Our spirtual process starts with hearing. After we become eager to hear, the cleaning of the material desires from the heart starts and as we become free from material desires we become progressively happier. However, it’s a long way back to Godhead. There is a very special verse in the Srimad Bhagavatam that explains how to make this process faster:
“By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.” (SB 1.2.18)
The verse mentions “nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā” (regularly serving the Bhāgavata). Srila Prabhupada explains that there are two Bhāgavatas: the book bhāgavata and the devotee Bhāgavata. As he explains: “A devotee Bhāgavata is as good as the book Bhāgavata because the devotee Bhāgavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhāgavata and the book Bhāgavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhāgavatas. Bhāgavata book and person are identical.”
By associating with these two Bhāgavatas, we can progress on the path of devotion. As Srila Prabhupada mentions: “by such sincere association of the Bhāgavatas one is sure to receive transcendental knowledge very easily, with the result that he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord.”
Srila Prabhupada explains that by “almost completely destroyed” (naṣṭa-prāyeṣv) Srila Suta Goswami means that about 75% of all inauspicious things, such as our material desires, anarthas and so on eliminated from the heart, and this gives a chance of becoming fixed in the process of loving devotional service to the Lord (bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī). Once we become strongly fixed we can continue our process of hearing, chanting, and spreading Krsna Consciousness without interruption, and this can bring us to ultimate perfection.
We often practice devotional service as a series of sprints, going for mangala-artik for a few days and then stopping, chanting 64 rounds for a few days and then stopping, distributing books for a few days and then stopping, becoming overly enthusiastic during a festival and them apathetic after returning home, and so on. Although this can help us in the beginning, progressing to advanced stages of devotional service requires attaining stability in our practice. As already declared, devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. This passage teaches us how to reach this level.
What happens when we finally reach this level of irrevocable devotional service? The effects are described in verse 19:
“As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature’s modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the devotee is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.”
As the verse describes, the visible result is that one becomes completely happy. This however does not come by magic. Srila Prabhupada explains that the original position of the soul is to be always fully satisfied in spirtual bliss. This bliss is different from the satisfaction of a foolish person who may also be always happy due to ignorance. Instead, a devotee in such a stage is happy due to realizing his constitutional spiritual position and becoming free from material influence.
The reason we feel miserable in conditioned life is due to the influence of the modes of passion and ignorance. These lower modes cover our original spiritual knowledge and make us identify with the body and become absorbed in material activities under the influence of lust, anger, etc. Material activities are based on attachment, and they always result in bewilderment and frustration, because in the material world, everything is unstable and temporary, and as a result, we are always anxious about losing what we have and not being able to attain the things we want.
When we become fixed in the platform of devotional service we finally become free from the influence of passion and ignorance, and consequently free of lust, desire, hankering, etc. With this, all unhappiness and lamentation disappear and we become first situated in the mode of goodness, and later we transcend even the mode of goodness and become situated in the transcendental platform. When we finally achieve this transcendental platform, our devotional service matures and we become able to see Krsna face to face. As Prabhupada explains:
“The soul’s activity becomes adulterated in contact with matter, and as such the diseased activities are expressed in the form of lust, desire, hankering, inactivity, foolishness and sleep. The effect of devotional service becomes manifest by complete elimination of these effects of passion and ignorance. The devotee is fixed at once in the mode of goodness, and he makes further progress to rise to the position of vasudeva, or the state of unmixed sattva, or śuddha-sattva. Only in this śuddha-sattva state can one always see Kṛṣṇa face to face by dint of pure affection for the Lord.”
Krsna confirms this in the Bhagavad-gita, where He says: “One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.”
As we can see, there is a progression of the path of devotional service that is described in these verses. By serving pure devotees we get some taste for hearing and chanting, and by this taste, we become regular in our practice. By this regular practice we reach the stage where we become “almost cleansed” and this helps us to improve our practice and remain fixed, eventually reaching the platform of irrevocable loving service described in this verse. When this happens, the influence of passion and ignorance disappears, and we become completely happy in the transcendental platform. From there we progress further, up to the point of attaining love for Krsna.
In his purport, Prabhupada mentions that “for a devotee the entire world is as good as Vaikuṇṭha, or the spiritual sky.” This of course describes the position of a pure devotee, who is in the transcendental platform, just like when Prabhupada mentions that “A devotee is always in the mode of unalloyed goodness; therefore he harms no one” or when he later mentions that “A pure Vaiṣṇava is a liberated soul and is transcendental even to the position of a brāhmaṇa.”
We tend to use the words “devotee” or “Vaishnava” loosely to describe anyone who has started in the devotional process, no matter how imperfect, but Prabhupada often uses these words in the full meaning, meaning a pure devotee who attained this stage of being situated in the transcendental platform.
The influence of the modes of passion and ignorance is a great hindrance to our spiritual progress. Not only that, but they make us feel miserable also. That’s one of the reasons Krsna explains so much about the three modes in the Bhagavad-Gita, so we can learn to recognize attitudes, habits, ideas, etc. connected with the lower modes and gradually become free of them. We often have the idea that it’s very difficult to advance in spiritual life, what to say about attaining an advanced stage of devotional service, but that’s just because we are struggling with the influence of the lower modes. When we can finally become free from them our progress becomes much faster.