Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 365

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Attaining the Supreme Chapter 8: Verse-14 A pure devotee always engages in devotional service to krsna in one of His various personal features.krsna has various plenary expansions and incarnations, such as Räma and Nrsimha, and a devotee can choose to fix his mind in loving service to any of these transcendental forms of the Supreme Lord. Such a devotee meets with none of the problems that plague the practitioners of other yogas. Bhakti-yoga is very simple and pure and easy to perform. One can begin simply by chanting Hare Krsna. The Lord is merciful to all, but as we have already explained, He is especially inclined toward those who always serve Him without deviation. The Lord helps such devotees in various ways. As stated in the Vedas, yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyas/ tasyaisa ätmä vivrëute tanum sväm: one who is fully surrendered and engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord can understand the Supreme Lord as He is. And as stated in Bhagavad-gita, dadämi buddhi-yogam tam: the Lord gives such a devotee sufficient intelligence so that ultimately the devotee can attain Him in His spiritual kingdom. The special qualification of the pure devotee is that he is always thinking of krsna without deviation and without considering the time or place. There should be no impediments. He should be able to carry out his service anywhere and at any time. Some say that the devotee should remain in holy places like Vrndävana or some holy town where the Lord lived, but a pure devotee can live anywhere and create the atmosphere of Vrndävana by his devotional service. It was Sri Advaita who told Lord Caitanya, “Wherever You are, O Lord—there is Vrndävana.” As indicated by the words satatam and nityasah, which mean “always,” “regularly,” or “every day,” a pure devotee constantly remembers krsna and meditates upon Him. These are qualifications of the pure devotee for whom the Lord is most easily attainable. Bhakti-yoga is the system that the Gita recommends above all others. Generally, the bhakti-yogis are engaged in five different ways: (1) sänta-bhakta, engaged in devotional service in neutrality; (2) däsya-bhakta, engaged in devotional service as servant; (3) säkhya-bhakta, engaged as friend; (4) vätsalya-bhakta, engaged as parent; and (5) mädhurya-bhakta, engaged as conjugal lover of the Supreme Lord. In any of these ways, the pure devotee is always constantly engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord and cannot forget the Supreme Lord, and so for him the Lord is easily attained. A pure devotee cannot forget the Supreme Lord for a moment, and similarly the Supreme Lord cannot forget His pure devotee for a moment. This is the great blessing of the Krsna conscious process of chanting the mahä-mantra—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.