Awakening Love of God - Reviving the Soul's Eternal Propensity
The pursuit of human life often ends in the frustrating search for temporary material happiness or the dry desire for impersonal liberation. However, the Vedic scriptures reveal that the true perfection of existence lies far beyond these goals. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the ultimate purpose of human life is to awaken our dormant, pure love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because this love is already eternally present within the heart, it does not need to be artificially manufactured; it simply needs to be revived through the authorized, practical process of pure devotional service.
The Dormant Nature of Divine Love
Love for God is the constitutional right and eternal property of every soul. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that this original loving propensity is currently covered by material ignorance, but the human form of life offers the perfect facility to uncover and revive it.
- Love of God is dormant in everyone, and it can be awakened from its dormant position by the execution of pure devotional service, just as a person bitten by a serpent can be awakened by ammonia.
- Our loving propensity or our love for God is already there in every living being, but it is now covered due to our ignorance, or due to our contamination with this material nature. So simply we have to awaken that love.
- Awakening of love cannot be possible in other living condition than the human being. The human form of life, is therefore the perfectional stage how to develop our love for God, or how we can love God.
- Love of Godhead is dormant in every living entity, and the entire process of devotional service unto the Lord is meant for awakening this dormant, eternal love of Godhead. But there are degrees of such transcendental awakening.
The Exclusive Process of Awakening
To awaken this profound spiritual emotion, one cannot rely on mundane methods or secondary spiritual paths. The great ācārya clarifies that fruitive activities and mental speculation are entirely useless for this purpose; one must actively engage in regulated bhakti-yoga, specifically by hearing transcendental sound and participating in temple worship.
- Karma, jnana and yoga cannot actually awaken love of Godhead.
- By practicing this regulated devotional service under the direction of the spiritual master, certainly one awakens his dormant love of Godhead. This process is called abhidheya.
- How it (love for Krsna) is awakened? If you simply give your aural reception to the krsna-katha. Krsna-katha means what is spoken by Krsna, the Bhagavad-gita, and krsna-katha means speeches and words which are spoken about Krsna.
- They (devotees of God) go to mangala-arati at 4:30, and after mangala-arati they study the Vedic literatures. These are the processes by which we can awaken our dormant love for Krsna.
The Incomprehensible Symptoms of Love
As the heart becomes cleansed through devotional service, the soul's natural affections rapidly intensify. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that when love of God fully awakens, the devotee experiences waves of transcendental emotion that are completely baffling to ordinary, mundane intellectuals.
- Gradually emotions intensify, and finally there is an awakening of love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Krsna consciousness.
- When one is firmly fixed in devotional service, whether he executes one or many processes of devotional service, the waves of love of Godhead will awaken.
- Even a most learned scholar cannot understand the activities and symptoms of an exalted personality in whose heart love of Godhead has awakened.
- When transcendental love of Krsna awakens in someone's heart, even a learned scholar cannot comprehend his activities.
The Ultimate Destination Beyond Liberation
The awakening of divine love is not merely a psychological shift; it is the passport to the spiritual sky. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes this awakened state as the fifth and supreme goal of life, rendering impersonal liberation insignificant and guaranteeing the soul's return to the eternal, blissful planets of Vaikuṇṭha or Goloka Vṛndāvana.
- Bhattacarya replied, "The awakening of pure love of Godhead, which is the result of devotional service, far surpasses liberation from material bondage. For those averse to devotional service, merging into the Brahman effulgence is a kind of punishment."
- Love of Godhead is so exalted that it is considered to be the fifth goal of human life. By awakening one's love of Godhead, one can attain the platform of conjugal love, tasting it even during the present span of life.
- Those whose love of God is awakened to the fullest extent go back to the Goloka Vrndavana planet in the spiritual sky, whereas persons who have just awakened to love of Godhead by accident or association are transferred to the Vaikuntha planets.
- Those warriors who appreciated the lotus feet of the Lord (Krsna) and saw His face at the front had their dormant love of God awakened, and thus they were transferred at once to Vaikunthaloka not to the impersonal state of brahmajyoti as was Sisupala.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Śrīla Prabhupāda masterfully establishes that the highest perfection of human life is not the accumulation of mundane knowledge, the execution of fruitive work, or the attainment of impersonal liberation. The true purpose of our existence is exclusively the awakening of pure love for God. This love is not an artificial imposition; it is the soul's eternal, dormant propensity, waiting to be revived from the deep slumber of material illusion. By strictly avoiding the barren paths of karma, jñāna, and yoga, and instead embracing the joyful process of abhidheya—hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā, attending maṅgala-ārati, and serving the spiritual master—the contamination of the heart is swiftly washed away. As this divine love awakens, it manifests waves of transcendental emotion that completely confound mundane scholars. Ultimately, this supreme awakening far surpasses the desire for mere liberation, serving as the sole qualification for the soul's joyous, eternal return to the spiritual planets of Vaikuṇṭha and Goloka Vṛndāvana.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Awakening Love of God. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience the teachings in their direct, verbatim form.