by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja

❝Within your mind, you should always reside in Vraja or Śrī Dhāma Navadvīpa. In other words, you should always think about those places. Try to enter into the message of the Gosvāmīs. By performing harināma and hearing hari-kathā with prīti (affection), all perfection is attained. This is the opinion of the scriptures.❞ ..

by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Māhārāja

❝When one reads spiritual texts on one’s own, often one does not attain the real result of hearing and reciting hari-kathā. That is why it remains imperative for one to hear the sounds issuing from the mouths of sādhu and guru. Only within a siddha (perfected) mantra is all potency manifest, and only that yields special results. Hence, there is more benefit and welfare contained within hari-kathā issuing from the mouths of the devotees [than from spiritual texts]. Dry skeptics who are bereft of sādhu-saṅga are incapable of appreciating the necessity and attracting potency of sādhu-saṅga.❞ ...

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

❝Devotion to God is attained by associating with those who serve both Him and His devotees. They have made service to God the very essence of their life. They have made the narrations of the names, appearance, attributes and sports of God the mainstay of their existence and they are always engaged in discoursing about them.❞ ...