Transcendental Love

The whole process of transferring oneself to the spiritual sky is to gradually liquidate the material composition of gross and subtle coverings over the spirit soul. And the last-named five items of devotional activities are so spiritually powerful that their performance by a devotee, even in the preliminary stage, can very quickly promote the sincere executor to the position of "Bhava"-emotion on the spiritual plane which is above the intellectual status of the mind. And complete absorption in such spiritual emotion is the perfect change which makes the candidate perfectly fit to be transferred to the spiritual sky just after leaving the present material tabernacle.

Such emotional perfection of the devotee-that is to say, the development of love of God-causes him to be situated on the spiritual platform even from the outset, although he may remain superficially fixed in the way that an iron made red hot completely ceases to be an iron, and acts like fire. These things are made possible by the subtle cohesion of the Lord's inconceivable energy, a realm of action which material science has very little scope to calculate.

One should, therefore, engage himself in the task of devotional service with absolute faith, and to make that faith a steadfast affair the candidate should seek the association of standard devotees of the Lord. This will gradually develop into factual devotional service to the Lord, causing the disappearance of all material misgivings like a flash of lightning.

All these different stages of spiritual realization will be personally felt by the candidate and that will create in him a firm belief in this means of making positive progress, resulting finally in sincere attachment for the Lord and His abode. That is the gradual process of evolving love of God, the prime necessity of human life.

There are many instances in Vedic history of great personalities-both kings and sages-who attained perfection in this line. Some of them attained success by adhering to just a single item of devotional service with faith and perseverance. Some of the more important examples of such devotees are as follows:

These are the nine standard items of devotional service to the Lord, and a candidate can make his choice to adopt any one, two, three, four-or all the items together-as he likes. As all these forms of service are rendered to the Absolute, the services themselves are Absolute and there is thus no real difference in quantity or quality, as in the case of inert matter. These are different varieties on the spiritual platform, where everything is identical with everything else.

Emperor Amburish stands as a very prominent example of devotion because he adopted all the above nine items in his practical life, and he also attained the supreme result. He engaged his mind just on the Lotus Feet of the Lord, his words in describing the spiritual world, his hands in cleansing the temple of the Lord and his ears in submissively hearing of the words of Lord Sri Krishna. He engaged his eyes in visualizing the Deities of the Lord, his body in touching the bodies of the devotees, his nostrils in smelling the flowers which had been first offered to the Deities, his legs in visiting the temple of the Lord and all his energy of life in the services of the Lord without the least desire for sense gratification. All these activities helped him to attain the perfect stage of spiritual life, a stage beyond the vision of the most brilliant experiment in material science.

It is therefore incumbent on all serious human beings to adopt these principles of spiritual realization for the perfection of life. A human being has no obligation whatsoever save and except spiritual realization in his life. In the modern setup of things, human society is very busy in the discharge of national duties. But, in fact, national, social or humanitarian duties are obligatory only to those who are bereft of the spiritual duty.

As soon as a man takes his birth in any part of the globe he does not only have national, social and humanitarian obligations, but also has his obligations to the demigods who supply air, light, water, etc. He has obligations to the great sages who have left behind them a vast treasure house of directions in the conduct of human life. He has obligations to all kinds of living beings, to his forefathers and family members, and so on and so forth. But as soon as one engages himself in the single duty of spiritual perfection, he automatically liquidates-he in fact fulfills perfectly-all other obligations without any separate effort.

A devotee of the Lord is never a disturbing element in society, but on the contrary he becomes an asset to all others. As far as possible no devotee is attracted by any sinful action, and as soon as a man becomes a devotee he can do inestimable service to his society, bringing peace and prosperity to all concerned, both in this life and in the next. Even if by chance a devotee may commit something undesirable, the Lord Himself rectifies that in no time.

Therefore, there is no necessity for a devotee to culture superfluous knowledge or abnegation. A devotee can safely remain at his place and execute devotional service smoothly in any order of life. There are instances in history where the cruelest man became the most kind-hearted simply by the execution of devotional service. Knowledge and abnegation follow automatically in the life of a pure devotee without any extraneous effort by him.