Shloka 62
The Yadu–Vṛṣṇi–Andhaka Genealogies and the Purpose of Kṛṣṇa’s Advent
यस्मिन् सत्कर्णपीयुषे यशस्तीर्थवरे सकृत् । श्रोत्राञ्जलिरुपस्पृश्य धुनुते कर्मवासनाम् ॥ ६२ ॥
yasmin sat-karṇa-pīyuṣe yaśas-tīrtha-vare sakṛt śrotrāñjalir upaspṛśya dhunute karma-vāsanām
By hearing even once the Lord’s glories—supreme pilgrimage and nectar for purified ears—the devotee at once shakes off karmic impressions and the grip of material desire.
When the devotees aurally receive the activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as enacted in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they immediately achieve a transcendental vision in which they are no longer interested in materialistic activities. Thus they achieve freedom from the material world. For sense gratification practically everyone is engaged in materialistic activities, which prolong the process of janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi — birth, death, old age and disease — but the devotee, simply by hearing the message of Bhagavad-gītā and further relishing the narrations of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, becomes so pure that he no longer takes interest in materialistic activities. At the moment, devotees in the Western countries are being attracted by Kṛṣṇa consciousness and becoming uninterested in materialistic activities, and therefore people are trying to oppose this movement. But they cannot possibly check this movement or stop the activities of the devotees in Europe and America by their artificial impositions. Here the words śrotrāñjalir upaspṛśya indicate that simply by hearing the transcendental activities of the Lord the devotees become so pure that they are immediately immune to the contamination of materialistic fruitive activities. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam . Materialistic activities are unnecessary for the soul, and therefore the devotees are freed from such activities. The devotees are situated in liberation ( brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ), and therefore they cannot be called back to their material homes and materialistic activities.
FAQs
This verse says that even once hearing with reverence—like receiving nectar through the ears—can shake off the deep karmic impressions (karma-vāsanā) that bind the soul.
In the narrative, Śukadeva highlights that spiritual purification does not depend only on external rituals; contact through devoted hearing of sacred, renowned topics/places acts powerfully on the heart and dissolves karmic conditioning.
Make daily time for attentive hearing—Bhāgavatam recitation, lectures, or nāma-kīrtana—done respectfully and consistently, so the mind gradually releases habitual karmic patterns.