, then with the spiritual opulences, and then with His intimate loving service.

3. Communion with the Lord by transmission of the transcendental sound is nondifferent from the whole spirit Lord Śr ī K ṛṣṇ a. It is a completely perfect method for approaching the Lord. The devotee can rise above the material plane to understand the inner meaning of the Vedic literatures by such pure contact with the Lord, without offense of material conceptions. The Lord reveals His identity gradually to one who has unflinching faith, both in the spiritual master and in the Lord. After this, the devotee is endowed with mystic opulences, which are eight in number.

4. And above all, the devotee is accepted in the confidential entourage of the Lord and is entrusted with specific service of the Lord through the agency of the spiritual master. A pure devotee is more interested in serving the Lord than in showing an exhibition of the mystic powers dormant in him. Śr ī N ā rada has explained all these from his personal experience, and one can obtain all the facilities which Śr ī N ā rada obtained by perfecting the chanting process of the sound representation of the Lord. There is no bar for chanting this transcendental sound by anyone, provided it is received through N ā rada’s representative, coming down by the chain of disciplic succession, or the parampar ā system.

5. tvam apy adabhra-śruta viśruta ṁ vibho ḥ samāpyate yena vidā ṁ bubhutsitam prākhyāhi du ḥ khair muhur arditātmanā ṁ sa ṅ kleśa-nirvā ṇ am uśanti nānyathā Please, therefore, describe the almighty Lord’s activities which you have learned by your vast knowledge of the Vedas, for that will satisfy the hankerings of great learned men and at the same time mitigate the miseries of the masses of common people who are always suffering from material pangs. Indeed, there is no other way to get out of such miseries.

6. Prime solution of all problems of material work is to broadcast very widely the transcendental glories of the Supreme Lord. The four classes of good men acknowledge the authority of the almighty God, and therefore such good men: (1) when they are in difficulty, (2) when they are in need of money, (3) when they are advanced in knowledge, (4) when they are inquisitive to know more and more about God.

7. As far as the bad men are concerned, they are also four in number: (1)those who are simply addicted to the mode of progressive fruitive work and thus are subjected to the accompanying miseries, (2)those who are simply addicted to vicious work for sense satisfaction and so suffer the consequence, (3)those who are materially very much advanced in knowledge, but who suffer because they do not have the sense to acknowledge the authority of the almighty Lord, (4)the class of men who are known as atheists and who therefore purposely hate the very name of God, although they are always in difficulty.

8. Śr ī N ā radaj ī advised Vy ā sadeva to describe the glories of the Lord just to do good to all eight classes of men, both good and bad. Śr ī mad- Bh ā gavatam is therefore not meant for any particular class of men or sect. It is for the sincere soul who actually wants his own welfare and peace of mind.