In Bhagavad-gita (2.40), the Lord says svalpam apy asya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat: this dharma, devotional service, is so important that even if performed to a very small, almost negligible extent, it can give one the supreme result. There are many instances in the history of the world in which even a slight service rendered to the Lord has saved a living entity from the greatest danger. Ajamila, for example, was saved by the Supreme Personality of Godhead from the greatest danger, that of going to hell. He was saved simply because he chanted the name Narayana at the end of his life. When Ajamila chanted this holy name of the Lord, Narayana, he did not chant knowingly; actually he was calling his youngest son, whose name was Narayana. Nonetheless, Lord Narayana took this chanting seriously, and thus Ajamila achieved the result of ante narayana-smrtih, remembering Narayana at the end of life. If one somehow or other remembers the holy name of Narayana, Krsna or Rama at the end of life, he immediately achieves the transcendental result of going back home, back to Godhead.