View source for That is the test; how much you have become advanced in devotional service, you can experience yourself. Just like a hungry man, if he's given food, if he eats, then he experiences himself that he's getting strength, his hunger is being satisfied

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[[Category:This is the Test]]
[[Category:Test of Advancement in Devotional Service to God]]
[[Category:How Much]]
[[Category:You Have]]
[[Category:Become Spiritually Advanced]]
[[Category:You Can]]
[[Category:Experience]]
[[Category:Yourself]]
[[Category:Just Like]]
[[Category:Hungary]]
[[Category:Man]]
[[Category:Give]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Eating]]
[[Category:Strength]]
[[Category:Hunger]]
[[Category:Being]]
[[Category:Satisfied]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - POOJA]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>Nectar of Devotion Lectures</h3>
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When you are fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if you walk on the street, you'll feel that, "I am separate from these persons. I am in a . . . I am walking on a different path." This is the feeling. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavaḥ (SB 11.2.42). This is bhakti. Pareśānubhava. You'll anubha . . . you will experience yourself. That is the test. If you experience yourself that "I am different from these persons," then where is the attachment for material things?
So that is the test; how much you have become advanced in devotional service you can experience yourself. The example is given: Just like a hungry man, if he's given food, if he eats, then he experiences himself that he's getting strength, his hunger is being satisfied. The, these things will be experienced. He hasn't got to take certificate from others, "Whether I am advancing in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness." He'll feel himself. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhava viraktir anyatra syāt. This is the test.
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[[Vanisource:721021 - Lecture NOD - Vrndavana|721021 - Lecture NOD - Vrndavana]]
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Pradyumna: "Bhakti-rasa itself is sufficient to produce a feeling of liberation because it attracts the attention of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa."

Prabhupāda: Yes. As soon as you are engaged in the service, loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (pause as drinks), immediately you feel liberation. This is practical. When you are fully engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even if you walk on the street, you'll feel that, "I am separate from these persons. I am in a . . . I am walking on a different path." This is the feeling. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavaḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 11.2.42|SB 11.2.42]]). This is bhakti. Pareśānubhava. You'll anubha . . . you will experience yourself. That is the test. If you experience yourself that "I am different from these persons," then where is the attachment for material things?

So that is the test; how much you have become advanced in devotional service you can experience yourself. The example is given: Just like a hungry man, if he's given food, if he eats, then he experiences himself that he's getting strength, his hunger is being satisfied. The, these things will be experienced. He hasn't got to take certificate from others, "Whether I am advancing in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness." He'll feel himself. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhava viraktir anyatra syāt. This is the test.

Just like Gosvāmīs, the six Gosvāmīs. They were ministers. How they gave up their lucrative service, engagement? Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tucchavat. They gave up their minister, high posts, association of aristocratic families, maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīm. They were, themselves, not only maṇḍala-pati, great leaders, but they were associate with great leaders. But they gave up everything. Why? Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. They found something better in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore they were able to give up.

Just like you are. You are, European and American boys, you were accustomed to better, comfortable life. I know. But you have given up your better, comfortable life, and you have learned, or you are satisfied lying down on the floor, without any bedding. How you have been practiced to it? Because you are trying to find out a better engagement. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate ([[Vanisource:BG 2.59 (1972)|BG 2.59]]).

Sometimes in your country, they are surprised how we are living without furniture. Because without furniture, living is impossible. Sometimes in the beginning, when I was accommodated in some apartment, the landlord used to inquire, "Oh, where is your furniture?" So they do not know they don't require furniture. We can lie down anywhere. It doesn't matter whether in a nice apartment or on the . . . underneath a tree. That doesn't matter. So how these things happen? Unless one becomes little advanced, one has got little taste in devotional service, they cannot give up these material comforts.

The Gosvāmīs are the best example. They were coming from very, very aristocratic family. They were . . . they did not join the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement out of poverty-stricken. No. All of them, six Gosvāmīs . . . just like Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, they were very, very big men, ministers, very rich men. Similarly, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. He was the only son of his father and uncle. And at that time his father and uncle had twelve lakhs of rupees' income.

So you cannot imagine what is the exchange of twelve lakhs of rupees five hundred years ago. So very rich man. Similarly, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa; and Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, he was the jewel of all learned philosophers. That is acknowledged even by the greatest philosophers of the world. So these six Gosvāmīs, they were not ordinary men, but still, for Caitanya Mahāprabhu's service, they left everything. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tucchavat, bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā kaupīna-kantāśritau.

So kṛṣṇa-bhakti, devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, is so exalted that a devotee can kick out even mukti. They do not want. A devotee doesn't want. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu says:

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:na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
:kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye
:mama janmani janmanīśvare
:bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī (tvayi) 
:([[Vanisource:CC Antya 20.29|CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4]])
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So devotional service, this line of activities, should not be taken for some material gain. This is not bhakti. Bhakti must be pure, cent percent pure, free from all material desires, free from the resultant action of jñāna and karma.
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