Shloka 26
तत्रान्वहं कृष्णकथा: प्रगायता- मनुग्रहेणाशृणवं मनोहरा: । ता: श्रद्धया मेऽनुपदं विशृण्वत: प्रियश्रवस्यङ्ग ममाभवद्रुचि: ॥ २६ ॥
tatrānvahaṁ kṛṣṇa-kathāḥ pragāyatām anugraheṇāśṛṇavaṁ manoharāḥ tāḥ śraddhayā me ’nupadaṁ viśṛṇvataḥ priyaśravasy aṅga mamābhavad ruciḥ
O Vyāsadeva, in that association, by the mercy of those great Vedāntists, I heard each day the enchanting narrations of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. And as I listened with faith, step by step, my taste for hearing about the Supreme Personality of Godhead steadily increased.
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, is attractive not only in His personal features, but also in His transcendental activities. It is so because the Absolute is absolute by His name, fame, form, pastimes, entourage, paraphernalia, etc. The Lord descends to this material world out of His causeless mercy and displays His various transcendental pastimes as a human being so that human beings attracted towards Him become able to go back to Godhead. Men are naturally apt to hear histories and narrations of various personalities performing mundane activities, without knowing that by such association one simply wastes valuable time and also becomes addicted to the three qualities of mundane nature. Instead of wasting time, one can get spiritual success by turning his attention to the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. By hearing the narration of the pastimes of the Lord, one contacts directly the Personality of Godhead, and, as explained before, by hearing about the Personality of Godhead, from within, all accumulated sins of the mundane creature are cleared. Thus being cleared of all sins, the hearer gradually becomes liberated from mundane association and becomes attracted to the features of the Lord. Nārada Muni has just explained this by his personal experience. The whole idea is that simply by hearing about the Lord’s pastimes one can become one of the associates of the Lord. Nārada Muni has eternal life, unlimited knowledge and unfathomed bliss, and he can travel all over the material and spiritual worlds without restriction. One can attain to the highest perfection of life simply by attentive hearing of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord from the right sources, as Śrī Nārada heard them from the pure devotees ( bhakti-vedāntas ) in his previous life. This process of hearing in the association of the devotees is especially recommended in this age of quarrel (Kali).
FAQs
This verse says ruci awakens naturally when one regularly hears Kṛṣṇa’s narrations with śraddhā, especially by the mercy of devotees who sing and speak those topics.
Nārada is describing his own transformation—how hearing from saintly devotees gave him devotion—so that Vyāsa understands the remedy for dissatisfaction is composing and presenting pure Kṛṣṇa-kathā (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam).
Set a daily practice of hearing Bhagavatam or authentic Kṛṣṇa-kathā, seek sādhus/devotee association when possible, and listen with faith and consistency—over time, real attraction for spiritual sound will arise.