View source for The beginning of devotional service is the development of faith in the scriptures and the words of the saints

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[[Category:Beginning of Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:Development]]
[[Category:Faith in Scripture]]
[[Category:Words Of...]]
[[Category:Saint]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Other Books by Srila Prabhupada</h2>
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<h3>Renunciation Through Wisdom</h3>
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The pious person seeks the association of saintly persons and follows the scriptures, and in this way he endeavors for his greatest good. The beginning of devotional service is the development of faith in the scriptures and the words of the saints. This faith destroys all unwanted desires in the heart and increases one's surrender to the Supreme Lord's will.
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[[Vanisource:RTW 2.4|Renunciation Through Wisdom, 2.4]]
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Persons afflicted by disease or other miseries are known as ārta, "the distressed." Commonly, a sick person depends on a doctor and medicine to cure his disease. But far-sighted scholars say that suffering of any kind is a result of sinful activities performed in the past. Ordinary people do not understand that sinful reactions result from ignorance. This ignorance exists in manifest (prārabdha), unmanifest (aprārabdha) and latent (kuṭashta) form.

There is no material means of counteracting these sinful reactions. Administering a pain-killer provides temporary relief but cannot remove the root cause of a disease. Similarly, no materialistic effort aimed at counteracting sinful reactions can provide ultimate relief. One obtains maximum only by surrendering to the Supreme Lord. The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu [The Nectar of Devotion] supplies us with numerous proofs of how devotional service to the Lord destroys sinful reactions, and ignorance, the root of all sin. Hence we see that pious men depend solely on the Supreme Lord in moments of distress.

It is not the prime duty of human beings to try to relieve their present sufferings. The search in life is for that medicine—that panacea—which will cure the material disease altogether. This disease manifests itself in countless ways, such as birth, old age, disease, and death. The pious person seeks the association of saintly persons and follows the scriptures, and in this way he endeavors for his greatest good. The beginning of devotional service is the development of faith in the scriptures and the words of the saints. This faith destroys all unwanted desires in the heart and increases one's surrender to the Supreme Lord's will.

Innocent enquirers are known as jijñāsu, "those who are inquisitive." These innocent enquirers are society's hope for the future. Most intelligent and innocent young children are inquisitive: they question their parents about many things and remember the answers. When these bright young boys and girls receive proper guidance from parents and teachers who can lucidly answer their queries, they easily understand each point and gradually develop fine brains. From among these intelligent souls, those who are especially pious begin to keenly enquire about God and other spiritual topics. Others, who pursue ignoble material knowledge, cannot become successful in life and end up beating the chaff. Those who are inquisitive about the self and the Absolute Truth, Brahman, quickly surrender to Lord Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. Such surrender proves their good measure of piety brought over from their previous births. Beginning with fundamental enquiries about Brahman, they swiftly become elevated, understand the statement of Lord Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā ([[Vanisource:BG 14.27|14.27]]) that He is the basis of the impersonal Brahman, and begin to worship Him.
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