Achieving Success in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

This article explores the path to spiritual perfection as delineated by Śrīla Prabhupāda, emphasizing that true success transcends material estimation and lies in the purification of one's existence. It highlights the necessary qualifications for advancement, the indispensable role of divine mercy, and the practical application of devotional service that leads a devotee back to Godhead.

Essential Qualities for Advancement

Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that spiritual progress is not automatic but requires a deliberate cultivation of specific qualities outlined by previous ācāryas. Key among these are enthusiasm, patience, and a firm conviction that the process will work, alongside an intense eagerness to achieve the goal.

• Srila Rupa Goswami has recommended six principles for advancement in Krishna Consciousness: enthusiasm, patience, conviction of success, executing the regulative principles, honest endeavor, and association with devotees.
• Patience is required for the successful discharges of Krsna conscious duties. Krsna is pleased to award benediction upon the aspiring devotee engaged in His service with patience determination and regularity.
• One should be strongly determined in Krsna consciousness, and that is the way to ultimate success.
• When one is sufficiently eager to achieve success in devotional service, that eagerness is called samutkantha. This means "complete eagerness." Actually this eagerness is the price for achieving success in Krsna consciousness.

Role of Divine Mercy

While personal endeavor is necessary, Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses that ultimate success depends entirely on the combined mercy of the spiritual master and Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is through the grace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master that one can penetrate the secrets of devotional service.

• One is successful in Krishna consciousness by the combined Mercy of the Spiritual Master and Krishna. By the Mercy of Krishna we come in contact with a bona fide Spiritual Master and by the Mercy of a bona fide Spiritual Master we can approach Krishna.
• This Krsna consciousness must be achieved through the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. One cannot be complete in Krsna consciousness unless he accepts Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates as the only means for success.
• It is very difficult to understand the secret of Krsna consciousness, but one who advances by the instruction of the previous acaryas and follows in the footsteps of his predecessors in the line of disciplic succession will have success. Others will not.
• The secret of success in the cultivation of Krsna consciousness is hearing from the right person.

Practical Engagement in Service

Success is practically realized when a devotee engages their energy, intelligence, and resources in the service of the Lord, particularly through chanting, worshiping, and preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that constant engagement in these activities under the direction of the spiritual master protects the devotee from māyā and ensures steady advancement.

• All these activities are pleasing to me that you are chanting, Worshiping the deity and writing, So please continue and increase your enthusiasm and then surely you will become successful in your Krishna Consciousness.
• This (chanting the Hare Krsna mantra and rendering service unto the tulasi plant) is the way to achieve success in Krsna consciousness.
• This should be the motto, how we engage our life, our money, our intelligence, our words, to improve Krsna consciousness. That is success.
• Study Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Srimad-Bhagavatam and continue to help your god-brothers in developing Krishna Consciousness. So develop your preaching abilities in this way, and this will be the most successful and appreciated endeavor.

Defining True Success

Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the ultimate definition of success is to remain Kṛṣṇa conscious at the time of death and return to the spiritual world. He assures us that any sincere attempt on this path is glorious; even if one falls down, there is no loss, but the goal remains full perfection in this very life.

• Everyone will die. So before death one should be complete in Krsna consciousness. That is success of life.
• In this way (by devotees association, chanting 16 rounds, following regulative principles and reading books) your Krsna consciousness advancement will be assured success and at the end of this life you will go back to Godhead, back to home, and live with Krsna eternally.
• If we become successful in Krsna consciousness, we achieve the greatest success of life, but even if we fall down, oh, there is no loss. Because we are going to get birth in sucinam, in nice brahmana family, or rich mercantile family where it is supposed.
• We can find that instead of becoming a great preacher of Krishna Consciousness, this gentleman has become artificially a head of a mundane institution. To become a very important man in the mundane estimation is not success in Krishna Consciousness.

Conclusion

Achieving success in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the highest perfection of human life, distinguishing the devotee from the mundane struggle for existence. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that by strictly following the spiritual master, maintaining enthusiasm and patience, and relying on the mercy of Lord Caitanya, any soul can overcome the influence of māyā. Whether through preaching, writing, or simple service, the sincere endeavor to satisfy Kṛṣṇa guarantees that one's life will be successful, culminating in the eternal association of the Lord.

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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Success in Krsna Consciousness. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.

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