Srila Prabhupada explains that the Vedas are like a desire tree that contains all types of knowledge. Because most people are interested only in the four materialistic religious principles of dharma, artha, kama, and moksa (mundane religiosity, economic development, material sense gratification, and impersonal liberation) the Vedas explain a lot about how to achieve these things in the karma-kanda sections. For people who are spiritually inclined, there are the jnana-kanda sections, that deal with spiritual knowledge, such as the Upanisads and the Vedanta Sutra, but the Srimad Bhagavatam brings the highest knowledge, directly describing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Srimad Bhagavatam is considered thus the essence or the ripened fruit of all Vedic literature.
This knowledge is so attractive that it can attract everyone, even people who are already liberated. In SB 1.7.10 there is a very famous verse that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu once explained in 64 different ways:
ātmārāmāś ca munayo
nirgranthā apy urukrame
kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim
ittham-bhūta-guno hariḥ
“All different varieties of atmaramas, especially those established on the path of self-realization, though freed from all kinds of material bondage, desire to render unalloyed devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead. This means that the Lord possesses transcendental qualities and therefore can attract everyone, including liberated souls.”
The meaning is that Krsna attracts everyone. One may be educated or not educated, have money or not, follow the rules and regulations from the scriptures or not (in other words, be pious or be not pious), one can be conditioned by the three material modes (goodness, passion, and ignorance), or one may be free from these three modes, and so on, but Krsna can attract everyone. When He appeared in Vṛndāvana, He even attracted the birds, beasts, trees, and plants. In Vrindavana, everyone became attracted in love and affection for Kṛṣṇa.
Liberation is actually not a very high thing. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna explains:
brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
“One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.”
As this verse explains, even after one becomes free from all material contamination, there is still something higher, which is love for Krsna. This love for Krsna, or prema is the eternal nature of the soul, and only when one attains this prema will he become fully satisfied. Amongst all the Vedas, the Srimad Bhagavatam is the book that directly speaks about this pure devotional service to Krsna, and therefore it can attract everyone, including all kinds of liberated souls. Surely it can attract us also.
Actually, all of us are already attracted to Krsna, but we are attracted in the wrong way. Everything that exists is connected with Krsna. As He explains in the Bhagavad-Gita (10.41-42): “Know that all opulent, beautiful, and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor. But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself, I pervade and support this entire universe.”
The problem is that now we are trying to enjoy different things as separated from Krsna. This is the source of all our problems. How can we change it?
Devotees who are twice initiated chant the Gayatri mantra three times per day. The first verse of the Gayatri is a meditation on the light of the sun. You may ask, why do we meditate in the light of the sun? Why not meditate on Krsna? The point is that the light of the sun is understood to be a reflection of the light of Krsna’s effulgence. The sun is just like a mirror that reflects a tiny portion of the light of the Brahmajoti, which in turn comes from Krsna. Behind this light is Krsna, Who performs His personal pastimes in the spiritual world. In this way, the mantra teaches us that the light of the sun is not different from Krsna, so we can see Krsna every time we look at the sun.
In the same way, all beauty, power, strength, intelligence, knowledge, and renunciation, or in other words, all the qualities that we find attractive in different beings and objects are just faint reflections of the opulence of Krsna. These different people and objects are just like mirrors, where the beauty, opulence, etc. of Krsna are reflected. However, due to the influence of illusion, we become attracted to the mirror, instead of becoming attracted to the person being reflected. When we become attracted by the illusion, instead of the real Self, Krsna, we end up being abandoned by all these things, since this is the nature of the material illusion. Everything that is separated from Krsna becomes temporary in nature. We become attached to these things and then we suffer when we lose them. Only when we become attracted to the final source of all these things, Krsna, can we find eternal happiness. The Bhagavatam is thus a book that teaches us to find happiness.
One of the names of Krsna is Hari. The meaning of Hari is that on one side He takes away inauspicious things, and on the other side He gives the most auspicious things. When a person develops love of Godhead, his mind becomes automatically attracted to the name, form, and qualities of the Lord. Normally we have a lot of trouble controlling our minds, but this is only because at present our attention is focused on material things, and the mind becomes attracted to what we are seeing and experiencing. The special quality of the Srimad Bhagavatam is that by regularly hearing from it our minds become gradually attracted to Krsna, and as our attention becomes focussed on Krsna, we gradually become less interested in the things of this material world. This is the power of hearing about the transcendental activities of Krsna and Krsna’s pure devotees in their innumerable pastimes.