SB 1.2.16

शुश्रूषोः श्रद्दधानस्य वासुदेवकथारुचिः ।
स्यान्महत्सेवया विप्राः पुण्यतीर्थनिषेवणात् ॥१६॥

śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya
vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ
syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ
puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt

śuśrūṣoḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigśuśrūṣoḥ

one who is engaged in hearing.—one who is engaged in hearing; śraddadhānasyaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigśraddadhānasya

faithful; of his disciple, who was so faithful in understanding the truth; of one who is anxious to hear; of the faithful; with care and attention.—with care and attention; vāsudevaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigvasudeva

the father of Kṛṣṇa; Vasudeva.—in respect to Vāsudeva; kathāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigkathā

a narration; conversation; description; discussion; discussions; incident; incidents; information; intention; intentions; messages; narration; narrations; of the conversation; of the words; pastimes; policy; stories; story; talk; talking; talks; the intention; the message; the narration; the story; to speak; topic; topics; topics about; words.—the message; ruciḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigruciḥ

affinity; lovely color; Ruci; taste; the great sage Ruci.—affinity; syātplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigsyāt

appears; arises; become; becomes; becomes possible; can be; can be possible; can there be; comes into being; exists; has to be taken; if it is possible; is; is made possible; is possible; it becomes; it becomes so; it had been; it is possible; it is so; it may be; it may happen; it should be done; it so becomes; it so happens; it would have been; let there be; may arise; may be; may become; may continue; may happen; may occur; may take place; must be; one becomes; one should be; remains; shall be; should be; should become; so becomes; there can be; there is; there may be; there must be; there shall be; there should be; there would be; will be spread; will take place; will there be; would adopt; would be.—is made possible; mahatplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigmahat

a great; a great personality; a Vaiṣṇava; all-perfect; astounding; by great personalities; exalted; glorious; great; great soul; insurmountable; into a gigantic body; most exalted; of an exalted personality; of great devotees; of great saintly persons; of great souls; of the great devotees; severely; supreme; the best; the great; the greatest; the total material energy; the total material existence; thick; to a great personality; to great personalities; very big; very great; very great, exalted; very, very great.-sevayāplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigsevaya

by hearing; by service; by serving; by such service; by the rendering of service; by the service; by the service of; simply by devotional service.—by service rendered to pure devotees; viprāḥplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigviprah

a brāhmaṇa; a learned brāhmaṇa; the brāhmaṇa (Ajāmila); the brāhmaṇa (Saubhari Ṛṣi); the brāhmaṇa; the brāhmaṇa father of Jaḍa Bharata (mad, crazy Bharata); the brāhmaṇa Gargamuni; the brāhmaṇa who is confidentially Lord Viṣṇu; the brāhmaṇas; Vipra.—O twice-born; puṇyaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigpunya

of reactions of pious activities; of the results of pious activities; piety; pious; pious activities; pious activity; sanctified; virtue; virtues; virtuous.-tīrthaplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigtīrtha

holy place; holy places; holy places of pilgrimage; of holy places; pilgrimage; place of pilgrimage; places of pilgrimage; pure; sacred place; the holy places; the holy places of pilgrimage; the sacred places of pilgrimage.—those who are cleansed of all vice; niṣevaṇātplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigniṣevaṇāt

by service.—by service. ¶

O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vāsudeva. ¶

The conditioned life of a living being is caused by his revolting against the Lord. There are men called deva, or godly living beings, and there are men called asuras, or demons, who are against the authority of the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (Sixteenth Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is given in which it is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord’s liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none of them falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures. ¶

The servants of God are to be respected as God by the devotees who actually want to go back to Godhead. Such servants of God are called mahātmās, or tīrthas, and they preach according to particular time and place. The servants of God urge people to become devotees of the Lord. They never tolerate being called God. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was God Himself according to the indication of the revealed scriptures, but He played the part of a devotee. People who knew Him to be God addressed Him as God, but He used to block His ears with His hands and chant the name of Lord Viṣṇu. He strongly protested against being called God, although undoubtedly He was God Himself. The Lord behaves so to warn us against unscrupulous men who take pleasure in being addressed as God. ¶

The servants of God come to propagate God consciousness, and intelligent people should cooperate with them in every respect. By serving the servant of God, one can please God more than by directly serving the Lord. The Lord is more pleased when He sees that His servants are properly respected because such servants risk everything for the service of the Lord and so are very dear to the Lord. The Lord declares in the Bhagavad-gītā (Bg. 18.69)plugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigBhagavad-gītā As It Is 18.69

There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. that no one is dearer to Him than one who risks everything to preach His glory. By serving the servants of the Lord, one gradually gets the quality of such servants, and thus one becomes qualified to hear the glories of God. The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God. ¶