So if you have no taste in hari-kathā, then you will not find any taste in harināma. First taste should come in hearing, but if it does not, then you should think, “I will sit and hear again.” Once Bhāgavatam was being spoken in Vṛndāvana. Who was the speaker? Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī. So many persons were sitting there listening to the pastimes of the gopīs when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā. Hearing his narration all were weeping and feeling separation mood. But one person was not. His heart was not melting, so he took some chilli powder from his pocket and put it in his eyes. Tears started flowing. Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa was watching this. After class he approached that person and embraced him. “Oh, I have heard that a chaste devotee will think that he has not served the Vaiṣṇavas or Bhāgavatam, so he punishes his body. Tears are not coming from my eyes, so my eyes should be punished. I saw that you took something and put it in your eyes and tears were coming. Surely you are a very fortunate person. Surely.” Hearing this and having been embraced by Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, that devotee began to weep. He was repenting, knowing that he was so full of offenses and anarthas that his heart was not melting. He was feeling, “I am not qualified to be in this assembly of Vaiṣṇavas who are all weeping, so I should do something to punish myself.” We should realize all these things. If tears are not coming, our hairs are not standing on end and our heart is not melting, then we should know that we are very unfortunate. We must have made some offenses and we are full of anarthas. Everything about Kṛṣṇa is transcendentally sweet, more than sugar or honey, but yet we have no taste at all. So there must be some reason for this.

―Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja