Developing Devotional Service to God - From Faith to Pure Love
The awakening of love for the Supreme Lord is not a sudden, random emotional event; it is a gradual, scientific progression. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that by carefully cultivating the seed of devotion through regulated practice, a sincere soul systematically evolves from basic faith to the highest echelons of spontaneous, ecstatic love of Godhead.
Planting the Seed Through Association
The journey of bhakti begins when a fortunate soul comes into contact with those who are already pure. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that faith leads one to associate with advanced devotees, whose instructions plant the potent seed of devotion within the heart, initiating the process of spiritual awakening.
- Bhakti-lata-bija. It is a seed of developing your original consciousness. Just like in the seed there is potency, in a small seed, mustardlike, but if you sow it, in due course of times it comes out a big banyan tree.
- Through good association, one develops attachment for pure devotional service and thereby accepts a bona fide spiritual master and from him begins to hear and chant and observe the regulative principles of devotional service.
- The first requirement is faith; it is due to faith that one associates with pure devotees, and, by such association, develops devotional service. As devotional service develops, one's misgivings diminish. Then one is situated in firm conviction.
- Due to faith a person associates with pure devotees, and by such association he develops devotional service. As devotional service develops, his misgivings diminish.
Purification and the Higher Taste
As the neophyte rigorously engages in hearing and chanting under the guidance of the spiritual master, the heart is thoroughly cleansed. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the eradication of material lust allows the devotee to develop a steady, transcendental taste for spiritual life, which automatically detaches them from mundane illusions.
- Liberation from material contamination is called anartha-nivrtti, indicating a diminishing of all unwanted things. This is the test of development in devotional service.
- Hrd-rogam kamam, this is a heart disease, to be lusty. But if anyone hears about the pastimes of Krsna and the gopis, through right source, then this hrd-rogam, this lusty desire in the heart, is suppressed and he will develop devotional service.
- When he (the devotee) is freed from unwanted occupations, his faith becomes steadily fixed, and he develops a transcendental taste for devotional service, then attachment, then ecstasies, and in the last stage there is pure love of Godhead.
- With the development of the bhakti cult, with the application of positive service to the positive form, one naturally becomes detached from inferior things, and he becomes attached to superior things.
The Superiority of Devotional Bliss
Even a slight advancement on the path of pure devotion completely dwarfs all material and mundane religious achievements. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that a devotee who has developed genuine love for Kṛṣṇa loses all interest in the superficial happiness derived from economic development, mystic yoga, or impersonal liberation.
- Any person who has developed even a little quantity of pure devotional service can very easily kick out all the other kinds of happiness derived from religiousness, economic development, sense gratification and liberation.
- Any person who has developed even a small amount of devotional service doesn't care a fig for any kind of happiness derived from religiousness, economic development, sense gratification or the five kinds of liberation.
- Dhruva Maharaja went to practice mystic yoga to see the Lord personally, face to face, but when he developed an interest in devotional service, he saw that he was not being benefited by karma, jnana and yoga.
- Bilvamangala Thakura realized that if one develops his natural devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, mukti stands before him with folded hands to offer all kinds of service.
From Regulation to Spontaneous Love
The ultimate goal of strictly following the rules is to awaken natural, unforced affection for the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes how the regulated practice of vidhi-mārga gradually matures into rāga-mārga, where the devotee serves Kṛṣṇa with spontaneous, irresistible love and intimate attachment.
- When one thereby becomes completely purified of all material contamination, there develops an attachment and taste for devotional service. This taste and attachment, when gradually intensified in the course of time, becomes love.
- Devotional service is divided into two categories - namely vidhi-marga and raga-marga. The process of becoming friends with the Lord and sacrificing everything for Him belongs to the category of raga-marga, the stage of developed devotional service.
- Spontaneous love for Krsna can be developed only by the special mercy of Krsna or His pure devotee. This process of devotional service is sometimes called pusti-marga. Pusti means "nourishing," and marga means "path."
- Strong attachment for the transcendental service of the Lord develops as he continues listening to the messages of Godhead, and if he steadfastly proceeds in this way, he is certainly elevated to spontaneous love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The Development of Transcendental Mellows
As spontaneous love fully blossoms, it takes on specific, highly nuanced flavors of relationship with the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the soul's original identity manifests progressively through various mellows (rasas), culminating in the most exalted, intimate exchanges of conjugal love.
- Devotional service develops in the degrees of thinking of the Supreme Lord as master, as friend, as son and, at last, as lover. These distinctions in transcendental variegatedness must always be present.
- The transcendental relationship of santa-rasa, taking the shape of unflinching faith in Krsna, is developed into dasya-rasa with the spirit of service, and then to sakhya-rasa or undeterred fraternity, and to the transcendental platform of paternal love.
- The devotees develop a spiritual individuality in their spontaneous service attitude, which is enhanced on and on, up to the point of madhurya-rasa, or transcendental loving service reciprocated between the lover and the beloved.
- Thus of all the devotees who have developed unalloyed devotional love for Krsna, the gopis are most exalted, and out of all these exalted gopis, Srimati Radharani is the highest.
The Supreme Qualification for Vaikuṇṭha
The successful development of pure devotion is the singular requirement for entering the spiritual sky. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that no amount of material qualification can satisfy Kṛṣṇa; only those who have fully developed unalloyed, loving devotion are granted entrance into the eternal Vaikuṇṭha planets.
- No one is allowed to enter the Vaikuntha planets unless he has developed one hundred percent his mentality of devotional service to the Supreme Lord. No enemy of the Lord can enter Vaikunthaloka.
- Krsna said, "Any living entity who develops such unalloyed devotional affection for Me certainly at the end goes back home, back to Godhead."
- By development of pure devotional service one can factually know the Lord as He is and thus be trained in the bona fide service of the Lord and be allowed to enter into the direct association of the Lord in so many capacities.
- The purport of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's elaborate discussion of this subject (SB 10.81.16) is that no qualification in this material world can satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, yet everything becomes successful simply through development of Devotional Service to God.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Śrīla Prabhupāda masterfully outlines the exact, scientific trajectory required to develop pure devotional service. The process is not a whimsical emotional outburst but a systematic cultivation that begins with the seed of preliminary faith. By seeking the association of pure devotees and submissively hearing the transcendental science of Kṛṣṇa, the neophyte practitioner waters this divine seed. Through strict adherence to the regulative principles of vidhi-mārga, the severe "heart disease" of material lust and unwanted habits is thoroughly eradicated. This purification gives rise to firm conviction, yielding a profound transcendental taste and attachment that automatically severs all lingering ties to mundane illusion. As this attachment intensifies, the strict regulations naturally give way to the joyous, spontaneous love of rāga-mārga. It is on this highly elevated platform that the soul's original, eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa perfectly manifests, blossoming through the ascending mellows of neutrality, servitude, friendship, parental affection, and ultimately the supreme ecstasy of conjugal love (mādhurya-rasa). By successfully developing this unalloyed, one-hundred-percent pure devotion, the living entity completely transcends all material and impersonal pursuits, securing the ultimate perfection of life: eternal entrance into the Vaikuṇṭha planets and the direct, blissful association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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