Jīva Gosvāmī says in his Sandarbha that you can understand your own advancement by how eager you are to hear. It's not to say, "Okay, somebody's feeling not as inclined," but one must practice hearing on a regular daily basis until one begins to be attracted. The reason I'm not attracted to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or to hearing the pastimes is because of the effects of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa within my mind, but 'śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi, vidhunoti suhṛt satām' (SB 1.2.17) - the effects of rajas and tamas are quickly dissipated by the hearing of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes and of ātma-tattva-jñāna, and one then desires to hear. And Jīva Gosvāmī says to the degree that one desires to hear about Kṛṣṇa in all the details, that's one of the other aspects. As you can tell from Parīkṣit Mahārāja, when he's inquiring from Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he wants to know about everything. Like, why did he ask that question? And Prabhupāda answers in his purport, was it because it's related to Kṛṣṇa, directly or indirectly anything related to Kṛṣṇa, he wants to know it. He wants to drink it with his ears. As we continue to hear, we'll also develop such an impetus to hear more and to hear the details, and that will develop into this same sense that Rāmdās Vipra has for hearing Rāmāyaṇa.

Rūpa Gosvāmī then says, 'kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, krīyatāṁ yadi kuto ’pi labhyate, tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate (CC Madhya 8.70).' You can't get that kind of desire to hear about Kṛṣṇa from doing good works in this world, some sukṛti, because it's not the mode of goodness. You can cultivate the mode of goodness, but it won't bring you to this intense desire to hear about Kṛṣṇa, but by association of Vaiṣṇavas who are interested in hearing and by being patient and listening to Kṛṣṇa's book, to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, to the Bhagavad-gītā, to the books that Prabhupāda gave us, entering again and again into hearing them, there will be a natural attraction, and that attraction, says Rūpa Gosvāmī, when it comes to a sense of greed—you can tell the intensity of Rāmdās Vipra, because he said, "I'd rather die than think about this idea of Sītā being touched by Rāvaṇa"—he was so absorbed in the pastime. When our desire is on the stove, or our practice is on the stove, and the fire is coming up, you can see from water—those who are cooks, they know there are different levels of temperature in the water. You can do it even without a thermometer. I know. My grandmother was a cook, and she was saying that when those tiny little bubbles come up, she said, "Okay, that's called smiling—the water smiling—because it's a little bit boiling," and then when it's raging, boiling, and it's spilling over, that's the topmost. As those different levels of desire we may have for devotional service, the intention is to hear until, well, you can feel it's smiling, like, "Yeah, I gotta get back there. I want to hear the class. I don't want to stand on the corner and gossip. I want to hear the kathā." And then it becomes more and more imperative to hear, and when it becomes laulyam, what's described as a kind of greed that you'll steal it wherever you can, and you can't do without it at any time, then he says, that's the price of admission into bhakti. I heard a story...

https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/1/2/17/

https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/8/70/

https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/madhya/7/138/

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