Text 15
śrī-śuka uvāca
samyag vyavasitā buddhis
tava rājarṣi-sattama
vāsudeva-kathāyāṁ te
yaj jātā naiṣṭhikī ratiḥ
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said; samyak — completely; vyavasitā — fixed; buddhiḥ — intelligence; tava — of Your Majesty; rāja-ṛṣi-sattama — O best of rājarṣis, saintly kings; vāsudeva-kathāyām — in hearing about the topics of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa; te — your; yat — because; jātā — developed; naiṣṭhikī — without cessation; ratiḥ — attraction or ecstatic devotional service.
Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O Your Majesty, best of all saintly kings, because you are greatly attracted to topics of Vāsudeva, it is certain that your intelligence is firmly fixed in spiritual understanding, which is the only true goal for humanity. Because that attraction is unceasing, it is certainly sublime.
Kṛṣṇa-kathā is compulsory for the rājarṣi, or executive head of government. This is also mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā (imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ). Unfortunately, however, in this age the governmental power is gradually being captured by third-class and fourth-class men who have no spiritual understanding, and society is therefore very quickly becoming degraded. Kṛṣṇa-kathā must be understood by the executive heads of government, for otherwise how will people be happy and gain relief from the pangs of materialistic life? One who has fixed his mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be understood to have very sharp intelligence in regard to the value of life. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was rājarṣi-sattama, the best of all saintly kings, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī was muni-sattama, the best of munis. Both of them were elevated because of their common interest in kṛṣṇa-kathā. The exalted position of the speaker and the audience will be explained very nicely in the next verse. Kṛṣṇa-kathā is so enlivening that Mahārāja Parīkṣit forgot everything material, even his personal comfort in relation to food and drink. This is an example of how the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement should spread all over the world to bring both the speaker and the audience to the transcendental platform and back home, back to Godhead.